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 Subject :Re:Mental Health Nursing in SWAHS.. 06 07 2010 23:01 
Foxylass
Joined: 06 04 2010 10:19
Posts: 118
Location: 
DADHC is a joke. We need appropriate institutions for dangerous patients and those who cannot care for themselves safely and have no family who can. A woman my mother knew had a mentally ill daughter who was placed in a group home. One day she got a call from one of the residents saying she couldn't wake 'Debra' up. Debra was dead and had been for days. She overdosed on her medications!Nobody had checked on these residents that week due to inadequate staff available as a result of sick leave. I think people are concerned about patients being scheduled indiscriminately and permanently institutionalized. If we were to return to that system we would need scrupulous checks in place. Mike Willesee's mother was deemed to be suffering from catatonic depression when she could suddenly no longer speak. The RN who 'cared' for Mrs Willesee in Nepean ED failed to give the mandatory CJD questionnaire to the family. After almost dying in SJOG Hospital (Nth Richmond) from ECT and psychotropic drug administration she was transferred back to Nepean ED. A different staff member this time in the ED followed protocol and gave the questionnaire to her family. Mrs Willesee had CJD . She lived in the UK during the 80s - 90s. This is my biggest fear. Once a patient is labelled with a mental illness they lose all credibility with health professionals and lay people so errors can and do happen. However, we cannot continue to throw mentally ill people into group housing ; attempt to monitor & treat them and expect it to all be rosy. The government is good at making idiotic decisions about things they do not understand. De-institutionalization has been a monumental failure here. If at all there should have only been partial de-institutionalization. EDs are not the place for repeated presentations of violent psych patients. They are ill -equipped to deal with it and it is inappropriate. I hate to say it but I would not want to be a mental health nurse for all the tea in china. You guys are so unsupported in your roles and no matter how many changes of government we've had nothing improves. You have my sympathy.
 Subject :Re:Mental Health Nursing in SWAHS.. 06 07 2010 18:01 
Foxylass
Joined: 06 04 2010 10:19
Posts: 118
Location: 

I think we do need some live-in type of units. I have a cousin with schizophrenia.Three years ago she attempted to murder my uncle by stabbing him ten times with a carving knife.He ended up with a left sided pneumothorax. My aunt believes prayer will fix my cousin and would not consider taking out guardianship.My cousin would stop taking the antipsychotics ,start smoking weed and bam - psychotic episode. She even threatened neighbours with a knife one day when they went out to get their mail. After she nearly killed her father she was kept in Pialla for weeks before her trial and then charged with attempted murder. She was then sent to Silverwater prison for a few months. Then the released her to Cumberland Hospital and finally she was released into her sister's care on a permanent community order where she must see the psychiatrist weekly; have random drug testing,not reside with her parents ever again and only have supervised visits with them or end up back in prison. Well surprise,surprise she violated this order and nothing happened to her. She left the state and lived with a drug addicted brother in QLD for months then returned and moved in with her parents!! She is a dangerous girl but that's okay we can't deprive her of her liberty ????

 

My cousin is one of many violent mental health patients but our government stuffed up so badly that people like her can roam the streets and commit crimes (potentially murder in some cases) and we are helpless to stop it. We just lock them up for a short while and then throw them back out on the street for families to try and manage them. Throwing money at the system just makes the pollies feel they have "fixed" it for votes more than anything. In the almost decade of working for agencies I lost count of how many times I asked to work in psych units. Even when I said that I was not qualified to work there I was told it was okay they were so desperate for staff they would take anybody! We don't even have an adequate number of forensic psych beds in NSW to match our population. QLD has more than double the number with less than a quarter of the population. Work that one out! We have newly built psych units that have never opened and probably never will as there is no money to fund the beds and they don't want to pay for staff. I only wish nurses were part of the decision making about health care funding maybe it would be even close to right then.

 

Maybe there are five positions being advertised but I'll bet there are not four or five applicants. Mental health nurses that I know are so disgusted with the system that they have left it altogether or gone into private psych nursing where the patients all want to be there and are rarely problematic.
 Subject :Re:Mental Health Nursing in SWAHS.. 06 07 2010 12:02 
Foxylass
Joined: 06 04 2010 10:19
Posts: 118
Location: 

Written in error
 Subject :Re:Mental Health Nursing in SWAHS.. 23 06 2010 14:26 
Bernhard
Joined: 06 04 2010 10:19
Posts: 122
Location: 
I feel there 'is' a shortage, due also to numerous disenchanted nurses leaving. I work agency, but am alwys asked to sign up at hospitals, and being offered good positions (even as a NM)but choose to stay in control. Have no objection to the full-time work, but when I last did this, most of my time was involved in protecting my staff from being moved elsewhere. The current system employs on a specific term, then changes the 'terms' that were agreed on. Shortages used to be met by overtime, tilll the numbers no longer came up. Then came the agencies, but that was in the 1960's, and the demand has increased ever since. It is up to the health care facility to allocate (at expense) someone to manage the staffing levels. If the health care facility pays peanuts, it gets monkeys (but among them you also have quality staff). Agency staff are the most cost effective alternative, much better than overtime. Commonsense shows that hospitals should set rosters with agency nurses. If the public want better, force them to act, by voting the right party in. If the population are too lazy, then they get the shortages. Eventually, we'll have the situation where family must come in to wash, toilet, feed (and supply the food!) etc their relatives, and also wash the hospital linen too. This country is slowly dropping it's 'developed' nation tag!
 Subject :Re:Mental Health Nursing in SWAHS.. 16 02 2010 11:16 
nurseuncut
Joined: 16 02 2010 07:25
Posts: 2,604
Location: 
The bed closures at the Blue Mountains Hospital mental health unit are in the local paper:

http://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/news/local/news/general/katoomba-hospital-bed-closures/1643556.aspx
 Subject :Re:Mental Health Nursing in SWAHS.. 16 02 2010 11:16 
nurseuncut
Joined: 16 02 2010 07:25
Posts: 2,604
Location: 
In Western Cluster we are dealing with increasingly unsafe work places due to lack of recruiting and cuts to staffing levels in inpatient units.

Community services are also being dangerously compromised by lack of medical and inpatient support for clients.
 Subject :Mental Health Nursing in SWAHS.. 16 02 2010 11:16 
nurseuncut
Joined: 16 02 2010 07:25
Posts: 2,604
Location: 
With enormous changes creating unforeseen challenges we thought it might be a good idea to establish a discussion thread for mental health nursing staff working in SWAHS.

Lets have at it. What are your issues?
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