Deep problems at Western State

Published 1:25 pm Friday, March 25, 2016

Concerning House Bill 2453 to improve the oversight of state hospitals: I have no idea if an “oversight committee” will help or not. There are already so many layers of dysfunctional bureaucracy that Western State Hospital has already come to a grinding halt. Adding another layer just might mire it even further, if that’s possible.

As far as I understand it, the hospital will not necessarily be obligated to take the committee’s recommendations, so it’s unclear how much power the committee will actually have. Western State Hospital is so utterly dysfunctional and fragmented, that as things stand now, nothing short of tearing it down and rebuilding it will cure the problems. The hospital is only a dysfunctional warehouse for the mentally ill and nothing else.

The hospital is at war with itself. Frontline staff aren’t told what’s going on (like the recent swine flu outbreak), they are sent home and fired when they speak out and there is almost no relationship between the new “fixes” that are handed down and actual patient care and safety. Upper management blames frontline staff for the problems and yet they don’t have a clue what staff actually does, so their decisions just bring on more resentment and confusion.

I truly hope an oversight committee will actually do something to bring some light into one of the darkest of places, but I won’t hold my breath.

I’ve been fighting for my son, who has been incarcerated at Western State Hospital for over four years now. He is non-violent, sane and utterly safe and yet he is trapped there because of the hospital’s inability to move him though the system.

If nothing else, this is a total waste of taxpayer’s money. Almost a million dollars has been spent so far to house someone who doesn’t even belong there.

Selena Bertino

Monroe