Last thing you bought
Last thing you read
Last thing that made you smile?
Last thing that broke your heart?
What are you cooking tonight?
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Why I left Psychiatric Nursing
In his morning blog, Cro discussed the state of psychiatric care in the country, discussing its efficacy especially when dealing with the sad case of the recent Devon Shootings.
I trained as a psychiatric nurse back in 1983, just as the big asylum system was closing and the relatively new community nursing system was being set up and greatly expanded.
The nurses, especially on the acute admission wards, were becoming much more psychologically focused in their care and training, like most in nursing was becoming more academic, research based and professionalised.
It was an exciting time to be a nurse, in many ways but after just three years training and three years staffing on an acute admissions ward I left to become a general nurse. I was burnt out, jaded, and a little cynical.
I was also just twenty seven years old
Very few of our patients were the Conrad Jarrett type. (Conrad was the lead character in the book Ordinary People , the character played by Timothy Hutton who was wracked with guilt and depression after his brother’s death) Conrad was cured by the intervention of a kindly old Psychologist after his discharge from psychiatric hospital.
Our patients where the acutely ill psychotic and depressed. Patients that were admitted time and time again when meds were not taken, home stressors remained unchanged and when life too a turn for the worse.
The community teams supported many so very well, but magical cures were few and far between.
Such is the nature of the beast which is mental illness. Running alongside those patients which enter the psychiatric system are millions that are just , well, psychologically damaged. We all…all of us fit into this category in one way or another.
Most of us, through luck, self awareness, experience and with support, manage our demons and our weaknesses ourselves, but many others just get by. They often exist within a life of varying sadness and emotional pain.
They don’t receive the benign insights from a kindly psychologist.
They don’t get the chance to have psychotherapy, or have a stretched community psychiatric nurse visit them once a month…
They are the people that live next door, the people you work with. The people you date.
I’ve meandered off a little here….and have not answered my own question.
I left psychiatric nursing because it overwhelmed me.
Plain and simple.
I left because I wasn’t fully cooked myself to cope with it
and I left because it saddened me.
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Taliban
In the Pashto language the word "Taliban" means "students". Indeed,, the Taliban movement began amongst students of Islam during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1978-1992).
However, the Taliban fighters we see today are not students. They are bearded warriors from a medieval costume museum riding in battered pick-up trucks or upon motorcycles, clutching purloined weapons. As well as having plenty of money from opium sales, they undoubtedly believe they have truth and justice on their side. They look into the camera like aliens from another planet.
The way they have retaken their country in just three weeks is breath-taking. It has been so easy. The official Afghan army has been as tough as wet tissue paper. All that money spent on training them and equipping them! They might as well have been provided with a bunch of white flags costing less than a hundred dollars.
It's as if the clock has been turned back to October 2001 so that the Taliban can continue with their harsh rule - only this time it's a bit different because the legacy of bitterness will have been boosted tremendously by the American-led occupation.
I wonder how the intellectually challenged George W. Bush and his devious lapdog Tony Blair will now reflect upon their Afghan adventure. All those lives lost and all that money spent - for what? It would have been better to engage with the Taliban leadership and find a way forward that was in tune with the march of history, not attempting to fight against the tide.
It is worth remembering that amongst the nineteen 9/11 terrorists there were fifteen Saudi Arabians but not one Afghan national.
The last place on Earth I would want to be right now is Kabul. Children crying. Voices raised in desperation. Car horns blaring as rotor blades whirr. Where is the exit door? Where is the golden ticket? And all the while out there in the darkness but alarmingly nearby, the medieval warriors close in with their vindictive holy truth and their Russian guns, promising a return to their good old days.
It's nice to know that The President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani has already escaped from his country "to avoid bloodshed". Yup! His own blood! Whatever happened to captains going down with their ships?
Taliban fighters in the presidential palace
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