Ellie:
Re:"In some ways things are really no different from the old asylums. Ie:before "difficult" patients were chained to old beds. Now they are "chained" with straps to very expensive new beds."
Dignified (or lack of) varies from hospital to hospital-including in the same state.
Im glad its not happening in your hospital but it does happen elsewhere-for example if you google James Pascoe,regarding what happened to a boy with autism.
You mentioned "timing" protocols are in place to prevent patients being physically harmed but i'm guessing there is nothing in place that addresses the psychological harm that occurs to some people from being treated with aggression or force?
Personally ive witnessed appaling things happen to patients both in E.D and in a ward.
For example a woman being forced to the ground by numerous staff members and then forcibly injected.
Witnessing this,and the atmosphere of aggression and fear surrounding this event,made me feel fear and fear of retribution if i complained even though it wasnt me it was being done to.
In addition numerous times while at E.D for physical problems, ive witnessed E.D doctors treat the patinets there for "mental reasons" vastly different then people there for physical ones.
Its not always physical aggression but thing like yelling at them when they moved off their bed,and using things like being sectioned as a threat if they dont "behave".
Ive also heard stories of women having their pants pulled down and being injected in their buttocks by male staff.Thats a gross violation of modesty and traumatising and humiliating of course.
Alos ive witnessed E.D staff using the term being "sectioned" as a threat/scare tactic instead of what it was designed to be used for.That is an abuse of power.
Its just general disrespectful speech and behavour which they dont act like that for cancer patients-for example.
This is a generalisation as of course im sure theres good staff too however from what ive witnessed they act "cowardly" as ive never seen then speak out about collegues behavour and generally some hospitals have a culture of staff "closing ranks".
When people do make complaints about these sorts of abuses usually noone does anything.
The patient liason officers at hospitals usually take their peers side,HCCC isnt interested in "mental patient" stories...so nothing changes.
The idea that they have "rights" is a false notion.
What might help is that phone line service that you mentiond that patients can call,however if the patient is only in the emergency room and not in a psych ward,they sometimes are not aware that this service even exists.
Bearing in mind Im referring to Sydney metro and suburban hosptials.
At the same time though,personally when i stayed in a Neuropsychiatric unit i was treated respectfully.
However i also had a personal experience of abuse from an ambulance staff one time when i was crying and stating that i didnt feel doctors were doing enough to try to find the cause of my symptoms.
She stated "i'll section you at XXXXX,i can do that you know"
Most likely she had already stress and couldnt deal with a persons tears so she used an abuse of power as a "coping mechanism".It should never be ok to do this and it shouldnt be without repurcussions.
Regarding drug affected patients-In my view,people who have taken methamphetamines or other similar drugs should be placed in a seperate unit away from the normal psychiatric ward and i wish a new policy for that would be put in place.