Sure do, but I can’t really share any. Maybe this one is obvious …a lot of times staff have interesting diagnoses or develop them due to different circumstances, but can’t seem to get the help they need. Sometimes it is out of fear of losing their income. So they enjoy drugs and alcohol in unhealthy ways. Yay!
this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
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Yeah. I was at a bar once and someone say next to me and ordered a burger. Turns out she worked at a nearby mental health facility and needed to vent to somebody. She didn't even order a drink, but she needed someone to talk to in a pseudo anonymous setting.
I imagine that, if she was coming to me as a rando in a bar to talk about what she was going through, her support network wasn't really there to help.
Yeah the support network doesn’t really work when you can’t actually discuss what has happened due to privacy concerns. And if you sound remotely off or bothered you may get suspended and lose your support system anyway. It’s complicated and punishing for providers in human services, who are expected sometimes not to be.
I worked at a state mental hospital so I can't really tell my stories but mostly the stuff that happens is painfully sad and the way it bleeds over to the staff is awful.
one of my coworkers murdered his ex girlfriend who was also an employee , he tried to murder her daughter but thankfully she survived
Doctor on his last day before retirement getting attacked by a patient that bites into his calf and won't let go until the staff pulled them away from each other. I had to prepare a copy of the tape for the legal system and while I was reviewing the footage, I watched a couple of other patients doing something odd. It looks like a drug deal between patients while everyone is occupied by the commotion.
So I get the head nurse to look at it with me and we can't really see until she recognizes the candy wrappers. I never fully found out what happened but supposedly the patients do dirty tricks for each other sometimes and candies can be currency
there was a whole ward that was dedicated to a single patient because they were unpredictable and violent. Rumor was that the cops found him with a family members head in a bag when they picked him up.
I remember this nice enough guy asking me for a cigarette and since I don't smoke I said no. He got a little goofy and rambled about fire. My coworker told me he burned his family home and killed everyone in it.
Jesus F. Christ. Sorry what you've gone through, and all the people involved...
There was terrible shit as well in my case, but nothing this bad. I think I was quite lucky with the people there and the the staff. One of the staff had worked at the facility for over twenty years, and was offered to be the head of an entire building, but he wanted to work with patients directly, as a nurse (if that's the English word for it) and he was a great bridge between the new staff that learns so much more about the bureaucracy involved etc. and are too distant to the patients, and the patients who need to be seen as human still.
From my understanding it can be a tough balance to strike, but getting it right is gold.
yeah, the people that can do it are usually very dedicated and reliable
working there, you truly see the staff are like family and you have to look out for each other like they are your flesh and blood