(Nov. 13, 2014) Writing for the New York Times, Dr. Stephen Seager describes rampant patient-initiated violence in psychiatric hospitals across the United States (“Where hell is other patients,” Nov. 10, 2014).
“At almost every state forensic facility I have encountered, there is an epidemic of assaults by violent patients,” Seager writes.
At California’s Napa State Hospital, where Seager works, he witnesses this violence firsthand.
“Over the last three years, four psychiatrists on my inpatient unit have been badly beaten,” he said. “In another recent incident, a patient pummeled another patient with a broken chair leg — fracturing both of the victim’s arms . . . . At times, half the nurses in my unit are on disability from assaults or attempted rape.”
In Maryland the situation isn’t much better. Inpatient units have been described as “lawless environments” by the Baltimore Sun. In Texas, fifteen percent of psychiatric hospital staff are the victims of severe patient assault every year, according to a news report cited by Seager.
And what are the tactics used by officials to reduce patient-initiated violence?
Hospital executives in New York suggest the value of humor to calm patients. Other strategies include “the use of wings, water beds with vibration and music, rides around the perimeter in a car and heavily padded sumo suits.”
But these are not real solutions, Seager argues. Instead, judges should “require that patients accept therapy and medication.” As it stands, many states allow patients to refuse therapy and medication despite being court-ordered into the hospital for treatment.
The ultimate goal is to create psychiatric hospitals where patients with mental illness go to get better, rather than, “a place of hopelessness and despair,” as one patient described his hospital to Seager.
At the Treatment Advocacy Center we are working tirelessly to change this situation for patients and staff.
We research and report on the inhumanity of the system Seager describes. But we need more help. We need more people prepared to join their voices to ours and Seager’s. We need more legislators to champion reforms to create a mental illness treatment system that works for everyone.
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