At California Mental Hospitals, Fear Is Part Of The Job

by INA JAFFE
NPR Morning Edition
April 7, 2011

First in a two-part series: The tipping point for major change is often tragedy. That may be the case in California at the state psychiatric hospital in Napa, where an employee was killed last October, allegedly by a patient - one of thousands of violent acts committed at the hospital that year. ....Brad Leggs, a psychiatric technician at Napa and a union representative, created an image to go with the words. "If I may, I would respectfully like to ask those in the audience to briefly stand up if you've been injured or assaulted, or your co-worker has been assaulted." Nearly everyone stood.

Related from NPR: Part 2 - Violence Surges At Hospital For Mentally Ill Criminals