Testimony of Evelyn Kaufman September 23, 2009

I was in the Emergency Department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital last July. I went there for treatment of abdominal pain that turned out to be pancreatitis. I was admitted on a Thursday morning at 5:00 AM. The ED was very busy and overcrowded. People were waiting on gurneys in the hallways. There were not enough rooms to treat all the people who were very physically sick. I was in the ED for 11hours before being brought upstairs to a medical unit. If I were in the ED for 11 hours, a person with psychiatric needs would probably be there longer. This points out the need for peer-run respites as envisioned by H.3584.

I spoke to a nurse and a few other ED staff members about the work I am doing on ER rights. They told me that their staff get no training at all in how to deal with psychiatric patients that come into the ED.

Psychiatric patients have special needs. They need someone to talk to them and try to calm them. They are often left alone with little human contact. This can cause them to deteriorate into a highly charged emotional state. EDs are no place for psychiatric patients. It is easy to see how psychiatric patients could lose it after 11 hours. ED patients can get frustrated over not being able to leave despite these inhumane conditions. All of this contributes to unnecessary restraints.

I urge you to support ER Rights and H.3585 to prevent psychiatric restraints and keep continuing the meetings with the DPH, the DMH, the hospitals, the doctors and consumers going so that we can address issues of poor quality treatment of psychiatric patients with them.

I also support H.3584. I strongly support bringing peer-run respites to Massachusetts as alternatives to mental hospitals. At peer-run respites the staff receive exactly the sort of training to deal with psychiatric crisis that ED workers say they lack. Peer-run respites are not for everyone, but they provide some people with an alternative to the ED. When I was in crisis, a peer-run respite would have helped me. Please support H.3584.

I also wish you to support H.1945/S.743 which would strengthen rights for people locked up in psychiatric hospitals. Their Five Fundamental Rights are often ignored. Nothing impresses your self-esteem and sense of worth more than having your rights respected. H.1945/S.743 would also require that patients in locked wards get daily access to fresh air and the outdoors. The Five Fundamental Rights and Fresh Air are good treatment. Please support H.1945/S.743 as well. Thank you.