ER Mistreatment

Just wondering, if those who have been admitted to Emergency Rooms - what their experiences have been.

The only times I ended up in ER was when they pumped my stomach. I was treated like $#%^, a subhuman. I've heard plenty of horrible stories though. People being restrained until some shrink gives them a diagnosis in five minutes which was usually followed by a forced injection.

I was just in the ER not last weekend, but the weekend before for a large gash I inflicted upon myself. I wasn't treated so badly but the ER staff did not have the right attitude. One of them even tried to minimalize my problem by saying.."Tsk tsk tsk...kids these days...". The 'crisis team' I spoke to wasn't helpful at all either. They just asked the same questions over and over and then never reall gave any adivice at all. If I ever am in another situation where I have to go to the ER, I think I'm going to go to a different hospital.

"Tsk tsk tsk...kids these days...".

Friggin' IDIOT!! NOT YOU, THE NIMROD THAT SAID THAT!!! I HATE it when people act like that!!! Jerk!! Sorry, but that just makes me very mad. They should have just a little more sympathy!! If they said that to me, it'd probably make me want to do it again. That's so stupid!!! Idiot!! I'm sure you reacted better than I would have. I probably would have started crying. IDK though. I rarely cry. who konws what I would have done. I probably would have closed my eyes and then rolled them. lol Sorry that you had a bad experience.

And donnangelina: what was your experience like?

~element

Yeah they definitely need to work on ER treatment. My first hospitalization I was told by the "social worker" something like "well it really isn't worth me going through all the paperwork because they'll just have to do it again at the next hospital."

They didn't have a psych unit there so they had to send me elsewhere but still you'd think a social worker would realize that you don't tell someone who is already suicidal that they aren;t worth your time. You are the one that was hired to HELP them.

Sort of makes you wonder why people make the career choices they do ya know? Go into a field to HELP people and yet make sure to treat them like $#%^ and belittle them at every turn. ???? Guess some people just feel they have to throw themselves into an environment where they can be sure to feel as though they are above others and stand a little taller. To bad they don't have a clue where it really places them.

seanetal wrote:Yeah they definitely need to work on ER treatment. My first hospitalization I was told by the "social worker" something like "well it really isn't worth me going through all the paperwork because they'll just have to do it again at the next hospital."

They didn't have a psych unit there so they had to send me elsewhere but still you'd think a social worker would realize that you don't tell someone who is already suicidal that they aren;t worth your time. You are the one that was hired to HELP them.

Wow, thats really really insensitive and stupid of that so called 'social worker'. You know, people always say that if you feel your in crisis or like you want to hurt yourself, you go to the ER. Who the hell would ever go to a hospital if they knew they were going to be treated like that?

donnangelina wrote:Just wondering, if those who have been admitted to Emergency Rooms - what their experiences have been.

How is mistreatment in the ER part of anti-psych?

Unless you were mistreated by a psychiatrist, or by mental health in general, don't know why this is in this particular forum?

I'm confused...
Unless there is more to the post?

Some of my thoughts:

How is mistreatment in the ER part of anti-psych?

*Possibly this thread should be moved at the disgression of several mods or Sean, to the Living With Mental Illness forum.

For a while when this topic was put on these boards I thought I had nothing to offer to this thread. Then I remembered that I have been in quite a few ER's and I also do volunteer work in the ER at a local hospital.

Some of my experiences were close brushes with getting placed in a psych ward...but I managed to get out of it. I wasn't treated badly...as I remember. But it sure sounds as if many of those who have posted above are people were treated badly and I'm sorry for that. No one deserves to be treated as less than human!!!

I the ER that I volunteer in you see a little of everything coming through the doors. I have never seen any mistreatment of patients at this hospital. But this is a teaching hospital, if that makes every difference. I have been treated there about 25 years ago when I SI'd to the point of having to get stitches. They knew it was I that had done that to myself...but I wasn't treated badly.

This hopital is big on getting surveys back from ER patients. They are always trying to improve their services to the patients. When a psych patient comes in I do everything I can think of to make them feel at ease and safe.

I could go on and say more but I think I have seen the ER from both ends of the coin, but that does not make me an expert.

Kathy

I agree that it should be moved, maybe to the mental illness thread.