Inimical

That room can use a visit by the Design on a Dime crew.

reminds me of my first apartment

B.E., you're crackin' me up just like that paint.....

was this size room the norm, or were only a few this small?

These rooms are very small. Looks to be on a upper floor with the vaulted ceiling. Was this room in one of the dormers?

Am I the only one who just had to visit dictionary.com?! I feel so.... stupid? Great shots Motts!

For any future questions about the title:
Inimical: Having the disposition or temper of an enemy; unfriendly; unfavorable.

Peaches - don't feel bad - I will not tell you how long it took me to figure out "Opacity"

Wow thanks CAS and Peaches...you learn something new everyday!

Great shot..again i love this room and I now want doors on all my windows.

WAIT A SECOND>>>HOLD THE PHONE..... I just looked up the definition of opacity (as I seriously thought it was a word Motts had made up) and I think I've been prounouncing it wrong. I've been saying it like "Opal City" without the "L".

I feel like such a turd.

"Here's your room, with locking window in case you really loose it"

In a definition a bit more clearer as to how it applies here:

Inimical:
1. adverse in tendency or effect; unfavorable; harmful: a climate inimical to health.
2. unfriendly; hostile: a cold, inimical gaze.
(taken directly from dictionary.com)

I took Opacity as being derived from the word Opaque.... because I used to wear "Opaques" pantyhose. Sorry for the totally uncool reference there Motts.

Felyne, you're right on the money- Motts uses opacity to describe the dirty, often opaque views that he gets of these old structures

BigEd ... yes, and they would only spend a nickle lol

Looks like someone took a sledgehammer to the walls...Even though its just the paint or whatever (am I right?) it almost seems to have a cave-in or something...Great shot, I love the lighting.

looks like solitary confinment

It's odd that it's just that one corner, pretty much, that's decaying.

I get the feeling that this was the straight-jacket room. Its enables the person to be shut off from the outside world and all civilization by the closing of the window. Then when you calmed down the jacket could be removed, window opened. We also see that it has heat in it, for long periods of confinement. It's a researched and proven fact that people deprived of sunlight and the outside world fall into a severe state of depression.

The size and domed ceiling reminds me of the Ottawa hostal, formerly the Ottawa county Jail.

Is that a sadistic thing to do or what?
If you're gonna lock it, then don't put a window there at all!
Why give this hope to the poor people who'd rediscover fear of the dark in there?
Grim... very grim.

I hate to see that such measures had to be taken on the ill. That room makes me sad.

wow.

no sunlight if you dont do this right.
makes me feel really bad for the person who had to stay in this room.

Imagine the patient's in state of panic as he/she shuttle fro & back.

http://e.photos.cx/Nor...heNarrowRoom-e55.gif

Most likely the door on the window was used a precaution to those patients who were out of control and a huge danger to themselves. They could easily try to break the windows and slit their throats or wrists with the glass shards before any nurse or doctors could get to them. Gives the room a more sinister feel though even with that thought put into realistic contexts.

Its a small scary space...could you image being locked up in such a small room with no light...no nothing. That in itself would make me totally depressed . Just think of all the patients that were locked up in there. Wow........Great photo again Motts!!!

Because of the huge radiator in the room, I don't think this was used as a seclusion room, because the person locked in there could have seriously hurt themselves with that radiator.

I worked there. The window door says seclusion room, but I can't remember a radiator in one

If this is a seclusion room, the intent was not for it to be used as a punishment (I'm sure sometimes it was, most likely by overworked, totally stressed-out staff, but the fact that it was misused does not mean it did not have a legitimate purpose). Sometimes patients will actually request to use a time-out room, able to recognize that they are too close to losing control, and knowing that they need a place with minimal stimulation where they can be alone and safely discharge all the negative energy and emotion. Yelling, screaming, crying, pounding the walls, etc. until the person is once again calm. It is considered a sign of progress when a person can recognize how his/her emotions are escalating, and requests a brief period of isolation. The hope is that the person will continue to progress to the point where other coping strategies are developed and utilized, and seclusion is no longer needed.

When seclusion is used properly, it requires a lot of extra documentation and monitoring, periodic consultation with the psychiatrist if it continues beyond a specified duration of time (15 minutes is the time span that was used in the places I've worked). Each use of seclusion/time out is reviewed by the client rights committee. Any regulatory or supervising agency always looks very, VERY closely at records of seclusion and time out. The facility is required to have a formal policy addressing the use of time-out and seclusion (where the time-out or seclusion room is, what it contains, under what circumstances it can be used, what other options have to be unsuccessfully implemented before seclusion is used, the follow-up required, etc.) So staff are very unlikely (today) to use it inappropriately, if for no other reason than to avoid all the extra paperwork and investigation. The protocol for time out or seclusion requires that staff take steps to re-establish rapport with the patient afterwards.

I know that I, personally, would prefer to be locked in a small room by myself to calm down than be physically held/restrained by staff until I calmed down. Time-out/seclusion instead of physical restraint also reduce the risk of injury to the patient, the staff, and other patients.

dme, I was about to post that my claustrophibia was about to act up with this window door in a small room, thinking about possible misuse of this room. Thank you for putting a new light on the subject for us!