’ve been in the harder end of the UK Mental Health System for 22.5 years now. In those years I’ve been noticing a more and more restrictive approach to the way in which prisoners inside are treated. With the rise of internet and mobile phone technology and the advent of such popular inventions such as social media, there have been changes within the fascist totalitarian regime for ‘patients’. Not only do you lose all rights to your own body with such legislation that involved #treatmentagainstconsent you can also pretty much wave goodbye to any possessions that you may be used to relying on in the outside world. In the acute wards you can have access to a mobile phone, but it is at staff discretion. The staff will have their friends on the outside stalking you on social media to report back to the nurses and doctors if you do anything on it that they deem ‘illegal’. You have to be in bed at midnight and often the only way to charge your phone as you are banned from having chargers, is to hand your phone in to staff. They will hack and damage your phone. Often due to malice. I’ve lost about 3 or 4 mobiles in this way.In the lock up wards of PICU or low secure which I have also tried, there is no access at all to communications. The obsession of the dictator psychiatrists to control every aspect of society is quite extreme. I have worked as a social media manager for KryKey ( https://www.KryKey.com ) for 11 years. It is difficult inside nuthouses continuing your work. I also rely heavily on social media to stay in touch internationally with the global artists that I manage in music.– And the burgeoning #translation business is also reliant on web contact with clients and fellow global linguists. In Talygarn when they began their policing of social media, I had a ten minute window per day where I was allowed my mobile phone to use for calls and social media etc. This was to be policed by a member of staff. If I did anything that they regarded as mental illness I had this time suspended and phone removed for a week or two until Dr Basu gave his consent for me to get back the 10 minute window. He denied me any leave from hospital as I refused to remove http://endofterror.org from the worldwide web. The staff couldn’t speak foreign languages, bar Basu, so I was automatically banned from contacting anyone in a foreign language and could only use English. This was a bit awkward. I felt it sort of summed up the #brexit insanity that is rife in general society in the UK.
\It was a complete invasion of privacy and I felt that by doing this it could be harmful to the nurses assigned to the task of doing it. Nurses are not allowed any contact with patients on social media etc. They live quite different lives to you and when they are making notes to be used in court against you based on your internet activity and deeming it to be mental illness it is a bit extreme.
My bugbear was that the staff in Talygarn, County Hospital, Griffithstown, Pontypool, were taking such pleasure and having such amusement at their new powers with this policy, that I could see it happening. They were neglecting their actual work and roles as mental health nurses. Just larking around as per usual. A guy came in who’d obviously had a rough time. He was mid 50s, early 60s. I sorted him with some baccy and chatted to him in smoking area at night. I could tell he was severely depressed and suicidal. He’d obviously had an attempt on his life in the community and was recovering. They usually discharge attempted suicides as psychiatrists do not want them on their books if they kill themselves as it makes their stats look bad and they, as ‘responsible clinicians’ get into trouble.
The staff were all having a good old laugh using my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc and dicking around. Anyway, this guy who was on a status 3, whereby they are supposed to check on him every ten minutes or so, was overlooked and strung himself up in his private room by his dressing gown belt and died. The staff were all upset when they discovered the body and having witnessed multiple suicides in mental hospitals it wasn’t pleasant/ I tried to protest and say that they should have been doing their work rather than pissing around on my Facebook but they just overlooked this and my complaints were suppressed.
Death on a stick…
- Rest in Peace my friend. .Hope that I managed to make you smile a bit during your last hours on earth.