- There was a Detox client who was very suicidal. She had spent hours screaming about committing suicide.
- There happened to be an employee whose title was "Mental Health Specialist". (He came to Detox sporadically to do assessments for admission to Residential). I left a note on his door asking if he could spare a few minutes for that client. When he came in, he put the note on my desk and said he did not speak to clients unless there was a bed for them.
- When I told the woman that he was not available, I used the word "asshole". That comment was overheard and found it's way into my personnel file (warning #1). Many staff members spoke against me over that incident, because the Mental Health specialist has a lot of buddies among senior staff. I had to listen to endless speaches about how "important" the Mental Health specialist was, and how lucky we were that he was working for us. Nobody defended the client's interests.
- All staff knew that the Salvation Army advertised Detox as having mental health services.
- All staff knew that there were no mental health services for clients. It was just a funding game.
- At roughly the same time (January), I was standing outside the nurses station as two clients were waiting for meds. One of the clients asked me to explain why nurses made clients wait so long, while the nurses made romantic calls.
- At the staff briefing (called a "report"), I asked the question. A supervisor said she had to telephone her husband often or her marriage might fall apart. I responded that nurses should do their jobs first and take care of personal things when there are not people waiting for them to do their job.
- Again most staff went strongly against me when the issue came up at a staff meeting. One staff member motioned toward me in an insulting way, and said she had a lot of friends who had applied for the PNA job, and she wanted to know why they never got called.
- Very soon after the conflict over lazy nursing practices, I was returning a file to the nursing station. A supervisor nurse said "get out" in an insulting way. After weeks of insults from that supervisor, I answered appropriately. That scenario was repeated, until the nurses and supervisors shed some of their arrogance.
- After I bacame the "squeaky wheel", the Detox supervisor and the Residential director decided to grease me. The nursing supervisor said several times that the Detox supervisor had asked all of the Detox employees to write letters listing my shortcomings.
- Shortly before I quit, the nursing supervisor repeated that statement. The Residential Director once waved a stack of papers at me and said they were complaints from the people I was working with. The people who actually worked with me, nurse "Zelda" and C.A. "Sue" got along well with me. I was never aware of any problems between myself and any staff, (other than the Residential director and the two Detox supervisors, and some nurses who I occassionally felt obliged to criticize for laziness that bordered on obscene).
The early bird gets the worm, the second mouse gets the cheese.
- unknown