I'm Organized!

Well, almost! Thanks to my Christmas present from David, my home has been beautified. Above is the "before" picture (kind of dark) of the room I worked on Saturday. Below are the "after" pictures of the same room.

We're not done! I have big plans for Lisa, so don't try to poach her, anybody!

Lobotomists

I was watching PBS the other night when they brought on the documentary "The Lobotomist." This documentary is about Dr. Freeman, the inventor of the lobotomy, and it documents this awful procedure. It was developed in response to bad publicity of overcrowded psychiatric institutions.

From the program:

On May 6, 1946, Life magazine published "Bedlam 1946," an exposé of two
state hospitals: Pennsylvania's Byberry and Ohio's Cleveland State. To a country
shaken by recent revelations of Nazi
atrocities, the pictures were deeply affecting. The crisis in state mental
hospitals motivated Dr. Walter Freeman to devise a simple version of the
lobotomy procedure, one that could be used on a mass scale.

"All of a sudden America sees these photos that look like concentration
camp photos. You see people huddled naked along walls, strapped to benches --
and it really is this descent into this shameful moment. And the country did
say, we have to do something about this." - Robert Whitaker, writer

So Dr. Freeman did something about it. He made patients quiet and easy to control by scrambling their frontal lobes, inserting ice picks through their orbital cavities. I'll spare you the pictures (see the PBS website for the graphic details).

I must emphasize that this documentary puts the procedure into perspective. They were desperate times and there weren't many options for many of these patients. However, now that we've developed many more procedures and medications, it is not a good idea, nor necessary. I've asked all my docs to make a pledge with me: they will not stick ice picks into people's frontal lobes. Nearly all of them laugh at me when I ask them that, which I take as a good sign. One older doc actually said to me quite gruffly "Oh, we haven't done that procedure in a couple of years, at least."

The New Wendy

When I left the Center for Evidence-based Policy, I created a full-scale book describing how I performed all my duties there. I created chapters, pictures, instructions, etc. I thought it was the best way to leave that job to the person who would eventually land the ship.

When I took my new job, I looked around for the instruction manual. I looked high and low, and there is no manual. Every day is a new experience in bewilderment, as I call around to differing departments looking for the person who's the expert on, say, professional services contracts, getting research dollars out of suspense, or, my favorite, what to do when employees are stealing cash from your clinic.

Everywhere I go around the OHSU campus I am introduced as "the New Wendy." On Day One that was cute. It is now Day Eleven. Its rapidly becoming annoying. Today, at an executive committee meeting some pulmonologist actually said to me, "Oh, you've got big shoes to fill as the New Wendy." Those who refuse to know my real name are getting a return smile that is a bit snarly. The New Wendy has a few questions for the old Wendy; like where the Hell is the operation manual on how to run the department? Also, The New Wendy wants to know the combination to all the safes so that the New Wendy can keep the cash drawers locked up.

The only up side to all this is that there is a proposed revision to the Fiscal Integrity Policy that makes Department Administrators responsible for all cash lost out of the clinics. As long as they think my name is "New Wendy" they won't be able to charge my account.

Psychiatric Hospitals

For the most part, psychiatric hospitals, institutions that house people for their lifetimes, are things of the past. In Oregon most hospitals are shutting down their inpatient wards. At OHSU we only have 10 inpatient beds for psychiatric patients. This in a hospital of 550+ beds.

One reason: they lose money. Another reason: there's no need for them. It's better for people to stay in the community, even the chronically mentally ill.

Across the country this is true; in upstate New York one mental institution was closed completely in 1995. When they went to clean out the building they found a stack of suitcases in the attic of the main building. These suitcases were the possessions of the inmates, brought with them when they checked into the hospital. A few curious people decided to sort through these things with great care and ended up writing a book about what they found. It is a bittersweet story. There's a display at the New York Public Library, chronicling the lives of some of the inmates. Many of them appear to be immigrants who had some horrible temporary circumstance in their lives, which led to incarceration. Over half of those committed to these institutions spent their entire lives there, and ultimately died there.

Oregon still has two state mental hospitals up and running. One is in Pendleton. The other in Salem. The hospital in Salem is in deplorable physical condition, and is being replaced by a new hospital. Where? Junction City. Stay tuned....I will know more about this when I start my job....

I have a new job!

This just in: I've been offered (and I have accepted) the job as the Administrator of OHSU's Psychiatric Department! I've been looking around for a new job, as my current gig with OHSU's Center for Evidence-based Policy is coming to an end. I had two serious contenders who interviewed me for days, literally.

I meet with my new boss next Wednesday where we will hammer out the details of the new position. Until then, stay tuned.....

Update: See the announcement on OHSU's website.

Sears stove, update

Never buy anything from Sears. I'm serious.

Now that the stove works again, I've been tempted to use it. Like today, for example. I'm doing my annual Christmas Cookie Bake, opening and closing the oven door a billion times.\

Until, the handle came completely apart on the oven. No fear, I'm not helpless. I went and got my tools and screwed it back on. But really. This stove/oven sucks.

We're Back...

....back from our trip to Maui! David and I have made this an annual trek the last couple of years. We go to Maui to get some much-needed sunshine so we can survive the black winters around here. However, this trip to Maui was a little bit stormy. When we arrived, the power had been out on Maui; trees had blown over; the roads were flooded and some were impassable.

We spent the first three days on the island in our room reading books, typing on the computer (editing stories) and eating whatever came our way.

The last two days there were sunshiny and bright, which made it all worthwhile. David and I explored a little bit and checked in at the surfing championships (the Billabong) north of where we stay at Ka'anapali.

It was pretty warm, but not the first few days. I wore everything I had to walk on the beach one day.