I was recently sent this blog’s address. I thought this post was appropriate.  It’s time that America wakes up and realizes that our liberties are being taken from us as surely as any rape victim’s.

I explained earlier  some of my concerns about Government controlled care as it relates to our veterans now.

What strikes me is people’s utter belief that business is automatically bad and government is good. What about this administration has caused us to think that? His broken promise that all health care debate would happen on T.V.? It’s not just this guy, the last guy did the same sort of stupid stuff.

For today, I am content to know that a terrible and probably illegal health care reform bill has probably been thwarted.

They start making excuses for the residents when the residents go off. They might start making rationale and valid arguments but when the time comes to really come down on the resident, they resist because they have are too emotionally close to the resident. This can be for a number of reasons, I believe.

We work with people that have hard luck stories. The kids all have stories that will break your heart. Any time you work with a group of people, you will find people that you like and people that you don’t like. Couple these two facts together and you have the genesis of all sorts of interesting dynamics.

Today, I began discussing Mike with a co-worker. It was astounding to listen to her defend him at ever turn. This girl is top-notch. She knows what she’s doing at every position. She’s quality and I enjoy working with her but listening to her defend him not only caught me off guard but it almost made me wonder about my own blind spots. When it comes to Mike, Emily is completely blind to her own weakness.

Despite the media’s attempt to convince you that every person who works inside a locked facility is a cold hearted, sadistic bastard that is on some sort of jaded power trip, the truth is almost everyone I work with has a good heart that is in the right place.

So tonight I ponder where my own blindspots are.

I’ve gotten to know many of the other therapists, doctors, psychologists, etc. The other day, one of the VA psychologists and I was talking. He said to me,

Do you know I can only see my clients once every six weeks? I can’t believe that anyone wants to give the government health care! Look at our schools? Do they work? Our Veteran care doesn’t work. In fact, I’m not sure there’s a single program that the government runs that actually works.

This is important for two reasons. First of all, the mental health profession is littered with idealistic liberals who have grand ideas and little to no ideas on how to implement those grandiose ideas. I have found that while many preach tolerance, what they really mean is that you should agree with them or shut up.  I know that sounds harsh, and to be sure there are people to whom that does not apply. There is another aspect that I call the Social Worker aspect. This essentially says that the problems with the world are because our government isn’t doing enough. This cracks me up, because in the mental health field everything that the government has touched has gone badly, but that’s a discussion for another day. Back to the thought, I believed that this colleague was in this camp and that he was probably excited at the thought of government run health care.

The second reason that this is important is because of the reasons I have stated above, I’ve learned to just not talk about my views on politics or the government in most circles at work. I have a few friends that I talk to about such things but the truth is that I have very little hope in any political party as they currently stand. They all just seem to be liars to me.  None the less, we have weekly treatment meetings that I have to be a part of and we discuss treatment goals, ideas and methods for clients in these meetings. They are important and our ideology will come out in these meetings.  Sometimes, these meetings can be contentious but there is always a good level of professionalism and respect. However, in the meeting right before this lunch encounter one of my colleagues insisted we needed to move to a more “VA like model” of care. He lauded the VA system as a good and proper system.  When I expressed my doubt, this colleague looked at me and acted as though I was from another planet. I’m not a Veteran and neither is my co-worker proposing us going to a more VA driven model.

When I brought this fact up that currently Doctors of Psychology can only see their clients once every six weeks, I was told I was misinformed.  Again, what I call the Social Worker effect–I’m right, don’t confuse me with the facts. I brought it up to VA Model guy. He laughed and told me I needed to do my homework. Well, I’ve done my homework. I’ve talked to other Doctor’s, Vets, and even nurses. They all agree that the VA model is broken. One Dr. has worked in numerous hospitals across the country and he can’t believe that anyone would consider it a good system.

But hey, let’s get give them health care too. I’m sure that will be positive change.

What is interesting is it has a double meaning to me.  Any locked facility is a Petri dish of germs and disease. MRSA, Hepatitis, and various other really scary things all exist in abundance on every doorknob, wall, bed, desk, table, in essence every surface that can be found. To deny, and some do exactly, doesn’t change that fact. I wash my hands all the time. Some shifts I wash my hands so often that I am afraid my knuckles are going to start bleeding. This is a reality of working inside a locked facility.  It is a danger that is there all the time.  In truth, many of the same diseases are all around you too. They are at the grocery story and on the money you handle but the people you are around are probably not going to try and intentionally spit on you or inflict you with a cut.

The difference between where I work and where you work though is that where I work universal precautions also have another meaning.  Not everyone follows them, but there are a group of us that do. Some call it having boundaries, and some call it crazy but many of us do not let the residents know anything about our personal lives. Not our real last name, not our spouses name, how many children we really have. NOTHING. For me personally, the residents think my wife was an officer in the Marine Corps. They think I have 9 children and that my oldest is a police sniper.

Some of my colleagues give all of this information out to the residents. They allow them to borrow their MP3 players and computers and see pictures of their families.

The obvious question I am asked is, “Why not? Why not let them know who are you?” Well, there is still a chance that they will find out but many of these kids are angry, and violent. Not all of them, but a majority of them are. Better than half of my job is getting them to do things they don’t want to do and telling them no. What are the chances that they could fixate on me and focus their anger on me? In my time at the hospital I’ve seen residents come and go. Some have stayed for a few months; others have been there for years.  The odds say that at least one of them could fixate on me and decide that I am to blame for all of his or her troubles. That individual could decide to do harm to my family or me so I use Universal Precautions both against germs and potentially angry residents.  To me that just makes good sense and is healthy boundaries.

*All names are changed on this blog: Mike is not his real name.