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CCTV Cameras: Big Brother in Mental Health

By: Nahshon Roberts

If you are of the opinion that CCTV cameras are instruments used by Big Brother-type governments and employers to spy on your most private matters, then you will welcome their presence in medical care facilities for those with mental illnesses. And if you are also of the opinion that Big Brother contestants need to have their brains checked with the way they flirt with and flaunt at the cameras 24/7, you cannot accuse staff and patients with such deliberate displays of skin and silliness.

Patient Safety and Therapy

From your readings, you have known that mental illnesses like depression can induce suicidal thoughts. CCTV cameras help in monitoring patients that are in danger of self-destructive behaviors as well as in monitoring others who can be endangered by said actions. Since nurses cannot check on the patients 24/7, the surveillance system acts as the eye in the sky that enables them to assess conditions within the patients’ rooms without need for constant patrolling. They are nurses, not patrol guards after all.

There is also the consideration of alerting other medical care providers should destructive behaviors happen. CCTV cameras can be incorporated with panic emergency systems. Without surveillance cameras to capture events as they happen, health facilities would have a hard time monitoring everybody for their own good.

Also, surveillance cameras help in formulating medications and therapies even with geographical distance in the picture. Just imagine the potentials of telemedicine where patients and medical care providers stay in touch via the wonders of technology like two-way closed circuit television! If you live in a rural area that offers little by way of expert medical care, telemedicine is a heaven-sent alternative.

Pharmacy Access

Unfortunately, some patients with mental illnesses are either guilty of substance abuse or guilty of contemplating drugs to harm themselves to oblivion. With CCTV cameras in a security system, access to pharmacies is limited to authorized personnel. The opportunities for sneaking into and stealing from the drug cabinets, which are heaven-sent for the addicted and the obsessed, are therefore lessened.

And this goes for authorized staff, too. Hospital administration can monitor violations of safety rules and regulations on medication dispensing as well as theft and pilferage by the staff. Indeed, you will hear reports of medical care providers profiting from the sale of strictly-prescribed drugs that you could not get anywhere!

Panic Alarms

As previously stated, CCTV cameras can be implemented alongside panic emergency systems. When the nurses observe anything out of the ordinary on the closed circuit television, they can either check out the situation or activate the panic alarm. This is especially convenient when you work with many patients on many rooms.

When panic does ensue, surveillance cameras provide an extra set of eyes to alert authorities on areas that will need reinforcements and results. You do remember those movies where surveillance cameras are used to identify areas of concern, don’t you?

If your worry is about unscrupulous use of video footages of patients with mental illnesses, you need not worry. Though footages from CCTV cameras are kept for a year depending on policy, these are not broadcasted to others. Everybody’s human rights are respected and this goes even for our brothers and sisters who are afflicted with such unfortunate illnesses.

Now, if only the madness of Big Brother contestants have any cure.

Article Source: http://www.newagelivingarticles.com

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