Psychiatric Ward: An Unfair Judgement

Prof Peter is a great supervisor. He really wants us to adapt into our surroundings and explore. He also encourages us to get out of our comfort zone. Yesterday, we were brought to the Psychiatric Ward of the hospital. This floor is inaccessible by elevator and we went through the back doors into the office where we have to go through another secure door to meet the patients. It is an adult day care program for those with mental illnesses who come voluntarily or are dropped off by their caregiver so they may go to work. There are security cameras everywhere and nothing sharp around. In some cases, the nurses keep the light off in peculiar rooms for the patients who do not want to be in the light.

Some patients cannot think for themselves but around 20ish are literate. These patients were selected to participate in the survey. They gathered everyone into a row of tables and they completed the survey quickly. It was a very different experience because there were so many nurses and doctors around as security. They had schedules for each patient on when they needed to take their medicine and different methods to assist any breakdowns. I didn’t feel unsafe at all in the environment but it was different in the scenario that I was not to interact with the patients because the staff felt my lack of fluency in the language would cause a ruckus and make the patients feel that I was a foreigner attacking them. I simply stood in the background and assisted when needed.

Their health literacy skills were actually quite high in comparison to some other individuals that we have surveyed in the different units. Some suffered from schizophrenia or a form of dementia as well. Most of them had been placed in a situation where they cannot advocate for their own needs. Those who come voluntarily to the program are still lucid and place themselves in the program in order to keep themselves away from being a danger to the public. I wish I could have interacted with them on a face-to-face interaction. I feel as if the staff placed them in a different status where they cannot interact with outsiders which I think is unfair.

There are many protocols put in place to ensure security is being managed. We had an incident on the ground floor where a patient who had a mental illness broke away from their treatment area and went around screaming. Around 6 security guards ran with the nurses to catch the individual and settle their symptoms. Another thing is that if a prisoner needs treatment, they are brought to the hospital in a wheelchair with handcuffs on their hands and feet. Some individuals are given a mouth mask and they are not allowed to talk with the public members.

This made me wonder- how are we to analyze and compare the trends of health literacy in Taiwan if we are unable to get a survey of the entire population which includes these patients. It is an unfair judgment to say they do not qualify under our study because they may be educated and literate. I think this is something we need to look into for the future of the HL-Asia study.