Things that I didn't do while I had a respite bed at the crisis unit at Quincy Mental Health Center:
-Take food from the unit's cabinets and refrigerator and hoard it in my room
-Question authority all the time for no reason
-Treat the staff as if they had the obligation to nurse me through my every emotional upset
-Break the 8:00 p.m. curfew on weekdays or the 9:00 p.m. curfew on weekends
-Complain about the curfew or any of the other rules that are meant to keep the unit manageable and the clients safe
-Drink alcohol
-Do illegal drugs
-Abuse prescription medication or try to get the unit prescriber to prescribe medication for me that I didn't need, to sell or to use for recreational purposes
-Have sex with other clients
-Bully other clients
-Bully staff
-Hit on staff
-Ask staff or clients for money (There's no rule that I know of that says that clients can't ask staff or other clients for money. I never did.)
Last night, I had to decide if I were going to ask a staffperson at the front desk of the Pine Street Inn if I could have my bag for a few minutes so that I could get my phone and write the addition to the page about the homeless woman who died. I decided to do that, rather than to allow the inaccuracy that I had first published remain without clarification until this morning. That's what I decided to do, and probably I was allowed to do it because I am not at the front desk every day, asking for my bag once I have already checked it.
The reason that I have to keep my bag at the front desk overnight is that there aren't enough lockers for all the guests. I, like all of the other guests who don't have lockers, have to take everything that I bring to the shelter in the afternoon out of the shelter the next morning and carry it around all day.
Copyright L. Kochman, June 6, 2015 @ 9:05 a.m./addition @ 9:10 a.m./addition @ 9:13 a.m.
