Burlington, Vermont - January 30, 2012
Psychiatric nurses at Fletcher Allen say they're concerned about their safety. Since Tropical Storm Irene, they've taken in a number of patients who would have traditionally gone to the state hospital in Waterbury and months after the transition, they say it's not going well.
Inside the psychiatric unit at Fletcher Allen nurses, like Diane Gallagher, say they are scared for their safety. "I have never seen anything as scary, as chaotic, as unsafe -- never, not even close as Shepardson 6 is now," she said.
When state hospital patients were moved out of the state hospital in Waterbury following Irene, seven landed at Fletcher Allen's Shepardson inpatient ward. Others who would have traditionally gone to Waterbury have since found spots in Fletcher Allen's 28 psych beds as well.
"I was assaulted badly in October by a violent patient that would have normally been at the state hospital," said Christina Sclafani, another FAHC Nurse.
Gallagher has worked as a psych nurse for more than 30 years.
She says for decades "code 8" emergency calls on her floor were rare- now they're routine. "Over the years we have certainly had patients that were acutely psychotic and considered dangerous to themselves or others that we have been able to sort of manage because there had been maybe one or two at a time -- seven, eight -- that is a completely different dynamic," she said.
Assaults on Fletcher Allen staff have increased since the storm. Before Irene they were happening about twice a month. Since the storm that number is averaging in the teens.
"If a situation progresses to the point where we have to act to ensure everybody's safety, we have the option to use seclusion, which is to have somebody go into a space alone. We can sometimes restrain people," said Dr. Robert Pierattini, Fletcher Allen's Chair of Psychiatry.
Dr. Pierattini acknowledges the challenges the new patients bring but says he'll have to continue to take them in. "We'll have to do it. We have an emergency in the state and we need to take care of people," he said.
Diane Gallagher says waiting that long is unsafe and that the state needs to move quickly to find better alternatives."We need a different place. We need a different setting to be treat the population who is dangerous," she said.
A population whose future is uncertain as lawmakers jockey over what to do next.
Fletcher Allen's head of psychiatry says a new state hospital with 25 beds could do a good job meeting the state's needs. But Gallagher would like to see a new facility built with the roughly 50 beds that were present before the storm.
