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stefanie lyn kaufman-mthimkhulu
@stefkaufman
Anti-carceral community care practitioner. Birth/death/crisis worker. @projectlets.
Joined February 2011
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    As a Mad care worker and psychiatric survivor, I wrote this piece about the work I’ve been doing with @projectlets for the last decade, + some tangible tools, visions & possibilities for a liberated anti-carceral crisis response. #PsychAbolition
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    People are *breaking* down. Losing it. Losing people. One trauma after another after another. No breaks, no pause, no time to grieve or reflect. Mostly everyone I know is crashing. This is sad, unsustainable, + the impacts will be with us for years to come.
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    Hospital notes: - Overheard a group of nurses hysterically laughing over a patient who had went to the bathroom on themselves, and proceeded to let them lay in it for over 10 minutes before responding. - Patients screaming in agony while nurses scroll TikTok.
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    This is also one of the core themes of ‘The Body Keeps the Score’ (it’s how the book opens) and the foundation of PTSD research in America. Which is why we can all find another book about trauma that doesn’t center sad white men who blew up entire villages and communities.
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    Replying to @stefkaufman
    - Leaving post-operative surgical patients in body positions that are unsupported and unnatural, such as head leaning and extending down/forward with zero support, for hours while sleeping after anesthesia. Patient(s) wake up crying unable to move, in horrific pain. - NO MASKS.
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    PTSD is a white, western, colonial concept that locates the source of trauma in the past and requires a “non-traumatic baseline” to compare to. What the Palestinians are experiencing is not PTSD. There is no comparable framework. The trauma is enduring.
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    Replying to @stefkaufman
    - Patient asks at least 4x for them to confirm that a procedure was covered by insurance before they did it. Patient wanted documented proof of the approval. Doctor says we need to move quickly we don’t have time it will be covered. Patient says “No. I can’t take a chance.”
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    Replying to @stefkaufman
    For those thinking that it’s so easy to just report these people and advocate for yourself, remember that patients get killed every day via direct medical violence and neglect in response to speaking up in the hospital. These people are still directly responsible for your care.
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    Are houseless people in urgent need of psychiatric treatment or are they in urgent need of, say, HOUSING?
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    There is *truly* no better irony than the updated DSM-5 creating a medical diagnosis for prolonged grief in a country that refuses to face it’s own present reality with mass death. AKA, “you have an illness if you can’t get on with life like the rest of us.”
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    “Joy is a form of resistance” Yes, for the Palestinians. For the oppressed. For the colonized. Not for white people who want to dissociate from the reality of genocide by continuing to uplift and center personal nervous system regulation & happiness to the detriment of the WORLD.
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    Replying to @stefkaufman
    - Post-operative recovery unit has 30+ patients (at least) and only 3 walkers which are being shared amongst patients. So if a patient who uses a walker needs to use the bathroom they must wait for a walker to become free. This patient has been waiting for 25 minutes.
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    Replying to @stefkaufman
    The more obvious it is to health care workers that a patient is cared for, they are loved, they are not alone, and somebody is watching.. the more likely it is that they will treat you with some form of dignity/respect. DO NOT GO TO HOSPITAL ALONE IF YOU CAN HELP IT. EVER.
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    Replying to @stefkaufman
    What am I doing about this? - Documenting evidence. Voice recordings. Photos. Videos. Noting what time it was when something happened. Taking notes. - For people w/ no family or support, I have told them I am your daughter now. What do you need? How can I help? What can I do?