num_pages: 352
description: In 2000 Dennis O'Donnell was approached to work as an orderly in the Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit of a large hospital in central Scotland. I don't know if I'm the man you want he told the charge nurse. I'm not a fighter. I don't need fighters the nurse replied. I need people who can listen. The Locked Ward is an extraordinary memoir that sets out to reveal the true story of life in a psychiatric wardthe fear the violence and despair and also the care and the compassion. Recounting the stories of the patients he worked with and those of the friends he made on the ward O'Donnell provides a detailed account of day-to-day life behind the doors of the most feared and stigmatized environment in healthcare. In doing so he examines the major mental disorders their symptoms and manifestations and how certain triggers such as religion sex wealth health and drugs bear influence; the methods of treatment by medication therapy and conversation; the love and support of patients' friends and family members; success stories and failures and attitudes to psychiatric illness both by the authorities by those around himand his own. Over seven years O'Donnell witnessed the day-to-day lives of people suffering from the most hairraising illnesses. What emerges is a document of humanity and humor a remarkable memoir that sheds light on a world that still remains largely unknown.
language: English
title: The Locked Ward: The Memoir of a Psychiatric Orderly
publisher: Random House UK