Inside The Madhouse: Miss Donna Tells All: A former psychiatric nurse takes you behind the doors of a locked unit - Tapa blanda

A memoir of the author's experiences while working on a locked psychiatric unit. Her story is part tell-all, part comedy and part tragedy. She also gives her opinion on how the mental health system can be improved. Also included is a thorough discussion and history of communicable diseases that threaten all patients and staff, as well as the general public. The author also sounds a warning bell about the fiscal fragility of Medicare, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Donna Cohen was born a healthy nine pound expat in the north side of Pittsburgh. She understood from childhood that when the Universe placed her in Pittsburgh, it was only joking. If she had been able to choose, she would have picked a more exotic locale to start the adventure called life. Taking a cue from another famous emigrant, Andy Warhol, she left to see the world ten minutes after graduating high school. Her adventures took her from Montreal to Key West and along the way, she attended that venerable institution, The School of Hard Knocks. Finally, the Universe smiled on her and she got a graduate assistant position at Temple University in Philadelphia. She never did finish her Master's degree in Journalism, but a chance meeting at a happy hour led her to meet the love of her live, Arthur Cohen. The two married and lived an unconventional life in a very conventional upper-middle class suburb. They have two children, who grew up traveling wherever frequent flier miles and their mother's whims took them. Donna and Arthur lived in a geodesic dome where they hosted annual jazz or funk parties that numbered over 100 guests, including the band. Their parties became so well known that some guests came uninvited. The couple took this as a compliment. Somewhere in between traveling, hosting parties and carpooling, Donna managed to get a degree in nursing at the ripe young age of 46. She was one of two students to be graduated from Holy Family University summa cum laude in 1997. She worked as a psychiatric nurse for a decade and a half, before the couple relocated to Puerto Rico. It seems that she ended up in an exotic locale after all. Now she has an international group of friends, and some refer to her kitchen counter as Donna's Bar. Her specialty is a killer vodka martini. Donna serves as the vice president of the Newcomers Club of Puerto Rico, and is a member of the Act 20/22 Society. She has rubbed shoulders with both billionaires and bums, and does not see a great difference between the two, at least on a human level. She is the editor of a blog, Puerto Rico My Style.com It's fun once you know how.