Yer right, Slag...

Until I found myself bombarded with new clients that were being released form Eastern State Hospital (Petersburg, Va.)I had really never given institutionalization any thought... It was off the radar screen for social workers everywhere and then we had this "staff meeting" where we were told about the changes and, unfortunately, not much more... None of us were prepared for it... Our entire agency was not prepared... It was an informational meeting but lacked a lot in specifics... Well, we did the best we could... I remember going to Petersburg in the "welfare car" and bringing 5 new clients back at a time... That was hard... I was having to find housing fir them and getting them into adult day care and hooked up with their out-patient mental health people and meds and food and, and, and...

I mean, 5 at a time!!! My case load grew from 40 clients to 80 in a matter of 2 months... All of us were running ragged... Plus, alot of rooming houses didn't want them... Or didn't want that many of them... One of my best rooming house providers called me about a month into this mess and told me to get all of them out...

Now to make things worse, which BTW any social worker who was there at the time will back up, the federal funds thru Title XX were being reduced?!?!?!?... I mean, those were the funds that we used to buy stuff like bus passes and adult day care and home health and, and, and...

Talk about a nightmare!!!

But what I saw were lots of social workers who just gave the heck up... Janie can tell you about this... She saw it... Yeah, they pushed the paper and quit doing "field work" where you go out and do stuff... They sat in their offices and pulled the blankets over their heads... That still exists today...

And then we wonder why stuff like this shooting happens???? Duhhhhhh...

And the TV says that it's easy to get messed up people evaluated by the mental health people... That is mythology... It is almost impossible... I, as a social worker working with messed up people, would have to lie to get a magistrate to issue a "green warrant" 'cause unless there was some nut holding a gun to his or someone elses head it was impossible to get green warrants...

Was deinstitutionalism good??? Probably in some cases... But, in hindsight, it reminded me of the the last day of the Vietnam War with folks tryin' to get on that last helicopter out... It was chaos!!! And it has left some very deep and serious scars on my soul for the things I, and my clients, went thru... It was a war that no one, other than folks in the field, knew about...

Maybe Janie will add her thoughts... For me??? I've said about all I want to say... It was a very hurtful experience and I ended up not only burned out but in a mental hospital myself... No, let me add that it was bad policy based on trying to cut government expenses while the DoD got everything they wanted...

B~