Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

When a medical facility isn’t equipped to handle profound mental health issues

Matt Dayer, RN
Conditions
December 30, 2019
Share
Tweet
Share

A person rolls into an outpatient clinic. A pleasant bleach smell emanates from freshly scrubbed chairs. Happy chatter about people’s lives, and this week’s health issues are dimmed by the local radio station playing in the background.

The person who just rolled in for the first time has a confoundingly complicating diagnosis. It’s not the first sized holes in their body under their urine-soaked shorts they initially refuse to take off. Or being able to feel bones within these holes. It’s not their uncontrolled diabetes. This person suffers from mental illness.

Two nurses are required to coax the shorts off in trade of blankets. The cause of this person’s holes becomes apparent. It’s not neglect, and it is neglect. It’s not the facility they live in, and it is the facility they live in. This person still has the right to refuse care. The right literally permeates to the bones in their body. Every layer of defeated granulosum (healthy tissue) leading to the extraordinary holes in their body is a victory for self-directed health care. Every overlay of slough and eschar (dead tissue) is a defeat of conservatorship.

The facility this person qualifies to live in isn’t equipped for dealing with mental health issues this profound. Reports show suspected illicit drug use by the person in the facility. The facility wrote their reports, they confiscated the materials, but the person persists in producing holes in their body. The person allows urine and pressure to erode their mortality because we cannot stop them.

There are facilities that can stop them from doing this to themselves. The process to get into one can take years. Conservatorship proceedings, court orders, lawyers, mountains of documentation to ensure we aren’t infringing on rights to independence. If the judge in these proceedings were standing next to me now, watching me spend 15 minutes coaxing urine-soaked shorts off this person would the process improve?

Let’s find out. I’m required to report anyway, let’s get some government into the situation. I file my mandated report to the government; it only takes about 15 minutes at the end of clinic hours.

The physician sees the person. Concerns of osteomyelitis (bone infection usually necessitating surgery and/or prolonged antibiotic therapy) down the road are high. This person’s mental state severely limits treatment options for his wounds. “He wouldn’t tolerate a wound vac.” “He refuses to offload in bed and limit chair time.” “He has been able to obtain illicit drugs and will likely continue.” Issues with incontinence management and refusal of care will likely lead this person to death.

The wounds are dressed, reports are filed. The person’s mother is called. The mother is tired; I can feel it through the phone. Her defeated voice already knows why I’m calling. She’s been working with a lawyer for months. She has no control over her adult person’s care. She’s trying. I’m trying. The facility is trying. The government tries. I never see the person again.

Some weeks or months later, I arrive home with my sweet toddler. He screams and runs for the garage door, babbling and jumping. We go inside and make a snack; he hugs me. “Oh, you got a stinky butt!” I exclaim. I change his diaper and put some Vaseline on his bottom. If he’s ever struck by mental illness, I hope I can at least do this for him if he needs it at any age. Sorting the mail together, or more realistically put, chasing down envelopes my son throws enthusiastically across the room, I realize there’s one from the government. I open it and read the short missive. The investigation is complete, no neglect found. They’re not wrong; we all filed our reports as issues arose and tried to address them as best as we could.

I hope someone out there found a way to fill the holes in the person’s body. From where my purview ends, we all tried, and we all failed.

Matt Dayer is a nurse and can be reached on Twitter @DayerRn.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

CBD oil: Natural does not mean it is safe

December 30, 2019 Kevin 4
…
Next

Treat the whole patient and do the right thing

December 30, 2019 Kevin 2
…

ADVERTISEMENT

Tagged as: Hospital-Based Medicine, Psychiatry

Post navigation

< Previous Post
CBD oil: Natural does not mean it is safe
Next Post >
Treat the whole patient and do the right thing

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Matt Dayer, RN

  • IT deficits are eating hospital profits. CEOs need to wake up.

    Matt Dayer, RN

Related Posts

  • Sharing mental health issues on social media

    Tarena Lofton
  • Mental health issues and the African American community

    Lashawnda Thornton, MSW
  • Improve mental health by improving how we finance health care

    Steven Siegel, MD, PhD
  • We need a mental health infrastructure bill

    Jennifer Reid, MD
  • The new mental health education mandate doesn’t go far enough

    Brandon Jacobi
  • A step forward: a way to advance the mental health of health care professionals

    Mattie Renn, Thomas Pak, and Corey Feist, JD, MBA

More in Conditions

  • What a childhood stroke taught me about the future of neurosurgery and the promise of vagus nerve stimulation

    William J. Bannon IV
  • Facing terminal cancer as a doctor and mother

    Kelly Curtin-Hallinan, DO
  • Why doctors must stop ignoring unintentional weight loss in patients with obesity

    Samantha Malley, FNP-C
  • Why hospitals are quietly capping top doctors’ pay

    Dennis Hursh, Esq
  • Why point-of-care ultrasound belongs in emergency department triage

    Resa E. Lewiss, MD and Courtney M. Smalley, MD
  • Why PSA levels alone shouldn’t define your prostate cancer risk

    Martina Ambardjieva, MD, PhD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • America’s ER crisis: Why the system is collapsing from within

      Kristen Cline, BSN, RN | Conditions
    • Why timing, not surgery, determines patient survival

      Michael Karch, MD | Conditions
    • How early meetings and after-hours events penalize physician-mothers

      Samira Jeimy, MD, PhD and Menaka Pai, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
    • Here’s what providers really need in a modern EHR

      Laura Kohlhagen, MD, MBA | Tech
  • Recent Posts

    • Why the heart of medicine is more than science

      Ryan Nadelson, MD | Physician
    • How Ukrainian doctors kept diabetes care alive during the war

      Dr. Daryna Bahriy | Physician
    • Why Grok 4 could be the next leap for HIPAA-compliant clinical AI

      Harvey Castro, MD, MBA | Tech
    • How women physicians can go from burnout to thriving

      Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH | Physician
    • What a childhood stroke taught me about the future of neurosurgery and the promise of vagus nerve stimulation

      William J. Bannon IV | Conditions
    • Beyond burnout: Understanding the triangle of exhaustion [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

Leave a Comment

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • America’s ER crisis: Why the system is collapsing from within

      Kristen Cline, BSN, RN | Conditions
    • Why timing, not surgery, determines patient survival

      Michael Karch, MD | Conditions
    • How early meetings and after-hours events penalize physician-mothers

      Samira Jeimy, MD, PhD and Menaka Pai, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
    • Here’s what providers really need in a modern EHR

      Laura Kohlhagen, MD, MBA | Tech
  • Recent Posts

    • Why the heart of medicine is more than science

      Ryan Nadelson, MD | Physician
    • How Ukrainian doctors kept diabetes care alive during the war

      Dr. Daryna Bahriy | Physician
    • Why Grok 4 could be the next leap for HIPAA-compliant clinical AI

      Harvey Castro, MD, MBA | Tech
    • How women physicians can go from burnout to thriving

      Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH | Physician
    • What a childhood stroke taught me about the future of neurosurgery and the promise of vagus nerve stimulation

      William J. Bannon IV | Conditions
    • Beyond burnout: Understanding the triangle of exhaustion [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Leave a Comment

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...