Expose' of Patient Mistreatment at Pembroke Hospital
Pembroke Hospital is a private psychiatric hospital in Pembroke, Massachusetts. A year or so ago the Patriot Ledger newspaper featured an article about alleged patient mistreatment by staff occurring between 2006-2007. I'm reluctant to admit it, but in late June of 2005 my boss sent me there by ambulance because in her judgment I was acting erratically and she assumed she was "helping me" or doing me a big favor by sending me to this horrible psychiatric hospital. Against my better judgment I signed myself in.
In case you have never been in the setting of a psychiatric facility, being in such a place is a topsy-turvy microcosm of the world. If you express anger or frustration (a natural reaction to being locked up) you are considered "psychotic" or worse and are subject to powerful psychotropic medicine or "meds" or even violent abuse from hospital-employed thugs (attendants or orderlies, etc.). What is considered "normal behavior" in a psych. ward would not be considered normal in the outside world and vice versa. Also, if you are nervous or aloof and don't try to socialize or interact with other patients you are also labeled and subject to unwanted and unneeded meds.
I once heard a harmless female patient screaming loudly nearby. She was ganged up by hospital associates for refusing her meds. or for disrespecting the staff. I was tempted to come to her aid, but I wisely kept out of it.
Once I was ganged up on by employees, man-handled and brought to the seclusion room to be forcibly medicated for something very minor. I was neither a "danger to myself or others", so as far as I'm concerned they illegally medicated me. For that incident some of my blood ended up on the wall and pillow in the seclusion room. A worker took a picture of the blood even though he had a conflict of interest. However, I have no idea if the picture was shown to the so-called "human-rights officer" who herself had a conflict of interest and a bias toward the hospital employees who abused patients on a routine basis.
At least once I was body-slammed to the hard floor by a group of hospital employees. They and I were lucky that I didn't break a rib or another bone or end up with a long-term injury.
In the morning and evening there was a mandatory assembly for patients to discuss their progress. The head psychiatrist or attendant ran those groups with an iron fist. Such groups were really kangaroo courts with little or no tolerance for dissent. If you said or did something they didn't like they'd send you to your room, up your meds or sic the violent, abusive attendants on you (sometimes all three).
In my view, medications were coercively prescribed not to "help" patients improve or recover, but to make them compliant or "under control" while there. I didn't need to go through the ordeal I went through by being at the hospital for about a month. I was threatened with possible six-month commitment if I didn't agree to stay there until they wanted me to leave. That really would've screwed up my life. Next time a busy-body wants to put me in the hospital I won't stand for it. If worse comes to worse I might agree to a med change, but I hope I never go through the hell of being in Pembroke Hospital or a similar facility again.
