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17 DECEMBER 1999 ... a web newsletter for psych. consumers in Australia
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.. we walked through the heat and the hills to see the hospital. To see Justin. We went thru the doors and passed the security and then we went to the psych. ward .. but Justin wasn't there. The 18-year old boy they
brought to us was a stranger .. when he spoke I knew him again.
.. he joked about coming in and running around naked making animal noises and we laughed. But this was no joke .. a thought came to me again and again: he does not belong here. He invited us outside for a cigarette .. (then) Justin got up to get one of us a glass of water ... a middle-aged man who had been standing nearby strode over .. began thumping Justin .. Justin put his arms over his face and stood there ..
The other patients were there screaming and pulling the man away .. the woman with a teddy bear ran over and started swearing at the man, I sat cross-legged on the ground as they ran around me .. we couldn't behave as if they were crazy. Because right now Justin was one of them.
Security arrived minutes too late. A main in white asked Justin if he felt faint or dizzy. He just flashed him a Justin grin .. said he felt fine. (Later) we talked and mucked around. We made sexual jokes only teenagers find funny. We flirted and laughed .. our laughs echoed into the dead corridor, but for us the hospital was gone. We were just having fun and Justin was our friend.
Visiting hours ended at 6:30. Justin walked us to the door .. we all hugged him and watched as he turned and walked back .. and we wept. We wept for Justin .. because we were going home and he was spending another night in that hell .. we wept, because he cannot leave. >>
excerpts from an essay by Gemma Lasenby. The essay won first prize in the AMA year 11 essay competition, conducted every two years to raise young people's awareness of personal health and the health system.
For your links collection : an Australian site covering abuse in psychotherapy at www.witness.com.au.
Happy Christmas ev'ryone. See you next year in the last week of January.
"I woke up one morning and discovered that
everything in my apartment had been replaced
by an exact replica. " Steven Wright
"Christmas is like a battered suitcase
which cannot possibly hold what is meant to fit into it
It comes unstuck
things spill out
People are like that too, thank God
Merry suitcase ... " Michael Leunig
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