The other night in the ER.
I had to interview a man who overdosed. After talking to him extensively, I concluded it was accidental and that he had a prescription pill problem (he thought the opposite, of course. Needs meds for his pain, la la la.) He also told me had had never attempted suicide before and had never been inpatient. He said he had never even thought about suicide. He wasn't even sure how he made it to the ER but he certainly didn't need to be there (his daughter found him unresponsive, which was a fluke. She got scared and called 911.)
And then I talked to his daughter and son.
Come to find out, this guy had been talking about nothing else for several days. Oh, and yes, as a matter of fact he HAD attempted suicide in the past. Twice. And not just feeble attempts, either, but serious attempts that required medical intervention both times.
Maybe it was the fact that he lied to me so spectacularly (Were you aware of this? It's true. People LIE to social workers. Who knew?) Maybe it was talking to his daughter, who was so obviously scared for her father plus, I'm quite sure, tired of dealing with a man addicted to pills. Or maybe it was my mood. But I went "bad cop" on this man after speaking to his family, something I very rarely do.
I couldn't hospitalize him. He was absolutely insistant that he wasn't suicidal and his family refused to put his threats in writing (I think they were scared of the consequences on that one.) I couldn't force treatment on him, because you can't force treatment on anyone. All I could do was let him go with a referral to drug treatement and watch his daughter cry.
So I let him have it. I didn't yell, of course, but my voice was stern--probably too stern. I told him I wanted to hospitalize him but I couldn't. I told him that he had a serious problem and he needed to get help. I told him he scared his daughter to death with the stunt he pulled earlier in the day. I told him that of course his family was going to think he offed himself if he had been threatening all week and then they found him unresponsive with a bottle of pills at his side. I told him I didn't appreciate him lying to me.
And he just sat there. He sat there and he stared at me and he listened to me and said nothing in his own defense.
I didn't know if I should feel grimly satisfied or gross after it was all said and done.
And the whole way home, I kept asking myself: "Why? What was it about THIS guy on THIS night that got to me so completely?"
I'm still not quite sure. ->
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tXCM/~3/Re4yKQLmfxE/not-one-of-my-finest-moments.html
Posted
7 Jul 2009 6:05 PM
by
Trench Warfare
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