Only On 10: Staff injured in ‘fight’ involving patients at Norfolk behavioral health center
A FIGHT BROKE OUT. INVESTIGATORS SAY AT LEAST 1 PERSON WAS HURT AFTER SEVERAL YOUNG PATIENTS TURNED VIOLENT. IN A STORY YOU’LL SEE ONLY ON 10, OUR GEENA AREVALO TALKED WITH A WORKER WHO SAW IT ALL. GEENA. ANITA, THE INCIDENT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT AT THE KEMPSVILLE CENTER FOR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH. THE CENTER TREATS CHILDREN AND TEENS WITH BEHAVIORAL AND/OR MENTAL HEALTH CONCERNS. THE CENTER CONFIRMED POLICE WERE CALLED TO HELP MANAGE WHAT THEY SAY WAS A DISRUPTION. STAFF MEMBERS TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED WAS APPARENTLY PLANNED BY THE PATIENTS. “IT JUST GOT OUT OF HAND SO FAST. THE STAFF MEMBER WE SPOKE AT THE KEMPSVILLE CENTER FOR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SUNDAY NIGHT ESCALATED QUICKLY. “IT WAS JUST LIKE A CORRAL, LIKE THE KIDS WERE EVERYWHERE. THE STAFF WAS EVERYWHERE. EVERYONE WAS JUST EVERYWHERE, IT WAS JUST WILD.” THE EMPLOYEE SAYS IT ALL STARTED IN A HALLWAY WHEN STAFF MEMBERS TRIED TO PUT AN AGGRESSIVE PATIENT IN A HOLD. “THE KIDS I GUESS THEY REALIZED THE STAFF WAS OUTNUMBERED SO THEY MADE THEIR ATTEMPT TO ATTACK THE STAFF.” ONE OF THE STAFF GOT A HOLE PUNCHER THROWN AT HER” THE EMPLOYEE SAYS THE SITUATION FINALLY GOT UNDER CONTROL ONCE OFFICERS ARRIVED, BUT IT TOOK SOME TIME. THE EMPLOYEE SAYS A PATIENT WHO WAS DETAINED MADE A DISTURBING COMMENT. I OVERHEARD ONE OF THE KIDS SAYING THIS WAS BEING PLANNED ALL WEEK” IN AN EMAIL, HEALTH CENTER ADMINISTRATION CONFIRMED “CERTAIN PATIENTS COLLABORATED IN CARRYING OUT A DISTURBANCE AT THE FACILITY ON SUNDAY EVENING. NO PATIENTS WERE INJURED. ” ACCORDING TO THE EMPLOYEE, AT LEAST TWO STAFF MEMBERS WENT TO THE HOSPITAL, ONE ALLEGEDLY WITH A BROKEN BONE. WE ASKED ABOUT THOSE INJURIES. THE HEALTH CENTER SAYS “SEVERAL EMPLOYEES SUSTAINED MINOR INJURIES BUT DO NOT REQUIRE FURTHER MEDICAL ATTENTION AT THIS TIME.” ONE DAY AFTER THE EVENT, THE EMPLOYEE SAYS WHAT HAPPENED COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED, CLAIMING THE CENTER IS ROUTINELY UNDERSTAFFED. THEY JUST WAITED FOR THE PERFECT TIME, YOU KNOW? 48:35 ITS JUST AN UNSAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR STAFF, VERY UNSAFE THE CENTER SAYS THE FACILITY WAS APPROPRIATELY STAFFED BUT WHEN WE ASKED WHAT THE STANDARD STAFF TO PATIENT RATIO IS AND HOW MANY EMPLOYEES WERE ON STAFF LAST NIGHT, WE DIDN’T GET AN ANSWER, THE CENTER DID SAY THEYRE CONDUCTING AN INTERNAL REVIEW OF THE SITUATION. LIVE IN THE NEWSROOM
Geena Arevalo reports.
2 Comments
I was there…and I know the staff member. It was actually very traumatizing. And actually, there were kids with injuries. There are so many things we were lied to there. There were kids who were in handcuffs. Screaming and so many police officers. Two kids were taken away. They told me they were going home….they lied. A staff member later told me the truth..that they were either in an mental hospital for adults, or jail. The police kept wanting the them to press charges. No charges were pressed but I don’t know if that’s true. I remember screaming after loosing my mind. Traumatized by the girls getting hurt and being held captive in “holds” and in cell like chambers. I remember watching a girl come down the hallway I was in. Tears streaming down her face, screaming, and throwing things. She apologized for throwing it near me. But I remember she kept repeating, “He put his fucking hands on me.” Were are talking about kids who have been through abuse and rape. So that right there, made me snap. I stopped crying and I decided to stay and watch. And it makes me feel absolutely horrible that they lied to me about the girl who “went home”. And by “went home” I mean jail or an asylum. The girl who started it was put in a hold. What’s a hold? A hold is where they tackle patients to the floor and inject medicine through their ass to make them fall asleep. This girl was still recovering from bulimia. And she was tackled by some guy who was jacked af, along with other people. She came out with something broken. I don’t remember what. But I remember watching them tackle her to the ground and staff members having to pull me away from the hold. If you think this is bad. Oh HELL no! They let a girl go home when she was still very suicidal. And yes they knew. She had told, patients had told them, for god sakes she left a suicide note. One of the staff members told her, and I quote, “To toughen up, because life is hard and you have to get over it.” What the hell! And wait, there’s more! Yeah this place literally left me more traumatized than I already was! There was one girl there who was actually insane. She would get mad at people and scream, and threaten, and hurt, and just everything because she wouldn’t get a coloring paper. I left a long time ago, but she’s probably still there. There was also a protest held by me and some other girls against them letting the girl go home still suicidal and having a plan when she got home. It was a peaceful protest, so don’t worry. But it was HELL every time I was there. I was a story for every time I was there. I have sooo many traumatizing stories now. And that’s what I got from Kepmsville. I’ve been told that other hospitals are actually chill. Like Maryview and other ones. BUT NOT KEMPSVILLE!!!!
I lived here for a year it was like this every day