Yes, for god's sake get your affairs in order.
If they get messy and overlap, they are likely to meet each other and it'll be the end of your world.:worried:

Speaking of nuts, just be glad you don't work with this woman.

Let me guess. It will turn out that the woman has no training and was working for less money than she could have gotten behind the counter at a McDonalds.

I am amazed that we put human lives and safety in the hands of people who are sometimes paid less and have less experience than the people who handle our trash.

That is so typical.
Several years ago SWMBO worked as a direct care provider for two men who had severe autism, one of whom was possibly retarded as well. The guys needed 24 hour care. A couple of the other staff members along with SWMBO were dedicated and ethical people who really put in 100% despite making less than they would at Burger King (truth).

Other staff members were not so ethical. One example was when one staff member wanted to play a prank on the other staff member at the expense of their charges.

The guys were on pretty strict diets, most importantly NO sugar or caffeine. The second shift gal had a grudge against the third shift gal who was an overnighter. She'd put the guys to bed and hang out all night to be sure they were ok.

On this particular occasion the second gal let the guys chow snickers bars and mountain dew all day, didn't say a word, and dropped the guys back at the home and left the third shift gal with a couple of boucing off the walls autistic men who didn't get a minutes sleep that night and were almost completely wild.

There was no point in the woman reporting it, the other woman would have denied it, there was no evidence (beyond her laughing about it with her compatriots). The place was chronically understaffed so they weren't gonna fire her, and if anyone went to the state about, they'd get fired for making waves. The company wanted these guys because they got extra money for them.

The owners of the company were immensely wealthy, btw and would frequently hire their own clients to do yard work etc., paying them some miniscule prison wage. For which the owners were reimbursed with a bonus by the state.

What a disaster.

When people become more profitable, they'll get better care. Until then...mooooooo!!!

S-a good way to get stabbed.

Thank you, wolf. You made my day, not to mention my new sig (first change to sig, evar.) :bows:

Oh they already are quite profitable. A big part of that profit comes from paying staffers minimum wage.

Open up a privately run direct care facility and within the year, you'll be farting through silk. Can't say the same for your staffers.

I am very honored, even if it's really Richard O'Brien's fault.

Tonight I declined an admission of a woman who is pregnant.

Not just because she's pregnant ... we've had plenty of pregnant women in the nuthouse. I declined her because she is due in three days.

There is no fucking way that I'm going to allow the mentally ill antichrist to be born in MY hospital on Christmas.

We had a near miss with that a few years back ... that crazy lady's name was Mary, so I was really worried, especially when I thought her water broke in my secure exam room.

[innkeeper][/innkeeper]

LOL Thanks for the diligence.

I dunno wolf, you may have passed up your chance to be remembered for all eternity.

I have other irons in the fire for that. The nuthouse is just my dayjob, in a manner of speaking, since I actually work at night.

Aw, dude, I wanted to hear about the beginning of the end! Now you've ruined it for me.:sniff:

Who was trying to admit her, herself or a relative or court-ordered?

In this case, an obstetrician at a local medical hospital ... but all that doctor can do is request that the person be evaluated for psychiatric treatment. There are no automatic hospitalizations under the Pennsylvania law. Even if a judge "orders" someone to be in a psych hospital, s/he can't really. It's all up to the doctor's evaluation and recommendations for level of care. Other states do things differently, however.

When a family member wants to commit someone, they have to come to me, fill out paperwork, and I review it against the criteria for "clear and present danger as a consequence of being severely mentally ill." If I think the information meets that test, I sign a warrant. If it doesn't, I deny the warrant. I have the equivalent power of a Common Pleas Court Judge of the Commonwealth with resepct to issuing a civil body warrant to have someone brought before a psychiatrist against their will for evaluation for inpatient treatment. The doctor decides if the person stays in the hospital or goes home.

An actual judge doesn't get involved until the passage of the first 120 hours of treatment. Up until the end of that time, the treating doctor can file a request for extending treatment up to 20 additional days. The patient goes before the mental health court and usually is represented by a public defender, although they do have the option of using a private attorney. Handy hint: if you ever end up going to mental health court, take the public defender. Private attorneys don't know a darn thing about mental health law, and tend to excell at screwing up a perfectly simple case, and charging you $400/hour for the privilege.

There's a way to extend that further, up to 90 additional days. I typically don't have anything to do with those parts, although I know how the process works.

Don't you have a set of your own Omen knives,

http://www.eccentric-cinema.com/imag...-p/omen-12.jpg
Just for such an emergency?

In a manner of speaking ...

http://scribe.fork.org/cellar/xenaunsheath.jpg

http://scribe.fork.org/cellar/swamp003.JPG

I have the equivalent power of a Common Pleas Court Judge of the Commonwealth with resepct to issuing a civil body warrant to have someone brought before a psychiatrist against their will for evaluation for inpatient treatment.

Have you ever been tempted to have some body locked up just to mess with them ???

Yes, but thankfully I don't live in her jurisdiction. :haha:

I had to promise to use my powers only for good.

But yes, I do have an "in" with the doctors. I could make it stick.

You always are, honey.

You can't kill the son of satan with that! Come ON!

Did you not see the fedora in back?

All depends on how you bless the bullets, sonny.

This security guard approaches me in a parking garage. He motions to this SUV parked across two spaces and demands to know what to do about it. Like I know?

He tells me he's got a weapon and 11 bullets.

So shoot out the tires I say.

He says the problem is, at the end of his shift he has to return all 11 bullets back to the powers that be.

What good does it do to have it if you cain't use it??

I had a friend posted on the DMZ (Korea). They had their own ammo stashed, just in case.

You have the authority to tell people to screw with badly parked cars? What the hell do you do for a living?

Hey, I'm a MOM, the highest (okay, second highest) authority there is!!

So, this man walks into a bank.

A lot of the banks hereabouts have started posting "No Concealed Weapons" signs on their front doors. Well, especially the Wachovia, which has a little picture of a pistol with one of those international "no" symbols across it, so I only take the AK when I do any banking there ...

So, where was I? Oh yeah.

A man walks into a bank.

And feels that he has to prove that he is not carrying any concealed weapons.

So he strips.

Naked.

Not even a wristwatch.

Bare-ass.

Which is exactly how the police brought him to me.

Apparently he wanted to prove he wasn't armed to them too. With any luck his short arm fires blanks. We don't need any more of these.

A couple of hours later the cops brought in a man with no feet.

No, that's it. There is no punch line.

He must have decided he didn't like the wheelchair he'd stolen from a Philly hospital (this wasn't the first time for him). He was dragging himself across the street.

Just wow, wolf! The things you see and deal with, don't think I could do it!

I expect one day, you're going to have to write a book.

Shhhh, I've already stolen all her stories. Gonna write that book, get famous on Oprah, then O is gonna chastise me when she finds out none of these things happened to me!

I don't think that's a wise idea ...


...and thats before we even get to her personal armory, and any mystical powers she may have to boot.

Well, when you put it that way!:bolt:

What a great responsibility. I pray for wisdom for you.

I missed this thread.

I'm working on it. My boss who went crazy was going to do that, but well, he went crazy and stopped showing up to work, so somebody has to take up that particular mantle.

Thank you. Just so you know, I do the same.

There's a companion piece.

Uh-oh.... it's contagious?

Which mantle:eyebrow: ?

I think my boss may be losing it.
 

I mean, I should know, right? I am a professional ... Incidentally, this is the replacement boss for the boss who went crazy and just stopped showing up to work.

He comes in yesterday and starts telling us all about this dream he had the night before.

You know that commercial for the flea and tick medicine, with the really cute yellow puppy at Summer Camp? And he goes around singing "There ain't no bugs on me, there ain't no bugs on me, there may be bugs on some of you mugs, but there ain't no bugs on me." That one.

So anyway, he has this dream were all the patients in the Center Hall organize a revolt. This is very far from the truth. The nuts on Center Hall couldn't organize their way down to the Cafeteria, much less manage a revolt.

So, anyway, havoc is breaking loose, and they all break out in song ...

There ain't no meds in me
There ain't no meds in me
There may be meds in some of you SPEDs,
But there ain't no meds in me.

That's how my week is going.

Seriously.

I give it an 8. It's got a good beat, you can dance to it.

Maybe crazy is contagious to some. All those bad vibes hanging in the air.

Perhaps this boss has something up his sleeve that his predecessor didn't. Scrutinize your benefits Long Term Disability policy for a "psych" clause that would allow him to just stop showing up for work while still collecting 60% of his wages for mental disability. He knows you'd be a credible witness. :D

I'm with noboxes here - perhaps you could learn something from these guys?
[by the way -WB Wolf :D ]

When a family member comes in to file commitment papers, we make them fill out a demographic information sheet.

I have one in my hands that lists the patient's race as "Afro-Italiano."

interesting-o

Franco Harris finally blew that gasket eh?

Bastard ken of chef boyardee? :)

There's a demographic for ya!

Tonight I was interviewing a young man who came in for an evaluation. He was one of those scary-intense kind of people that make you want to sit with your back to the wall. Instead of leafing through the pile of not terribly stale magazines in our lobby he was reading a book he had brought along.

Catcher in the Rye.

I could not make this stuff up.

and that concerns you...how?

Crazy people, especially young men, have a tendency to think that book is the most amazing piece of insightful literature ever.

And it has more of a draw for its notoriety than its actual literature.

weird

I thought it sucked, but maybe that was because it was required reading.

I was okay with the character as a flawed character, especially since this point was driven home in the final chapter where he finally starts to show signs of growing up. What I couldn't stand were the people who thought the character was supposed to be a complete protagonist who had all the right ideas. The kid was a tool.

THANK GOD! I thought I was the only one on earth who didn't find that crappy book "delightful."

Maybe the mental health field should create a new standard for evaluating the mentally ill. Do like they do for chimps and present two literature pieces down on a table and if the person picks up the 'Catcher in the Rye' then we'll know just how disturbed they really are for choosing such a crappy book.

I enjoyed it when I read it in freshman high school English class, but I found its charm diminished quickly as I got older.