Keeping children out of hospitals
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EVS sends this link: State care, minus the institution
It’s a lengthy article about treating mentally ill kids at home instead of in hospitals. I think that’s a good idea. When I was 5, I got severe third-degree burns on my stomach, pelvic area and upper thighs. The hospital wanted me to stay in a burn unit for a long time so that they could attend to the burns. My mother fought them. She knew if I had that experience I’d be traumatized, so she had them teach her how to care for me and change the dressings, etc. It was a great decision. My parents and older sister tried to make everything a game for me during that time. My sister and I played “Ambulance,” which helped me work through the fear of being rushed to the hospital. I took a marker and drew “burns” on my stuffed animals, which helped me feel less alone. My mother made sure to take me out of the house sometimes, even if she had to wrap me in plastic to do so. And when she changed my dressings, my dad told me funny stories to distract me. It was still horribly painful, but I believe the psychic pain would have been worse if they’d done it any other way.
The only thing I wonder about is the scars I have. I knew someone at college who had similar injuries, and she did stay in a burn unit. Because she had continual access to sophisticated medical care, she was treated with an experimental medicine that kept her from scarring. I, on the other hand, have a lot of scars, which are still painful, and which I don’t much like the look of when I’m in a bathing suit, particularly a bikini. Somehow, though, I think these scars are less traumatic than the psychological ones I’d have suffered from months in a burn unit. At least that’s what I tell myself.
liz | 10:57 AM | Uncategorized
One of the many awful things about mental illness is the lack of any external indicators for all the internal suffering we go through.
Not that I want to walk around with a big “DEPRESSED” stamped on my forehead—and I certainly don’t want sirens to go off every time I have a panic attack, but because mental illness is so amorphous, so intangible, how can we really tell when we’re traumatized or ill or recovered and healthy? At least a broken bone can be x-rayed to see when it’s fully healed.
Will I ever be “better”? Will I know it when I see/feel it?
Anyways. Sorry for the tangent.
This is why Shriner’s is so great, not only is their care free to every kid, but they pay for a parent to come with the child and they keep hospital time to a minimum, paying for a motel room for the parent and child for what can be done outpatient if they are from out of town. It is only for orthopeadic issues, I wish there were a place like that for all kids’ problems.
Kids with psychiatric issues in a hospital are so vulnerable to abuse on top of the trauma of being away from home. Unless the parents are the problem and they are involved in family systems therapy at the hospital, it makes no sense to me to put little ones in a hospital.
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