by Christina Peavler

Created on: January 18, 2009   Last Updated: February 03, 2009

When I went to work I never knew what to expect. One thing I could count on is that I would not be bored. I would have some interesting things to deal with be it residents or staff. The problem was how much time I put into my work. My darn phone kept me tied to the place twenty-four hours a day. My kids told me I might as well stay at work every-time the phone rang. In the end that is why I eventually changed jobs even though I liked the one I held.

I worked as a nurse in a supervisory position in a mental health nursing home for several years. Do you wonder why I write it as a mental health nursing home? The mental health facilities do not even have their own governing body. They are supervised by the same institution that supervises and grants accreditations or sanctions to nursing homes. Most of the mentally ill in this community are under 50. Since when do we put our 50 year old relatives in nursing home?

I do not think the mentally ill should be viewed as America's throwaways but I do believe that they are. Most of the time when taking the mentally ill out into the community they would scare people. Maybe I need to wonder if a person who talked to themselves at length or who hollered out obscenities at every turn would have scared me if I had not been accustomed to these behaviors. Most of the mentally ill people I worked with where harmless and I knew this. I suppose I have to understand that others did not have this pertinent knowledge.

Maybe knowledge is the key as it so often is. The public needs to be educated to the fact that not all mentally ill people are unsafe. Not all mentally ill people are unhappy either which I believe to be a big misconception. Most of the mentally ill people I worked with were happy and harmless.

I worked with approximately 80 individuals. Out of that 80 approximately 4 to 5 were dangerous physically, 2 were sexual predators and the rest were well adjusted under their circumstances and they were mentally ill. I do not have any hard statistics but I would bet good money that these percentages would closely reflect the general (non-mentally ill) population.

Only about 10 of these 80 people were over 55. This is my point . Why are they in a nursing home and regulated by the same rules that often do not apply? Mental Health facilities need to have regulations specific to these organizations. These people deserve their own rules and regulations based on their specifics. If they do not have their own rules then I would definitely say that society has thrown them away.

I would really have liked to have voted no to this debate. The mentally ill often have a lot to offer. Many of the people I worked with were gifted musicians and writers. Most of them were sensitive and caring to others all of the time. I do not believe that my last statement could be said of the general population. Now before I start sounding like I am not proud of our population let me just explain that I do not think the word most could have been utilized in the same sentence about sensitivity and caring. I do believe that a lot of people are sensitive and caring. Hopefully they will begin to care about the mentally ill and lobby for them to have their own set of rules and regulations.

I now work in a hospital setting. The mentally ill get sick and come to the hospital just as you or I would. I often get to take care of them because my co-workers know that I enjoy this particular type of patient. Please join me in getting the mentally ill out of the throwaway pile.

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