I have been locked out of my residence bedroom.
The funny thing is, I have the device to unlock the door mechanism,
right here in my hand.
It just doesn't function.

You see, after a rash of thefts this summer,
a decision was arrived at.
All the residence bedroom doors,
which had conventional locks in the doorknob with metal keys,
would change over.

So the past week was spent collecting those metal keys from us,
after fitting each door with an electronic lock device,
activated (unlocked) with an electronic key fob.
Not just any device, but the sort with a
"high-security" rating,
which means you have to hold the fob up to the door device panel
just so,
you cannot merely wave it about, or touch the panel anywhere.

It was working yesterday and the day before.
I left my bedroom this morning, key fob in hand as it ought to be.
I come back, and the lock mechanism does not respond to the fob.

I go to nursing. The charge nurse is on the phone,
demanding to somebody else to tell her where to find the master
which will unlock any and all bedroom lock mechanisms.
Another nurse, on hearing my complaint,
accompanies me from the nurses' station to my bedroom door.
She has her own key fob with her ...
and her key fob also will not open my door. Nothing will.

Then it is explained to me that I am far from the only patient with this dilemma, as there are
other patients who are shut out of their bedrooms because the key fob stopped unlocking their door today
after functioning correctly yesterday and the day before.

I dunno.
As I always kept my door unlocked regardless, and am careful
with personal effects,
the series of thefts left me unscathed anyway.

Of course, as you would expect in a psychiatric treatment place,
the patient population includes people who feel out of control
if they can't control their bedroom doors.
One example is a patient
whose history of abuse and trauma includes
being shut up in closets.
For this patient, it is essential to be able to open the door
under any and all circumstances;
they lock the door on leaving the room,
but while inside the room
they feel anxious, or worse, behind a locked door.

Sometimes the solution makes a problem worse?