The Child Psychiatry Ward 6/22/2002
Don't ask me why I picked the child pysch ward as the place where I chose to volunteer. Actually, my current boss, who I'll call Ronald, is the only one who returned my phone call. So the PTB (Powers That Be) decided that I should work with children that needed pyschiatric help. Kind of fitting, actually... :o)
The first two times I worked there, things went off without a hitch. The girl I was originally supposed to be working with, Erin, was a very cool chick. Tall, beautiful, and just an overly nice person. She offered to come to the cafeteria and eat with me when I took my break. (That's the second sweet Erin I've met this year. I've decided that I like the name Erin). However, she needed to change her hours to Tuesday afternoons, so that was the last I saw of her.
The second part of my shift, I work with a girl who'll I'll call Danielle. Danielle is petite, blonde, and beautiful. I felt like a schlub (Yiddish word meaning slob) when I first met her. At the volunteer orientation, I was told that there was a strict dress code. Baggy clothing, sneakers, no jewelry, especially no wearing religious symbols, and little to no make-up was strongly recommended. So here I am with my hair in a bun, with no make-up, looking like a boy and Danielle comes in with a beautiful gold cross, heels, and great clothes that certainly weren't baggy. Not slutty, but rather form-fitting. I had met her before, we had our group interview together with some other guy from Brandeis. Anyway, I can't decide on whether or not I like Danielle.One of the little boys in the ward has a little crush on her. Its cute.
The third time I went to the psych ward I met the intern, Darla. She's cordial enough, I can't decide whether I like her or not either.
Anyway, I went to the hospital to do my usual four and a half hours of volunteer work, and I noticed a new kid in the ward. Kind of a large kid in height and in weight, even though he couldn't have been much older than Jake, my younger brother. (That's the thing with the psych ward; confidentiality is really big there. I'm not told by Ronald why the kids are there, what diseases/disorders they have, and/or when they check-out. It sucks because when a kid leaves, I don't even get to say good-bye). I took my break when the kids had dinner and came back up no more than fifteen minutes later. The only food I trust in that cafeteria is the muffins, and since I was eating by myself, it didn't take very long.
I didn't see Darla or Ronald when I went back up to the ward, so I just seated myself in the kids' dining room. I ended up playing a few games with them, nothing out of the ordinary. The first thing to really shock me was one of the patients' comments. I take the confidentiality thing very seriously, so obviously I'm not giving out real names or ages. I don't know what he has, but I think its ADD. But anyway, I asked him repeatedly not to touch of of the pieces to the toys because he was going to break it. So the child repeated what I had said ("Don't touch that please") and then added, "Or I'll beat you." Stunned, I said, "[Child's name], I didn't say I'd beat you." So the kid replies, "No but my mommy says that to me. She beats the 'snooglies' out of me. And she does." I have no idea what a 'snoogly' is, but I get the picture.
He's a really young child, how could anyone ever hit him? Or was he lying? Some of these kids are in there because of broken homes and social workers got them out. The children are then evaluated at the psych ward before putting them in an orphanage. Some of them however, come from good homes, but the children themselves have disorders/diseases that need evaluation. I never know if a kid is a pathological liar, which is plausible in that case, or they actually are telling me the truth.
Not knowing what to say, I shut my mouth and continued playing. A few minutes later I hear a piercing scream. One of the new kids, the big one, was screaming and crying. The kids in the dining room with me were startled for a moment, and then went back to their activities. Apparently, this is normal for them. I almost had a heart attack. The big kid was screaming because he was either being put, or being forced to stay in the Silent Room. The Silent Room scares the ** out of me. It's a cement room with a peep-hole at the door and a camera on the ceiling. Kids get put in there for a certain period of time when they're being violent or bad or sexually aggressive. Nice huh? I was told about it, but I never around when a kid was being put in there until now. He was screaming for a good few minutes.
Between the comment from the little one, and hearing the big kid SCREAM as he was being put in the Silent Room, I was going to burst into tears, quit, and leave. To make things worse, Darla comes into the room, sees me and exclaims, "There you are! Where have you been?"
Me: "In here. With the kids. I was playing games with them.
Darla: "Oh, Ronald and I didn't know where you went. You went on your break and never came back.
Me: (Yeah, I just decided to up and leave). "No I spent fifteen minutes in the cafeteria and came right back up here. I didn't see you guys on the floor, so I've been in the dining room with the kids."
Luckily, the other nurses were with me, so they could back me up if questioned later.
(cont'd)
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