Cold

November 17, 2014

I was never before at the crisis stabilization unit where I spent the last few days.  It was mostly quiet.  A few of the staff and patients harassed me, and I was stalked by janitors more than once.  Overall, though, it was not as bad as other facilities have been in terms of my being directly abused by other people in person.

There are concerns, however.  The water in the showers is tepid, which means that taking a shower means being cold.  When the maintenance man was called, he said that the water temperature was "within guidelines."  

A visiting nurse practitioner said "We're tenants in this building.  I can't do anything about the plumbing."

There was also cold air pouring into the patients' rooms through the vents.

I think that what has happened is that the landlord doesn't want to pay for heat and hot water.  I also think that the landlord knows that mental patients who object to how they are treated have almost no chance of that treatment improving, and that staff who try to advocate for their patients have almost no chance of creating improvements, either.

All of the electrical outlets and switches in the building seem to have "LP2" or "RP2" written at the top of them, and "CKT" with a number after those letters at the bottom.  Many of the "CKT"s had the number 41 written after them.  The sockets and switches were labeled that way everywhere that I saw them in the building, including the bathrooms.  I did not use a toilet, take a shower, or change my clothes once at that unit that I didn't turn off the lights first.

People's rights are being violated.

Copyright L. Kochman, November 17, 2014 @ 2:16 p.m.