A mother's look at a disgusting psychatric hospital

Hi Honey! thanks for the encouragement! I guess we all are hanging in the balance just depending on the Lord to keep us breathing... We get Brant today and will bring him back to the pastor's house where we are staying....not sure where he will sleep--but we will work it out.

A needed bail out

Steve and I were just glad to get him out of the nasty psychiatric hospital over there...it is disgusting! They are building a 6 Billion dollar hospital across the street, the present hospital is great downstairs, but the moment you enter the psych ward--YUCK!! Dirty carpets, sticky window sills--sticky coke rings in multiple black circles on top of one another, food crumbs on the tables, potato chips on the floor for FOUR days and a complete orange peel under a chair that has been there for 3 days. Brant and his roommate have a bathroom I wouldn’t use….A couple of days ago when Brant felt a little more “with it” he cleaned it himself.

Please let me out of here.

Yesterday a woman picked up a chair and banged it HARD against a window because she wanted to get out. They patted her on the shoulder and led her to a chair and told to sit down. Steve said, "Well, she didn't have any repercussions, so she'll just do it again." Sure enough (her first attempt was during our noon visit) during our 7 pm visit, she succeeded. She picked up a heavier chair and smashed the window this time to "get out." (third floor) A maintenance man came up and duct taped a board across it. Unbelievable! I just don't understand why the mentally ill are such low class citizens. There is a woman in there who looks like we would look if we were a little more confused than we usually are :). Her husband comes rushing in every noon in a suit and looks very successful. She sits in the dirt like the rest of them...and the others are just depressed--they're not homeless or something.

Chemical restraint

One guy who is always getting put in the "quiet room" had some kind of break at an airport in CA while trying to get home to Indiana. He is probably about 25-ish and he keeps asking for his Blackberry and threatening to sue everybody and is very nervous and annoying-- he keeps swearing at everybody and slamming the public phone down; they have him super medicated and he is zombied out--I understand that to an extent--but he is a nicely dressed young guy who got psychotic and his family is as far away as we were.

Broken Minds Hope for Healing Like You're Losing It, keeps disappearing

I just feel so sorry for these people with Broken Minds...speaking of which, we brought a book in for Brant’s roommate and one to give to Brant’s favorite nurse. They both disappeared…someone stole them so we gave another one to the roommate. the other one is floating around somewhere and other patients are talking about it. I THINK WE FOUND OUR TARGET AUDIENCE!! One thing, no one there is in denial or saying there is no such thing as mental illness.

Robyn Bloem, Co founder of Heartfelt Counseling Ministries, Coauthor of Broken Minds Hope for Healing When You Feel Like You're Losing It.

Broken Minds is a nice gift you could give to a person in a psychiatric hospital. It has help many while they are in a psychiatric hospital or after they are released.