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Topics - Macadamia

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Psych Hospitals / Peninsula Hospital in Louisville, Tennessee
« on: January 29, 2009, 12:52:33 AM »
Has anyone else here ever had to go to Peninsula Hospital? I've been thinking about the place a lot lately, having recently learned all the dirty little secrets of the mysterious Village, thanks to fine people like yourselves who aren't afraid to speak the truth. I had no idea PV was so awful until I began reading about it online.

For those of you unfamiliar with PH, it's a private psychiatric hospital, serving both minors and adults, that some future Peninsula Village detainees are in before they're sent to PV for more intensive "treatment". I only witnessed one restraint while I was there, but there were lots of confrontations and guilt trips about things the patients couldn't help. I'm confident that several members of the staff would have shown more cruelty if they had been granted the freedom to do so. That was 1994 when I was just 14 years old, but I vividly remember a lot of the daily tasks/activities and many of the staff. I have an excellent memory, but I think I'd forced myself to forget some of the more humiliating details that are now starting to come back. I swear, I'll scream if I ever again hear a brisk "Ladies, take care of yourselves!" (the signature line used to staff to alert us that the boys were walking past and we were to turn away lest we catch a glimpse of youthful masculinity).

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Peninsula Village / Peninsula Hospital
« on: January 25, 2009, 12:31:12 AM »
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.

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