I came across this in my FB feed, and I got so angry that the only way to keep myself from starting one of those hated FB Drama Fests was posting it here.
For those who so not understand Dutch, a translation:
“Shiva come work here please, so I can hand over some of my schizos to you… Just had two little crisis cases and in half an hour I have a psychotic patient… This one is so bad that the psychiatrist won’t even let me see him alone smt*. Btw, I have so much fun with them… their voices tell jokes haahah and then they suddenly start laughing and stuff. This is seriously fun!! Come join us!”
“Sorry! Should have been a PM :O”
The conversation I took this from was not related to mental health an sich, but this character and the mentioned Shiva -and a couple others- were cracking extremely disrespectful jokes about people with schizophrenia in this topic. I wanted to call them out on it, when suddenly this message was posted, accidentally apparently. I checked out the person’s profile, and yes indeed, this is a psychiatric nurse.
Back when I was admitted, I always had the distinct feeling that many of the hospital staff looked down on me and my fellow patients. I was admitted for a psychosis, so after a while I told myself that it was all in my head, bizarre ideas fueled by the “evil asylum attendant” cliché. And the things I saw and heard were probably not real either. This, however, proves to me that I was probably right.
I don’t even want to know how many other patients feel that they are denigrated, made fun of, or looked down on, and are then made to feel that it’s all in their heads. Who will take schizophrenic patients seriously, when the very people who should be helping them are the ones acting like this?
You might say that I’m overreacting, that I’m blowing one message out of proportion and that it’s not that bad what she writes… But the point is, this is someone who takes care of mentally ill people. I’m all for seeing humor in your work, but being blatantly disrespectful about the very people who sort-of depend on you for their daily care is just… no. I also didn’t take screenshots of the other jokes (as they were sort of dispersed throughout the not-related content) but it was bad enough to warrant my anger. Trust me.
*I don’t know if she meant “suck my teeth” or “suck my tits” with her “smt”.
We're All Mad Inhere 
Hopefully there was time when she cared and will realize that it’s past and now it’s time to find a new vocation.
Exactly. I certainly believe that caring for the mentally ill wears someone down; psychiatric patients are some of the most difficult-to-deal-with individuals you’ll ever meet, and caregivers are just people after all, not saints or robots. But even so, they should realize when they’ve reached their limit and look for another occupation when they’re past that point.
In a way, it’s sad that there is very little attention for how well caregivers deal with the difficulties of their job. I can’t imagine anyone working a whole lifetime in psych care and not turn jaded, but even so, I think people’s limits could be extended if there was more understanding for their difficulties. It would benefit both the patients and the caregivers.