short notes:
will brady's ruminations
will brady's ruminations
2008-07-25
institutional abuse
Esmin Green was killed on 19th June 2008 in the psychiatric emergency room of Kings County Psychiatric Hospital. She was waiting for a bed after haiving been involuntarily committed.
She died sfter waiting in the area for approximately 24 hours before collapsing on the floor. It was almost an hour before any hospital personnel gave her any attention. It was captured on the hsopital's video surveliiange cameras.
According to CNN reports, hospital personnel falsified records stating that "Ms Green was up and went to the bathroom" and was "sitting quietly" even though she had not been moving but was lyig on the floor. The surveillance camera, instead, showed her on the floor, unmoving, while people walked around and past her.
Perhaps ironic is that Kings County Hospital, on its own website, proudly touts how it has spent $140 million dollars [US] adding to and improving the psychiatric emergency room and building a new multi-storey behavioral health inpatient unit on the campus only this year. Too bad funds weren't similarly dedicated to staff training and face-to-face care.
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, when asked of the incident. said: "I think what they said was, 'Oh well people sleep on the floor all the time and I didn't pay any attention.'" Some staff attending the emergency room were fired from their jobs for inattentiveness, but, in fact, they abetted in committing murder by neglect.
Tonight, prayer vigils will be held in her memory at various places on the globe, including in front of Kings County Hospital in New York City.
Esmin Green was killed on 19th June 2008 in the psychiatric emergency room of Kings County Psychiatric Hospital. She was waiting for a bed after haiving been involuntarily committed. She died sfter waiting in the area for approximately 24 hours before collapsing on the floor. It was almost an hour before any hospital personnel gave her any attention. It was captured on the hsopital's video surveliiange cameras.
According to CNN reports, hospital personnel falsified records stating that "Ms Green was up and went to the bathroom" and was "sitting quietly" even though she had not been moving but was lyig on the floor. The surveillance camera, instead, showed her on the floor, unmoving, while people walked around and past her.
Perhaps ironic is that Kings County Hospital, on its own website, proudly touts how it has spent $140 million dollars [US] adding to and improving the psychiatric emergency room and building a new multi-storey behavioral health inpatient unit on the campus only this year. Too bad funds weren't similarly dedicated to staff training and face-to-face care.New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, when asked of the incident. said: "I think what they said was, 'Oh well people sleep on the floor all the time and I didn't pay any attention.'" Some staff attending the emergency room were fired from their jobs for inattentiveness, but, in fact, they abetted in committing murder by neglect.
Tonight, prayer vigils will be held in her memory at various places on the globe, including in front of Kings County Hospital in New York City.
Where: Kings County Hospital Center, Psychiatric Emergency Room, Building G. 606 Winthrop Street Brooklyn, NY 11203Other vigils are to be held in Eugene, Oregon [at 6th and Willamette Avenues] sponsored by MindFreedom.org, the State House in Boston Massachusetts [from 6 to 8 pm, sponsored by a Massachusetts based patients' right group MPOWER; at the Centre for Addition and Mental Health, 1001 Queen Street, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA [1 to 3 pm} and at 16 Mano Close, Thornbury Heights, Rochestown, Ireland [7 pm to 8 pm]
Date: Today: July 25, 2008
Time: Demonstration begins at 5 PM, Candle Light Vigil, 8:30 PM
Labels: abuse, mental health, mental hospitals, neglect, psychiatric survivors, suffering
¶ 13:22 0 comments
2008-01-11
misfortune
On New Year's Day night a local man lost his house, some of the cats he lived with, and a life time's worth of his belongings. Virtually all of his documents were destroyed, from bank check books, birth records, phone numbers and addresses to people whom he knew far and wide - even his passport. In minutes he was rendered homeless. 
He was fortunate to escape alive. The next day, as the smoke cleared, he realised he had some identification, some of his credit cards were not destroyed. A car key was found. A handful of people in town have helped him out. Overnight use of a couch in someone else's home; clothing that fit, essential grooming items. One man took the time to do repairs on his car and get it working again. It has taken a week for him to sort out some basics and find a temporary place to stay, though that remains tenuous. 
Some of his neighbors said that he was very difficult to live near. That may be. He is not quick to speak to others and is easy to misunderstand. He was - likely still is - hermit-like. He could get angry at someone else with little apparent provocation. He was a collector of so much old stuff that what he had accumulated made a typical pack rat seem minimalist. He was determinedly protective of his privacy and would usher trespassers of his land with dispatch, sometimes in unconventional - even scary - ways. He kept to himself because that is - partly, how he chose to live; partly because it seems that few ever made the effort to get to find out who he is as a person.
Perhaps, as a result, only one neighbor family even attempted to find out if he was okay. Although he managed to escape wearing only night clothes, he had to call someone from another part of town to bring him something warm to wear, since he had nothing but what was on his back.
But you know, he's never actually harmed anyone. Working at labor intensive, low paying endeavors, he struggles hard just to get by - spurning human services "safety net" assistance, which always comes with strings anyway. He has an intimate knowledge of the plant and animal life around the area that I suspect few of his neighbors have any idea about. He takes solace in the animals around the area; so much so that even when people have abandoned pets near his property [and others have done this frequently over the years], he didn't like to see them suffer or starve.
Once you take the time to speak with him, he can be quite sociable with people as well, knowledgeable on many subjects, even funny. Not that many neighbors ever found this out.
Most reprehensible, the worst in my book - was the woman who, in earshot of anyone nearby, spoke with malicious glee while he stood only yards away from her watching his life go up in flames.
She saw him standing there, shivering wearing nothing more than longjohns, a single sandal and a smoke smeared sweatshirt, yet she did nothing to assist him. In fact, she sounded happy to see his home, his property, all that he had accumulated in life, destroyed.
I wonder how she'd have felt if this devastation happened to her and no one offered her solace. She may have had reason for disliking the man, but whatever the source of the dislike, there is nothing that can justify her cruelty and indifference. Such actions on her part are disgusting and foul in ways that I cannot describe. Even vultures wait for their prey to die before feeding on the remains. I'm glad I know who she is and what she looks like. Like the Amish, I can shun her.
He was fortunate to escape alive. The next day, as the smoke cleared, he realised he had some identification, some of his credit cards were not destroyed. A car key was found. A handful of people in town have helped him out. Overnight use of a couch in someone else's home; clothing that fit, essential grooming items. One man took the time to do repairs on his car and get it working again. It has taken a week for him to sort out some basics and find a temporary place to stay, though that remains tenuous. 
Some of his neighbors said that he was very difficult to live near. That may be. He is not quick to speak to others and is easy to misunderstand. He was - likely still is - hermit-like. He could get angry at someone else with little apparent provocation. He was a collector of so much old stuff that what he had accumulated made a typical pack rat seem minimalist. He was determinedly protective of his privacy and would usher trespassers of his land with dispatch, sometimes in unconventional - even scary - ways. He kept to himself because that is - partly, how he chose to live; partly because it seems that few ever made the effort to get to find out who he is as a person. 
Perhaps, as a result, only one neighbor family even attempted to find out if he was okay. Although he managed to escape wearing only night clothes, he had to call someone from another part of town to bring him something warm to wear, since he had nothing but what was on his back.But you know, he's never actually harmed anyone. Working at labor intensive, low paying endeavors, he struggles hard just to get by - spurning human services "safety net" assistance, which always comes with strings anyway. He has an intimate knowledge of the plant and animal life around the area that I suspect few of his neighbors have any idea about. He takes solace in the animals around the area; so much so that even when people have abandoned pets near his property [and others have done this frequently over the years], he didn't like to see them suffer or starve.
Once you take the time to speak with him, he can be quite sociable with people as well, knowledgeable on many subjects, even funny. Not that many neighbors ever found this out.
Most reprehensible, the worst in my book - was the woman who, in earshot of anyone nearby, spoke with malicious glee while he stood only yards away from her watching his life go up in flames. She saw him standing there, shivering wearing nothing more than longjohns, a single sandal and a smoke smeared sweatshirt, yet she did nothing to assist him. In fact, she sounded happy to see his home, his property, all that he had accumulated in life, destroyed.
I wonder how she'd have felt if this devastation happened to her and no one offered her solace. She may have had reason for disliking the man, but whatever the source of the dislike, there is nothing that can justify her cruelty and indifference. Such actions on her part are disgusting and foul in ways that I cannot describe. Even vultures wait for their prey to die before feeding on the remains. I'm glad I know who she is and what she looks like. Like the Amish, I can shun her.
Labels: bad behavior, connecticut, East Haddam, homelessness, suffering, tragedy moodus
¶ 04:32 0 comments
