Holloway

[Banana]

Anyone watch it last night?

It was very sad :(

[Mochali]

I didn't see it, but might watch it on catchup. Bet it was quite moving though :(

[DizzyJenni]

I was just about to post about Holloway!

Did anyone else think that it wasn't really very 'prison like' ? When i first turned it over i thought it was a young offenders place...

The girl that kept tearing up material to hurt herself needs alot more help :( There is obviously something mentally going on, the poor love.

The lady that was determined to detox whilst in prison did so well!! At the end it said she had gone to a detox clinic upon leaving :) A good thing to come out of prison for her!

[jeni]

i thought it was so sad too :(

That girl with the tourniquets (SP?) was so sad, i suspect she is still a child ?? (i know she's 18, but mentally) Or didn't have any attention as a child .. her behaviour was that of a young teenager, with the aoplogy letters etc.. so so sad that becuase she can't get the right tratment/behaviour/resource outside her problems will never be addressed.. Did they say she'd been sent to a communal house ?

I felt so sorry for the woman who had to move prisons, i mean what she did was wrong but to move her once she'd finally got settled.. not really very fair :(

[Banana]

I felt 2 different ways about it - I thought in many ways its bad that they are 'allowed' tv's and radios etc in their rooms - that there are pampering passtimes like hairdressing etc - they are afterall there to be punished for committing crimes.

However I thought the girl that was trying to kill herself needs psychiatric help and really shouldnt be in the prison system - whilst I understand why the prison officers treat her how they do, I dont think they are going to 'teach' someone with such mental health issues to do as they are told.

I applaud the lady who asked for help with her methodone, but I am concerned that a lot of them were saying they commit crimes to get detox - that cant be right?

:cattrance: When I saw the cash the girl was given when she left - I knew she was going to spend it on drugs - it only took her 2 hours to break her terms of bail :lol:

[DizzyJenni]

I couldn't believe how much cash she was given either!! What was it for?? Do they give that to every single prisoner thats released?

I have to say that it doesn't bother me that they have tellys and radio's - i would never want someone to be totally cut off from the world and forced to sit in a room with no noise or form of entertainment. BUT, seeing the girls in their rooms with straighteners and endless beauty products - that, to me, seems wrong!

Totally agree, she needs psychiatric help, she wasn't getting the help she needs :(

[jeni]

yeah i thought that about givig her £160 cash.. surely they could give vouchers or something a little less easy to spend on dope??

[Banana]

I have to say that it doesn't bother me that they have tellys and radio's - i would never want someone to be totally cut off from the world and forced to sit in a room with no noise or form of entertainment.



But if they were cut off with nothing - perhaps they wouldnt commit crimes JUST to go back in??? :lol:

[DizzyJenni]

Very true!! I think benefits are stopped when you're in prison so they really would come out to nothing...

[Joanne]

The money she had would have been the money she went in with. They get a very small discharge grant which is basically enough to get them back home or to whatever accommodation that has been arranged.

They usually have an appointment made with their local Jobcentre on release to make a claim to the most appropriate benefit and to get a crisis loan to met their needs in the outside world.

This was just about women, but there are a huge amount of vulnerable men with low grade mental problems who are unable to cope with normal day to day life too and live this life style too. Not bad enough to be institutionalised, so they are put out into the community with "support"

I think that mental health care has a long way to go. There are not enough workers and the field is extremely underfunded. It's extremely sad.

[Lucia]

I didn't watch the programme, but the mental health issues really bother me - bl**dy Ronald Reagan started this 'care in the community' tosh when he was Governor of California, closed all of the big asylums and hurled vulnerable people out into the streets to survive as best they could with only an overwritten paper-exercise to underpin the rationale behind the move and an overstretched, 'skeleton' psychiatric service to monitor them.

Seeing the opportunity to save money by cutting an already 'Cinderella' service to the bone, ignoring the evidence from Italy where the scheme had first been mooted and where pyschiatrists were then protesting at the suicide rate, prison admission and general deprivation of the released 'Abbandonati', Thatcher leapt at the idea and now we're seeing the results in the homeless who beg in our cities and the huge prison population composed of both males, females and adolescents who just can't cope in today's materialistic and uncaring world.

I won't even begin to deny that there was a lot of institutionalisation in the old mental hospitals and some change and review of practices was needed - but the bottom line is they were 'asylums' in the best sense of the word - safe places where the dangerous were denied the chance to harm themselves and others and the vulnerable were properly cared for and protected from exploitation, loneliness and misery.

Sorry, I'm ranting now! :blush:

[DizzyJenni]

Chris, i love how passionate you are about things. And i 100% totally agree with everything you have written.

We had an asylum here, in St.Albans. My mum worked there for years and cared so deeply about the patients. They closed the asylum down, and more or less just chucked all of the patients out on to the street :( My mum was distraught.

My Grandad was in and out of asylums for most of his young adult life. As he got older, there were no more asylums for him to go to. I strongly believe that if there was more of an understanding of mental health, and the fact that he did need the 'safe haven' of an asylum, he may still be with us today.

[Joanne]

I didn't watch the programme, but the mental health issues really bother me - bl**dy Ronald Reagan started this 'care in the community' tosh when he was Governor of California, closed all of the big asylums and hurled vulnerable people out into the streets to survive as best they could with only an overwritten paper-exercise to underpin the rationale behind the move and an overstretched, 'skeleton' psychiatric service to monitor them.

Seeing the opportunity to save money by cutting an already 'Cinderella' service to the bone, ignoring the evidence from Italy where the scheme had first been mooted and where pyschiatrists were then protesting at the suicide rate, prison admission and general deprivation of the released 'Abbandonati', Thatcher leapt at the idea and now we're seeing the results in the homeless who beg in our cities and the huge prison population composed of both males, females and adolescents who just can't cope in today's materialistic and uncaring world.

I won't even begin to deny that there was a lot of institutionalisation in the old mental hospitals and some change and review of practices was needed - but the bottom line is they were 'asylums' in the best sense of the word - safe places where the dangerous were denied the chance to harm themselves and others and the vulnerable were properly cared for and protected from exploitation, loneliness and misery.

Sorry, I'm ranting now! :blush:


I agree with you totally Chris, I see some very sad cases at work. One chap I dealt with a couple of weeks ago was doing everything he could to be locked up or be sectioned as he couldn't cope with being in a hostel where his money was taken by force, his food was literally taken off his plate by those stronger than him and his clothes were taken off his body if he dared to go to sleep. When I saw him he had on a pair of boots, trousers and a coat. Nothing else.

He had walked up the centre of a motorway been arrested then taken to hospital, assessed released (that is put out the door). He then walked into the sea was again collected taken to hospital to be looked at and put in the hands of the police who locked him up for the night then put him on the doorstep of the local Council offices at 9.00 so he could go in and ask for accommodation. What did they do? arranged hostel accommodation.

He was so upset, he knew he couldn't look after himself and was trying his hardest to be sectioned. It was just awful.

Jenni I agree with you too, some people DO need to be in institutions.

[Banana]

Thats terrible.. :(

[DizzyJenni]

Oh Joanne that is heart breaking :(

[jeni]

how totally devastating Joanne :(

xx

[Joanne]

He was an extreme case. I'm sure that everyone who deals with the public will be able to identify extremely vulnerable people they knew needed more help that they were able to offer.

[Lucia]

The Salvation Army used to be my 'salvation' when I worked in A&E - I can't tell you how much admiration I have for them - unlike the so-called 'caring' social workers, they always came out, day and night, when I rang them in desperation about what to do with some poor soul, and they were just so kind, warm and respectful in their dealings with poor, dirty, starving souls the rest of the world wanted nothing to do with, it would almost make me weep.

I'm sure that times must have changed since the '80's - not least that the needy far outnumber the resources of the would-be helpers, but I'd still never fail to respond to the Sally Anne's Christmas appeals or stick as much as I can in their tins when they're collecting - they're a truly fine body of people who epitomise what Christianity's supposed to be about!

[Banana]

I think last night summed it up nicely when one of the girls said along the lines of:

"Its quite nice in here, we get 3 meals a day, tv, money for working, treats we buy with it, if it was harder, I wouldnt break the law and come back!"

:lol:

One of the others said "Its just a bit stricter than a children's home..."

Dear oh Dear!

[jeni]

ohhhh i missed it last night..

Sounds like they're rather too comfy in there maybe ?