Chelsea Hospital: Thank you!

It saddens me that Chelsea Hospital’s behavioral health unit is closing. When someone goes to a psychiatric hospital, they are typically at their worst emotionally. They have a variety of things going on, whether it be severe depression, suicidality, panic, disassociation, etc. Whatever their case may be, everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect no matter what! The staff members at Chelsea were kind, compassionate, and willing to help in any way they could. It was a comforting place to be, to work on myself. I was listened to, and the staff members were extremely patient. Unfortunately, I cannot say this about every psychiatric hospital. I hope that other hospitals will learn from Chelsea because I feel every hospital should be like this one. No matter what a person’s diagnosis was, people never seemed to be treated poorly at Chelsea. My diagnosis has a lot of stigmas attached to it. Mental health conditions have stigmas in general, and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) has a lot of stigmas attached! I have specifically been told to not say in the ER that I have BPD because I will immediately be stigmatized. I have therapists that I have told my diagnosis to, and I can see how uncomfortable they get. After the first session, several therapists have said that they could no longer work with me. I understand that it’s ignorance. They just don’t get it. I never got that feeling at Chelsea Hospital.   

To the Staff at Chelsea: Thank you for all you do. Thank you for your kindness, compassion, and not only your willingness to help, but the fact that you actually want to help. I hope that wherever you work next, you teach others all that you know, especially kindness. You are greatly appreciated and have saved my life several times. Thankfully, I have a wonderful outpatient therapist, I am in a great DBT group, and I hope to not need to go into the hospital again. If I do, and if others do, I hope we are treated kindly and by people who WANT to help.