A FORMER EMPLOYEE ADMITS THEY ARE BAD TOO

We've heard from several patients now that this unit is terrible. To this we can add the testimony posted about a month ago on a website for employees to review their working experiences.

You can see below that this reviewer makes it clear that patients are not receiving quality care, they are not receiving proper treatment.

And a word from me. Maybe in the past people could get away with mistreating vulnerable populations. But that is going to end real soon. 

Walks a fine line to be closed from FERPA violations.

Mental Health Counselor (Former Employee), Louisville, CO – November 17, 2015

Pros: None

Cons: Patients are not receiving proper treatment.

Patients do not receive quality care. 

HUMAN DIGNITY DENIED AT CENTENNIAL PEAKS

Respect, Empathy and Personal Responsibility

A remark made at the nursing station while I witnessed a poor woman who had been starving for 20 hours while waiting for ECT encapsulates another problem. “Oh I know what you’re going through,” smiled the young woman at the counter, “I’m hungry too.“No, you do not”, was my remark. “You may be missing lunch. This patient feels like she is starving to death” (the actual wording I do not fully remember.) Taken as a whole, aside from the occasional rudeness, the staff was generally polite and friendly but not compassionate. The CEO of Centennial can rejoice that she  could not have found a more loyal set of employees who (from the very bottom to the top of the totem poll) will consistently stick to the rules and be less inclined to find solutions that satisfy patient and said rules and will be guaranteed to pass the buck, abstaining from any desire to take individual responsibility for the well-being of the human being standing before them. In the upper levels,

she can be confident that those staff will generally not answer patient questions nor let them finish speaking when they are making an important point. One high level person even told me, “I wish I were as compassionate and open as you” — this person’s favorite word to me otherwise was “denied.”

 Even a minor example shows a patent unwillingness to go the extra inch on the part of the staff I knew for a fact that there was some juice in the back room when I asked for some. But the young female insisted there was no juice. When I reminded her that I had been given said juice by another staff worker not long before, only then did she bother to look and indeed there was juice. I received no apology.

As an empath, I can entirely understand the stress of the nursing station. Moreover, in 1990 I spent over 100 hours volunteering in a Nursing home and I have served a patient advocate on numerous occasions, including when my beloved teacher John Strugnell was recovering from a stroke. I understand the hierarchy, sociology and anthropology involved. I know that the staff are ever concerned with safety and indeed are in fact concerned with patient well-being, up to a point. They have to make quick and sometimes cold decisions to keep things running smoothly and safely. They have to be very careful with the rules for all sorts of reasons, not simply to keep their jobs. For this reason, I do not blame the individual staff members so much as I blame the ethos of the institution which is thoroughly rotten.

THEY GAVE US THE WRONG FOOD THE UNHEALTHY FOOD THE FOOD THAT GOT IN THE WAY OF OUR HEALING

Long ago, Hippocrates proclaimed, “Let food be your medicine and let medicine be your food.”^[1] I will now outline the problems with (1) the food supplied by the kitchen and (2) the foods and beverages available for snack.

When I came to the unit, I met with a woman to explain my dietary needs. Both she and I can agree that I stated that I needed a gluten free, dairy free diet. At a certain point, probably on a later instance I believe I also told her I would like kosher meat. I most emphatically told the Executive Chef later that I wanted kosher meat and if no kosher meat was available, to please let me know if it was not kosher so I could make my decision about whether to eat it.

I will now explain why these three dietary concerns are important for my healing. Although not universally acknowledge, there is significant scientific evidence that diet is intrinsic to thde health of all and especially individuals with mental health challenges.

On the scientific studies related to gluten and bipolar as well as other mental conditions, please see http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/glutenintolerance/a/Gluten-Bipolar-Disorder.htm.  On the scientific studies related to both gluten and dairy and bipolar see http://kellybroganmd.com/article/two-foods-may-sabotage-brain/. The importance for meat for the bipolar individual lies in that it is a heavy, grounding food complete with important vitamins and amino acids.

I will now quote an excerpt about diet from noted Buddhist Jack Kornfield’s  A Path with Heart page 131.

A student who sat a three-month retreat that I taught was an over-zealous young karate student seeking the extremes of spiritual intensity. Rather than follow the instruction, he decided to get enlightened as quickly as possible . . . . he began to experience all sorts of altered states. . . . he was very fearful and agitated, moving in a wild and manic state, as if he had temporarily gone crazy . . . What did we do with him? . . . We changed his diet. While everyone was eating vegetarian food, we put him on meat loaf and hamburgers.

Kosher food is not only important as part of my spiritual practice, it has implications for bipolar health. When animals are killed according to Jewish rules of slaughter, the animal feels no pain and thus does not release toxic stress hormones. Please see further 

http://www.naturalnews.com/022446_kosher_meat_foods.html

It has been thus established that I and many of my co-patients would benefit from a gluten and dairy free diet and even from kosher food. These concepts are firmly backed by science.

I will now share with you three of the breakfasts I received. I believe that each of these came after my extensive meeting with the Executive Chef, who although well intentioned and skillful could not ensure proper meals.

No one expects hospital food to taste good and unfortunately one rarely expects hospital food to be that nutritious. But to repeatedly violate patient requests for diets necessary for their healing is a crime.

I absolutely do not tolerate gluten or dairy. They both make me manic.

Other patients had similar needs. And even though my experience in 1991 at the University of Chicago Hospitals was negative, even there and on  the other units I have been, my diet has been respected.

1.      Gluten french toast — in desperation I ate this. meal with dangerous gluten

2.      Hash browns and pineapple — I requested some actual protein and was then provided with egg. meal without basic nutrition needed for a breakfast

3.      Hash browns, melon and a very small amount of egg with cheese. I requested protein and a complex carb and received eggs and oatmeal. meal with insufficient protein with dangerous dairy.

As you can see, breakfast, argued by some the most important meal of the day was compromised. Other meals were compromised. Co-patients of mine who were gluten free were given gluten pasta. A patient who begged for quinoa got it sometimes but also received moldy broccoli. When I got meat I was not informed whether it was kosher or not. The Executive Chef had stated that finding kosher meat might be difficult. I did receive one glorious meal of chicken and veg in two large containers. I ate one container and the staff said I might have the other later. But because of the hullabaloo involving the violent patient, they discarded my meal as it had been out too long, leaving me quite hungry.

A patient, especially one recently arrived should not have to constantly send back for a proper breakfast and many of my co-patients were not as empowered as I. For patients with a gluten problem, the wrong meal is not merely manic inducing as was mine, but can be life-threatening. The kitchen blamed the person who took down our dietary information and that person blamed the kitchen or sometimes the person temporarily in charge of the kitchen was blamed. It does not matter whose fault it was: patients on the ITU were consistently exposed to harmful and potentially lethal food. This is the second reason why some form of compensation is in order and why the unit needs to be shut down.

Snacks: Unit-based food and drink

The water from the water fountain had an off-taste and co-patients informed me it was probably recycled although I have no direct evidence. As a result I stuck with the hot water but again not all patients had the wherewithal to do so.  The following are the snacks that I can recall:

apples, oranges and bananas

cheddar flavored popcorn with lots of unhealthy ingredients

mozzarella sticks

pudding with lots of unhealthy ingredients

decaf coffee for am with sugar, sometimes splenda and offered with a creamer with unhealthy ingredients

apple juice

cranberry juice with a heavy dose of sugar

I did enjoy the fruit but I also was very hungry. Seroquel, the drug administered to me in fact leads to increased hunger. I did not have a single gluten or dairy free option for carbs and protein. And as apple juice was sometimes out, if I wanted juice it was going to be with substantial sugar, a substance that science has shown to be damaging and needless to say is especially damaging to the bipolar individual — see http://bipolar.newlifeoutlook.com/sugar-bipolar/. I note here also that one of my breakfasts from the kitchen contained sugar laden rice chex.

I recommend the following snacks instead:

Vegetable crudite with salsa, hummus/bean dip/tahini, etc

Rice crackers

Trail Mix

Almond butter in individual packets if safe

Incidently, the kitchen is not nut free so if a patient really is deathly allergic to peanuts, it is not clear how they would protected.

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^[1] See for instance Hippocrates et Corpus Hippocraticum Med., Vectiarius: Oeuvres complètes d'Hippocrate, Vol. 4, ( ׀Ed. Littré, É.;  Paris: Baillière, 1844, Repr. 1962, Section 36, line 20. I thank noted Classicist Leonard Muellner for this reference..

Wrong Meds Part Six -- Vitamin C, 5HTP and More.

Altogether the ITU has fouled up horribly in 4 out of 5 of my medications (Seroquel was the only one they got right.) It also did not bother to find out what medications and supplements I was currently taking, something that is standard procedure in just about every doctor’s office and something that my husband and psychiatrist could have testified about. Even in mania, I would have been capable as well.

Psych wards as a whole have no excuse to be aware of the cheaper, less damaging and highly effective effects of vitamins, minerals and amino acids even when dealing with acute situations. I actually do not disagree with being given an initial anti-psychotic given my particular situation, but then next thing I would do if I were a doctor would be to have an aggressive nutritional approach.

There is also absolutely no reason for the unit not to provide patients with supplements such as Vitamin C, Zinc, Magnesium and B-3, each of which can by themselves turn around mania according to Edelman’s book and my own personal experience. All of these substances should have been in their pharmacy and if they are not, then it looks like the pharmacy needs an overhaul as well. They should have 5HTP on tap too because for some like me it beats all sleep medicines in its sedative qualities. But of course the doctor I mentioned to it had no clue about what it was. 

It's a shame he didn't know. 5HTP is not for everyone but it is special because it a very direct route for making more serotonin. Other methods like l-tryptophan are still competing with other amino acids that you ingest. For folks like me who crank out high levels of dopamine a counterbalance is achieved very nicely with the fast influx of serotonin. 

Shutting down Centennial Peaks Acute Impatent Unit is starting to sound pretty good, right?

Wrong Meds Part Five -- Most Egregious!

You do not, ever ever stop someone cold turkey on Lithium. But that is just what Centennial Peaks did. This was the reason I had to get myself out of there as soon as I could. So I could take the meds I needed. Shocking? Yes. Here's the story.


As chronicled in Eva Edelman’s volume,  Natural Healing for Bipolar Disorder, just about every bipolar person and arguably most people need some kind of lithium in their diet. Countries with higher lithium in their water tend to have fewer people with mental illness As Edelman’s book shows, lithium orotate is a more bioavailable form than the typical lithium carbonate and is highly recommended as it is more powerful at smaller dosages. Lithium is amazing medicine, and when in the orotate form that is safer, it is still the gold standard for bipolar disorder. Seroquel can stop the mania, but it is lithium that maintains the balance and is the best medication for bipolar proven to prevent suicide —  It is known that bipolar patients who have recently experienced mania are at higher risk for suicide.

Patients are always told that they should never never suddenly stop taking lithium. According to the WebMd page on lithium carbonate, Stopping lithium therapy suddenly increases the chance that symptoms of bipolar disorder will return. The dose of lithium should be reduced gradually over at least 14 days.

Yet, I was denied access to lithium, a drug I have been faithfully been taking since May 12, 1991. This is about as criminal as denying insulin to a diabetic.

The unit allowed me to take my usual dosage of Lithium Orotate for one night and then decided to stop it because the lab could not ascertain whether the pills were in fact lithium orotate. Very well,

the unit has that right. But did they offer me any other form of lithium from their well-stocked pharmacy? No, they did not.

We have now left the realm of mere stupidity and have entered the realm of MALPRACTICE. 

Wrong Meds Part Two

The wrong meds I was given at Centennial for a UTI destroyed the good bacteria in my gut (the last thing you want to do to someone with a mental health challenge) without actually addressing the UTI because they did not ask me some basic questions.

I only found out subsequent to my stay from the written records that they had given me the antibiotic Bactrim for a UTI.

If they had informed me, I could have told them the following even in a psychotic state:

1) I almost always have a elevated level of e.coli in my bladder. It does not reach the kidneys. In this case, it was better not to treat it with antibiotics at this time because most of one's serotonin (an essential neurotransmitter very important for bipolar stability is created in the gut.)

2)  The last few times I did take antibiotics for UTI, my cultures were resistant to Bactrim. Bactrim was definitely the wrong choice if one were to go the antibiotic route.

3) If they are going to go that route, it is essential to give me a probiotic to save my intestinal flora.

http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/12/10/dynamic-duo-antibiotics-and-probiotics/ 

And this bad med episode is just the beginning!

Wrong Meds Part One

Perhaps the greatest negligence at Centennial Peaks involved medication. They did not give me the meds I needed, tried to give me meds that were harmful for me and did not ask me the basic questions that would have led to proper meds. This aspect of my exposé alone is a reason to shut down this incompetent and harmful Psych Ward.

Over the course of twenty years and in consultation with both numerous psychiatrists (including the outstanding Dr. David Rosenthal), holistic practioners and the most excellent volume by Eva Edelman, Natural Healing for Bipolar Disorder, I and my team have a pretty good idea of what meds work for me and which do not.

Here is a list of what I typically take at home.

Western Meds

Seroquel 150-300 mg

Lithium Orotate up to 35 mg

Vitamins

C, D3, B-6, B-3, folate, B-Complex, E

Minerals

Zinc, Magnesium, Manganese

Neurotransmitters and Precursors

Glycine, Taurine, 5HTP, L-Tryptophan, occassional BCAA, GABA

Other

Co-Q-10, NAC, L-Carnitine, assorted herbs and herbal preparation (Tibetan ayurveda), probiotics

Nordic Naturals Fish oil Ultimate Omega 8 grams

Wood Betony, Valerian, Passionflower, Hops

When High Blood Pressure requires treatment

Verapimil — this drug has been vetted by both my psychiatrist and my kidney doctor Dr. Jerald Boseman as being safe for my kidneys and brain, the former which has a moderate level of damage.

Now in going to a psych ward, I did not expect to be able to take all of the supplements I take usually.  But I had no idea at the level of ignorance, incompetence and dare I say malpractice I would experience at the hands of this Bad Psych Ward as I will detail next.

Negligence and Sleep

Don't you think a Psych Ward would do everything it can to help their patients sleep? Especially since there is such a strong link between sleep hygience and mental health. Apparently not!

I have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. Since 2010 I have used a device known as a CPAP nightly which by forcing air down my lungs has done wonders for my sleep. Most people would agree that sleep is essential for one’s health and and my stability in general and many might also know that individuals with psychiatric challenges especially benefit from good sleep. But fewer would know that sleep apnea is in fact linked to Bipolar Disorder.^[1] Therefore it would seem that that access to my CPAP would be essential to my treatment.

Although my husband dropped the machine off with a clear label for affixing, I did not receive the device for several days. At first they claimed they did not know it was mine. Then they claimed they found me sleeping without snoring and decided I did not need it after all. In blog posts on medication and supplements I will go into further depth that by denying me an appropriate dose of lithium, fish oil as well as 5HTP my sleep and thus my mental health was further compromised, lengthening my stay in the unit.

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^[1] Isabella Soreca, Jessica Levenson, Meredith Lotz, Ellen Frank, and David J Kupfer, “Bipolar Sleep apnea risk and clinical correlates in patients with bipolar disorder,” Bipolar Disorder 14 (2012): 672-676).