Hello all
I see Lilith's point about the frustrations of being in a position of having
to aid an abet unethical protocols and I don't think this is confined to
people who have had personal experience with mental illness. I think many
nurses become genuinely distressed about some of the practices they are
expected to carry out. It IS very difficult to effect change at this level,
however, nurses can go on to become Nursing Unit Managers and they can go on
to become Directors of Nursing etc and changes (even just small one's) can
be made at management levels. One could also continue studying toward policy
development work. Co-incidentally, my housemate of many years is starting
out next week to undergo a post-grad nursing training position in mental
health after having worked in palliative care for many years. It will be
interesting to see how she deals with the transition from a specialised area
of practice that is mostly antithetical to usual nursing practice, to an
area where practice might be ethically compromising. As a Nursing Unit
Manager and Clinical Nurse Specialist she WAS in a position to intervene
when she saw nursing practice that compromised a patient's comfort and
dignity and she was also in a position to provide in-service training to the
nurses under her management. These interpretations of protocols are able to
be effected by the individual in this position. The problem is how do we get
people into this position? Starting at the ground up and holding onto
personal values is important amid the frustrations of getting there. I think
the promotion of people with their own mental health experiences to start
from the ground up would, after some time, make a difference.
Best regards
Laurence Bathurst
School of Occupation and Leisure Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Sydney
PO Box 170
Lidcombe NSW 1825
Australia
Ph: 61 2 9351 9509
Fax: 61 2 9351 9509
Email: [log in to unmask]
See School Website www.ot.cchs.usyd.edu.au
Home Ph: 61 2 9818 2050
Mobile Ph: 0407 069 441
----- Original Message -----
From: "LILITH Finkler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2002 2:27 PM
Subject: Re: Mental health surviours becoming professionals?
| I am the "respected colleague" to whom Philip refers in his earlier
inquiry.
| I would like to elaborate upon my remarks simply for the purposes of
| clarification. [As a caveat, I must emphasize that I live in Canada and
| hence, the majority of my experiences and remarks pertain to Canada.] I
| commented specifically about psychiatric survivors becoming psychiatric
| nurses. The psychiatric survivor movement has taken a number of political
| positions that would make it difficult (if not impossible) for survivors
in
| good conscience to perform what are essential duties for psychiatric
nurses.
| For example, the survivor movement has taken a stand against forced
| treatment but nurses on psychiatric wards forcibly drug patients every
day.
| Psychiatric survivor activists argue against the use of chemical and
| physical use of restaint but nurses restrain patients every day.
Psychiatric
| survivors demand fully informed consent but nurses routinely impose
| medications upon patients. Forced drugging, restaint and administration of
| drugs without informed consent, are in my mind, human rights violations.
Why
| would a psychiatric survivor who had endured such experiences wish to
impose
| them on others who are equally or more vulnerable than they once were? It
| seems to me that they would simply become part of the very system that
once
| oppressed them.
|
| I know many psychiatric survivors who became nurses in hopes of changing
the
| psychiatric system. Significantly, most have left psychiatric nursing
| because their attempts to humanize their work environment was
unsuccessful.
| Some practice nursing, but not on psychiatric wards, others made
transitions
| to other medical related fields and some left their work entirely. I
suspect
| that qualitative research in this area would yield rich data. I also
suspect
| that notions of social change would become much more complex. Placing
| psychiatric survivors in the role of psychiatric nurses does NOT in and of
| itself change values associated with medical model approaches to emotional
| distress. Lilith
|
|
|
|
| Philip Scullion <[log in to unmask]>
| >Reply-To: Philip Scullion <[log in to unmask]>
| >To: [log in to unmask]
| >Subject: Mental health surviours becoming professionals?
| >Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2002 09:59:00 +0100
| >
| >Dear Colleagues
| >
| >Would any care to explore this issue with me?
| >At last weeks SDS conference in Oakland I discussed
| >the issue of people with mental health problems /
| >experience moving on to joining one of the health care
| >professions e.g. Psychiatric nursing.
| >
| >In UK the Department of Health are likely to publish a
| >positive statement encouraging this on the grounds of
| >equal opportunity in employment and the positive
| >contribution such experiences may bring to a role as a
| >health professional.
| >
| >The RCN (London 3rd July) conference, in a few weeks
| >will be examining the role of health professionals in
| >the disability rights agenda- in essence I will argue
| >that one way of being with disable people on this
| >agenda is to open the way for them to become health
| >professionals.
| >
| >One respected colleague at the SDS however was fairly
| >adamant that the effect of a mental health survivor
| >becoming a psychiatric nurse for instance would be for
| >them to simply take on an oppressive role seen as
| >characteristic of the so-called 'helping profession'
| >as whole.
| >
| >View, experiences and research welcome.
| >
| >
| >
| >
| >=====
| >Philip Scullion
| >Senior Lecturer
| >Health and Social Sciences
| >Coventry University
| >UK
| >
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