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 The Price of Compassion
by Tom Campbell
November 26, 2008
There are few heroes in mental health. The more we learn the more we see failures in this program that is supposed to care for those unable to care for themselves. We hear those employed in this field crying out that there are not enough employees and that those who work in the system are not adequately trained and are most likely inadequately paid.
Pay scales may not be sufficient to attract better trained people and a lack of adequate staffing levels certainly affects quality of service, but it wouldn’t make any difference how many bodies you have or how much they are paid if these employed to do so sit and watch a patient alone in a dayroom for hours with no offer for help.
The very loud and clear message we are getting is a top to bottom lack of compassion. Safety, proper treatment and compassion are the basic foundation blocks on which any public health service needs to be built.
But before we put too fine a point on this issue, let us examine another side. We as a society have largely forsaken much of our roles in being compassionate to one another, abrogating our responsibility to government and others. A generation or two ago this wasn’t true. People looked after each other. We didn’t have the training, we didn’t have the modern drugs, the facilities, and we certainly weren’t being paid, but even in the Great Depression we looked after each other.
At this moment in our history we are experiencing many who are unemployed, uninsured, lonely, hungry, homeless and in need of physical and emotional care. The current financial crisis should be a call to action for us to look within ourselves and take measure of our own compassion. When was the last time you visited a nursing home, a mental health hospital, a homeless shelter? When did you serve on a soup line, ring the Salvation Army bells, or volunteer to take someone to the doctor or grocery? The great teacher and humanitarian Jesus called us to accountability in saying, “….inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it unto me.”
Many in the mental health field have obviously failed to provide a sufficient level of compassion and service for those under their care. They should be held accountable, arguably more accountable than we have heard. But as we stand in judgment of them we must also hold ourselves accountable. This isn’t a Republican or Democrat issue, nor does it matter whether one is liberal or conservative or black or white. We are all neighbors on this planet. What price are we willing to pay for compassion?
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