Follow the link below to a letter from the Dept of Justice to California Governor, Arnold Schwarnegger after an inspection of Patton State Hospital back in May 2006. Here are some excerpts, but read the full report:
"Patton fails to provide a reasonably safe environment for its patients." "Patton also fails to keep patients reasonably safe fromself-harm. A substantial number of incidents reported at Patton involve self-harm. Of great concern is the high number of suicide attempts by hanging. In a recent one-month review of all reported suicide attempts, the vast majority of incidents involved attempts at suicide by hanging. Sadly, we understandthat shortly after our visit, a patient successfully committed suicide at Patton by hanging himself from his bedroom closet." "Patton patients also are subject to adverse environmental conditions such as potential suicide hazards and the prevalence of illicit drugs. These problems are long-standing and serious.Yet, incident reports and other evidence make clear that the facility has not corrected them. Similarly, Patton fails to adequately address inappropriate sexual contact among individuals served at the facility, including sexual contact between staff and patients. This issue, too, is long-standing." "Patton's psychiatric supports and services substantially depart from generally accepted professional standards of care and expose patients to a significant risk of harm and to actual harm. Generally, our investigation uncovered problems in three main areas of psychiatry: assessments and diagnoses, medication management, and treatment planning."
Its been a while since I've doing any postings. I've been considering changing the tone of this blog but haven't decided what tone / angle to take. So, what the heck, here are a fed tidbits.
- I got to meet another Judge last week. Very nice lady and I found her to be genuine in her efforts to do a fair job despite the humongous workload she has with the cases. Actually, I think it is completely impossible with the hundreds of cases she is responsible for to do a good job. That she is keeping at it, is a credit to her.
- Received a report that a mother who had her child taken away by Child Protective Services about 7 months ago, while in the courthouse waiting room, the temporary caretaker (TC) of her child was in there as well. TC was urging the mom to give up the child to adoption and to quit fighting it in court. She even offered over $10,000 if the mom did so. Mom did not accept the offer. TC is in big trouble.
- Visited the office of County Counsel as well a couple of weeks ago. Went over a couple of cases and all went well.
- My visit to Social Services also went well. I broached the subject of a biological mother whose child was being foster cared by two gay woman. The mother was not very happy about it. I was told by Social Services that the Social Worker (SoWo) is supposed to consult with the parents on their preferences first. In this case, the SoWo did not do that at all and just did it. This SoWo had also come up on another case as being, well, incompetent. Turns out that SoWo no longer works for the county. I asked if he, Craig (because thats his name), was fired or quit before he was fired. I was told that question can't be answered. So, I said I hope he was fired before he quit. I think Craig is devoting all his time to preaching now.
- In the last few weeks I've received a couple of reports regarding Stanford's psychiatric services for forced medication, altering or missing medical records, things like that. I wonder what is happening there?
- Got yet another report from a Grandmother regarding a Commissioner in the judicial system who does not let parents speak in the courtroom and uses the Sheriffs to intimidate them if they try to speak up.
- And of course there is this Attorney who works for the District Attorneys Office, Mary, that is so scared of everything that she ends up accusing others of being dangerous to her so uses the Sheriffs to protect her, intimidate others and completely exagerrates people's actions in her court appearances as being destructive, etc. From what I have seen, a white kitty cat two blocks away would probably scare the bejezzus out of her. I really can't believe she is being allowed to work for the county. She interprets all the facts through her Fear. THAT scares me. You can just stand in front of the courthouse watching everyone go by and I bet you could spot who I am talking about.
- There's more and hopefully I'll keep up with it from now on.
Part I was written in late January. Just today I received a comment on that posting. It was a bit angry but being a proponent of free speech I allowed it to be added. So check it out and the comment.
As a boring update, the place I go to get haircuts is under new ownership again. When I went there for my tri-annual haircut, I told the lady to just cut off a little bit. Apparently, this was understood to mean, just LEAVE a little bit. I got seriously buzz sawed. I couldn't stop her since I couldn't see what was happening without my glasses. Fortunately, everyone liked the end result except for one person (me). I was not propositioned for a 'fun' massage though like my earlier visits but, coincidentally, a few weeks ago I actually ran into the girl who had been trying to sell me the two way massage as part of a haircut package deal. She was shopping at a nearby Safeway with a young child in tow. What a world we live in.
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