I am enjoying kirsty and ruth storyling, i think it is played really well.
“Never lose faith in yourself,
and never lose hope;
remember, even when this world throws its worst and then turns its back,
there is still always hope.”
I am not sure. Will it be Nita and Kirsty will try and cover for her? Will they try and say he fell (maybe using his illness and unsteadiness as a reason)? Or will he get up next episode and carry on being an idiot? I love Casualty!!!
Tonight was great, though hard watching... kept seeing my partner looking over at me during it, thinking please dont be you... Quit down after it but was 'good' viewing
anyone else think theres alot of that episode stolen from episodes of House?
Yes, yes, yes. Especially the tears thing.
Also, I would love to get that much time with a psych, IP or OP.
Maybe I'm being overly critical. I definitely thought things were a bit overdone, but it was well acted.
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Make us all feel wonderful. We'll never forget."
Nita can't have pushed Warren, she heard the thump before she went outside. She was downstairs in her room. Oh, and I know this isn't what I should have been focusing on, but why is the front door upstairs?
The Ruth stuff this week was really heavy...it was horrib;e with that guy at the end and when Ruth said 'I want you to help me' I just burst into tears. I wish I had the strength to do that too.
Nita can't have pushed Warren, she heard the thump before she went outside. She was downstairs in her room. Oh, and I know this isn't what I should have been focusing on, but why is the front door upstairs?
Either it's a bit of 'poetic licence' or they have two sets of stairs in their house, because I noticed that as well. I'm sure there was a scene a couple of weeks ago where Adam turned up at their house, Kirsty answered the door, and Warren was watching them from the top of the stairs. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm sure it was...who knows though! I think it will turn out that he just fell though, but I dunno.
I haven't seen tonight's episode yet, sounds like it was good though. :)
I don't usually watch Casualty, but I think this weeks episode was quite heavy, yet interesting. :) Kinda had to laugh at the part where they jumped down that laundry pipe thing, though.
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yes there is the munchousen thing, then ruth befriending another patient but causing him to harm himself, the doctor in a pysch ward refusing to play the game and ending up breaking down. Just so much i thought was from house
I admit I've not been following Casualty for a while now, and so I know watching one episode in isolation might be taking things out of context. And the fact that this is no-where near an intellectual, in-depth analysis, just some initial thoughts.
The episode broadcast on 05/02/11 saw Ruth under section 2 of the mental health act detained on an NHS run psychiatric assessment unit. My immediate thought was that the room she had been allocated seemed more like a hotel than anything else. She had a large bed and an extremely large room even by private healthcare standards. My second thought was that her consultant psychiatrist was sitting by her bed. An NHS consultant psychiatrist having the time to talk 1:1 with a patient and discuss their needs in detail- please show me where this happens.
Throughout the episode Ruth frequently had these therapy sessions with her consultant, seemingly daily for presumably an hour or so each time. There is simply not enough resources for this, certainly not on the NHS and from my experience not even in private hospitals. Consultants look after many wards full to the brim of inpatients and on top of that see outpatients in the community. They have time to see each patient for approximately seven minutes per week, if you are lucky. Or, lets face it, if you have kicked off and shouted and screamed or caused a riot. That gets you seen pretty much straight away. The depressive types, going along with the motions and otherwise sleeping tend to get left to the bottom of the list and told "Sorry, the consultant has finished his ward rounds for this week and did not have time to see you" (this happened to me) which, when you rely on the consultant to change your medication, alter your observation level and grant you leave, is basically being told you have to spend another week being followed around at arms length by a nurse, being watched while you sleep and go to the toilet and repeatedly being woken and told to keep your hands above the sheet so you cant hurt yourself and having torches shone in your face so they can check you are still breathing. This is not conductive to an environment suitable to recovery.
There was also the distinct lack of nurse prescence on the ward. When you did see them, they were explaining how something could not be done/found. Okay, that is quite accurate, but considering Ruth was detained in such an explosive way, sedated and sectioned, one would expect her to be on at least 15 minute observations throughout the day and night. And yet she was left to her own devices. Apart from one time when both Charlie and the consultant were observing her frantically pacing and writing in her room. Charlie suggested Ruth needed medication for her agitation and the consultant decided she needed to work through what was on her mind. Medication is something which is given first and talked about later, especially to someone as agitated as Ruth. I was usually given benzodiazepines simply on arrival at a psychiatric unit even when my presentation was flat, before I could even get to speak to a doctor of any description.
Ruth was also able to move the furniture in her room in order to barricade herself inside. That is such a serious oversight on behalf of that unit and would not happen. Furniture is built in or bolted down in bedrooms precisely for that reason. Yes it is annoying, and yes the rooms are not big enough to swing a cat in either, but lets face it- they need to get as many beds in the building as possible.
I have to say, though, that they got the atomosphere and the feel of a psychiatric ward very accurate. Apart from the tendency to have every other patient either staring blankly or sitting on the floor. Some patients are actually highly functioning, thank you, and do not stare or sit down on the floor for no reason or dance around the lounge. But they got the overall feeling right, especially how Ruth felt and how this was portrayed. The agitation and general hyperactive foot tapping, finger tapping and bouncing behaviour was spot on. Her confusion, her lack of insight, her stubbornness to conform to the rules- exactly right.
The scene that brought back the most memories for me was simply Charlie lighting a cigarette for a patient. That is the prevailing memory I have- nurses lighting cigarettes for me on lighters attached to their keys. You were not allowed to touch, hold or otherwise possess a lighter yourself. Although, as was demonstrated, it was mostly quite easy to procure a lighter for yourself and hide it on your person- in my case, my trainers.
The frequent interruptions by the alarm, signifying a psychiatric emergency (or otherwise Oh God someone is Kicking Off again, here goes our next cigarette break) was also quite accurate. Except for one thing- the alarm is much louder and much more annoying. There is more screaming and more shouting. This happens approximately three times a day, every day, without fail and is usually the same person.
I knew they had got the feel right, definately in the tv lounge, when my mum walked in and went "Oh, this brings back memories of visiting you." Psychiatric patients love watching tv. They do. It is never off. Everyone sits on the sofa and stares at the tv, when they are not asleep or kicking off, of course.
Overally it was a very good portrayal of a psychiatric assessment unit. Obviously it was slightly exaggerated and dramatised for the television, and altered so they could work in a narrative (having sex in a room with a piano after escaping down a laundry chute, certainly not one of my experiences!) however the issue of suicide is sadly all too real in psychiatric hospitals, despite many people's assumptions that a hospital is a safe place.
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different…
you once called your brain a hard drive, well say hello to the virus.
Aspects of it were realistic (eg. policy on lighters, telly room), others were just so far removed from my experience of hospital I wonder where they sourced their information.
There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: 'This glass is half full'. And then there are those who say: 'This glass is half empty'.
The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: 'What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!
