Ethics and Repentance

Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives. (Matthew 3:8) Last Tuesday, I spent the day in Macon taking a continuing education workshop on certified peer support ethics. The presenters kept reminding us of the Hippocratic oath, which begins with the famous phrase, “First, do no harm” and I kept wondering to myself, “Why doesn’t this apply to mental hospitals?” It seemed to me that the staff at the last hospital I was in thought that as long as they weren’t hitting us, then they were being ethical, but there are other kinds of abuse other than simply physical. Ignoring, gaslighting, coercion, calling people names, condescending tones, raised voices can all be a part of emotional abuse. I consider chronic understaffing, poor training, and no deescalation skills as the breeding grounds for emotional, spiritual abuse and neglect. Now, not all hospitals are the same - a few mistakes everywhere is expected, but the last hospital I was in stood out - the c