Zero Limits ( PDFDrive )

(The Reality Seeker) #1
I, truth be known. Here’s what Dr. Hew Len wrote as a detailed
reply:

The story, as most stories go, needs clarification.
It is true that:


  1. I spent several years as a fee-paid service staff
    psychologist at Hawaii State Hospital, a psychiatric
    facility operated by the Hawaii State Health
    Department.

  2. I spent three years from 1984 to 1987 as the staff
    psychologist, 20 hours a week, in a high-security unit
    housing male patients who had committed criminal acts of
    murder, rape, drug use, and assault and battery against
    people and property.

  3. When I entered the high-security unit in 1984 as the staff
    psychologist, all seclusion rooms were occupied with
    violent patients.

  4. On any given day on the unit there were several patients in
    metal restraints around their ankles and wrists to prevent
    violence against others.

  5. Violence in the unit by patients against patients and
    patients against staff was a common occurrence.

  6. Patients were not intimately involved in their care and
    rehabilitation.

  7. There were no in-unit rehabilitative work activities.

  8. There were no off-unit activities, recreation, or work.

  9. Visits by families on the unit were extremely rare.

  10. No patients were allowed off of the high-security unit
    without written permission by the psychiatrist and only with
    ankle and wrist restraints.


140 Zero Limits

ccc_zero_137-146_skep.qxd 5/4/07 12:56 PM Page 140

Free download pdf