Peninsula Hospital

[Macadamia]

Hello, everyone. My name is Jane. I was never in Peninsula Village but was a patient in Peninsula Hospital, also in Louisville, in summer 1994 when I was 14. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with PH, it's a short-term facility for children, teenagers and adults. At the time I was there, a couple of the girls who were repeat patients were waiting for room in PV to open up so that they could go there for more extensive "treatment". They didn't seem too worried about it - perhaps the Village was different back then, or they were just ignorant of what awaited them?) I'd like to ask a few questions about the similarities and differences of the two institutions, as well as inquire about the ways they have both changed since then.

I'll add a backstory here to better explain PH to those of you who were never there. I was extremely depressed as a teenager and was having suicidal thoughts daily. My sister abused me physically and mentally, and I was bullied by many of my classmates. My parents fought all the time and ignored my sister's mistreatment of me. I alternated being blinding anger and crushing numbness. I could feel myself cracking and so I asked my parents if I could go to Peninsula. That's right, folks - I asked to be admitted. I never would have done so if I'd known what it would be like, but I'd heard general remarks about PH (my family was in East Tennessee, about an hour's drive away) and thought it would be a supportive environment where I could talk about my problems with caring experts who would then help my family understand why I was so broken. Telling my mother how depressed I was was hard to do, but I thought it would be the beginning of positive changes for me. I didn't know that the adolescent program focused mainly on kids who abused drugs and alcohol and generally raised hell, nor did I know that the place was run like a boot camp. It was the nastiest shock of my life after I was admitted and led away from my parents to the narrow ward where I'd live for the next three weeks. The patients were encouraged to verbally attack each other (this was always initiated by a patient holding up her hand during a group session and asking staff, "May I confront someone?") and snitch on each other if any of us should be so foolish as to trust another girl with a secret. There were some very nice girls there who, in my opinion, would have been much better served by outpatient therapy, but PH had its share of nasty little witches who took full advantage of the arrangements to bully the others. A couple of the female staff members really did seem to care about us and appeared to be uncomfortable with the strictness they were required to treat us with. The majority of the staff though had no problem keeping us in line. In fact, they seemed to thrive on it. It was a nightmare for shy, sensitive people like me and some of the other girls. I begged my parents to take me home when they came for the first family session several days after I was admitted, but they had been informed by staff that I would try to convince them that it was too harsh there and that I needed to leave it. Mom and Dad believed them and I was stuck there for three weeks. Honestly, I haven't been the same since, and neither has my relationship with my parents. My time in Peninsula Hospital was THE event of my growing up years. It took something from me that I don't think I can ever get back, and I can only imagine how much worse it is for those of you who were in that hideous Village. I hurt for all of you and sincerely hope that posting here and getting support from the others is therapeutic for you.

Now on to the questions:

If you were in the Hospital and then the Village, what were the major differences between the two? How were the eating, sleeping and bathroom arrangements different at the Village? How was your schoolwork arranged? What were the differences in the way patients were allowed to initiate contact with the staff there? How were the staff members generally different at the Village? How often did you see psychiatrists, family therapists, and nurses? At the Village could you leave messages for your parents to telephone for each night?  

I read on here or another board that the PH and PV were taken over by a different medical group sometime in the 1990s. Was that before or after I was there? I shudder to think that the Hospital has gone downhill it terms of staff qualifications and treatment of the patients, and is now worse than it was when I was there. Those poor kids.

And just because I'm curious, have any of you ever seen staff members in public since you regained your freedom? I saw a woman from the Hospital a few weeks after I was released. We were both at the mall and passed each other outside a shop. She glanced at me and then walked faster past me. It made my blood freeze to see her.

[act.da]

I switched to Peninsula Hospital after spending 10 months in Peninsula Village.

I wasn't "accepting treatment" very well at PV, and everyone thought I'd have to spend even more time in other facilities until I'd be ready to go home. Must have seemed odd to them then, that once I left PV and entered PH everything went great for me and I was an angel of a patient for the few weeks I stayed there. Of course this didn't surprise me one bit, as I had already realized that my negative behaviors weren't being treated by PV but rather caused by them.

My recollection of PH may be skewed because my stay had followed PV, but I don't remember it being too bad. In fact, comparatively, I almost enjoyed being there.

The staff-encouraged verbal attacks during groups were also used at PV with the same "May I confront someone?" phrase you mentioned. This didn't happen at PH while I was there though.

Using the restroom was much easier at PH than PV. At PH you can just put your hand outside your room door and within a minute a staff will walk you to the bathroom. At PV there are scheduled bathroom breaks a few times per day where you tell staff whether you need to go "up" or "down" (standing or sitting) and you get a set number of seconds in the restroom. If you go over that time you'll get a consequence. To use the restroom off schedule you raise your hand from your bedbox and wait for a staff you call on you. It can take a while for someone to call on you, and if you let on that you're going to ask about the restroom they may never call on you. If you need to use the bathroom at night in the cabins, all the patients have to wake up and wait for you.

At PV all incoming and outgoing mail is screened by staff. If a letter you write is sloppy or says something controversial, they will make you rewrite it. You get one phone call with your parents and PV family therapist per week but it's family therapy, not a casual conversation. If you say something the therapist doesn't approve of, they will hang the phone up.

I've seen Bob Pegler three times after leaving PV. He's currently the Program Director, but also leads a family support group in Raleigh every other month. This is where I have seen him as I have been outside protesting these meetings. The most recent one was just yesterday.

[Macadamia]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I absolutely understand why the Hospital would be a welcome change to you after doing time in a place that was more like prison than a treatment center. Some of the girls in my group seemed to genuinely love being there, but they were the Alpha patients who cozied up to the staff and were always quick to confront the rest of us. I knew I needed some help dealing with my family and other problems, but if I had known what PH was like I would have pressed for seeing a psychologist once a week or something like that.

My time at Peninsula Hospital was a picnic in the park compared to a lot of the things I've read here about the Village and other places, but it's always been my opinion that the staff there was (and probably still is) too rough with adolescents who needed kindness and constructive guidance more than anti-depressants and sharp words. Bluntly asking a 13 year old incest victim why she didn't do anything to try to stop the abuse, followed by more confrontational comments and questions thrown at her by her peers, is only adding an extra layer to the guilt and confusion she already feels. That's not right and it never will be.

(And on that note, I'm taking the PH talk upstairs to the hospitals section where it would be a better fit.)