Recommended Memoir

I spent my weekend reading the memoir Weekends at Bellevue by Dr. Julie Holland.  This memoir chronicled the nine years that Dr. Holland spent serving as the weekend chief psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital.  The cases that arrived at Bellevue's ER included those people arrested by New York police, persons who were the reason for 911 calls, the homeless population, drug addicts, and patients that just showed up to find some kind of help for themselves.  Dr. Holland and her weekend staff are mainly responsible for evaluating each
patient on the basis of psychiatric type of illness and severity.  Many patients that arrive are unable to participate in a doctor/nurse/patient verbal interview due to the amount of drugs in their system, the overindulgence of alcohol, or the decisive need for restraint due to the combative nature of the patient.  She sees it all.  It did not come as a surprise that any practicing professional under this type of duress would also need cognitive-behavioral therapy themselves. Dr. Holland sees an independent, private psychiatrist in order to process what she is witnessing as well as how she is conducting herself as a doctor.  It honestly made me think about the stress most teachers are under, and how schools could use an in-house psychiatrist not necessarily for the students, but for the teachers.

The main contemplative issue Dr. Holland struggles with is the fact that she only sees her patients for a short amount of time; therefore, she does not have the rewards of witnessing a psychiatric patient's recovery process.  The other struggle for Dr. Holland is the power she has to make the decision of whether a patient is truely emotionally impaired and genuinely needs as well as warrants longer term care within the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital.  There are times when psychiatric ER patients truly push her buttons and she finds herself becoming combative with them or at least not doing as much as she felt she could have to help as opposed to hinder the patient's progress toward a more balanced emotional life.  These are the issues she processes with the help of her own therapist.  She also accounts for the many dedicated souls who work in the psychiatric care business.  These are some of the most gifted and patient people she encounters while at other times, she comes across doctors who want to pull rank with her.  She also has a psych tech who refuses to take notes on patients already in-house at Bellevue, and the tech goes so far as to call their superior or boss and inquire as to whether he has to follow Dr. Holland's orders.  This same psych tech is later terminated, but he obtains another position at a hospital and begins to stalk Dr. Holland via bogus pages while she is on weekend duty.  Talk about scary.

Overall, I loved this memoir for its authentic nature.  Since I once worked as a psych tech it was easy for me to relate to some of the experiences Dr. Holland was describing.   Many of her patients also reminded me of students that I have taught in the past and made me wonder if the behavioral problems I had with them might have been due to psychiatric conditions.  It also gave me a profound respect for ER doctors having to make quick diagnostic decisions based on presenting symptoms and a doctor/patient interview.  She oftentimes does not have background information on the patients that arrive in the Bellevue ER nor is she able to discuss a patient's case with a family member or significant other who knows them well.  This memoir definitely keeps the reader's attention and is quite moving in terms of what Dr. Holland discovers about not only her patients, but herself.