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You've heard the care industry's lies. Now you will hear the reality. I saw them drop a lady. I rolled out of there that day and lived on the streets a good while. It's safer on the streets. Dorothy R., Pennsylvania, nursing home survivor I love being in a real home again. All my friends are welcome. I made my own curtains, do my own shopping, and I work as a volunteer. Dolores S., Missouri, nursing home survivor   I was forced to stay there. I had no other choice. You keep asking yourself, 'Is this America?' Jim B., Michigan, nursing home survivor   The way Senator Mo Udall was forced to live his last years in a veterans' hospital because he had Parkinson's -- that shows you. No matter how rich or powerful you are, they can take you away. Ellen M., Virginia   The way they have it planned, nobody gets out of there alive. Saundra H., California   It's like kidnapping. I had no freedom. I had no life. Jack U., Pennsylvania   the nursing home, they would line us up to go on 'outings.' I felt like I was a dog in a dog show. Dolores K., New York   All they do is keep you confined. They lock you up in steel. Then they give you drugs, they say it's to 'decrease your anxiety level.' I'm free today. The being locked up is what causes the anxiety. Glenn O., Ohio   People don't know there are kids in nursing homes. I was in there for thirteen years. I had to fight to get out. It was the beginning of my life at age 22. Claude H., Connecticut   America can't stand to think we all want out of there. But we all do. Robert L., Indiana nursing home survivor   Never put anybody in that hell. Michael P., Virginia, state school survivor   I was nuts then, okay? But being in that place was worse than anything I could have imagined in my delusional paranoia. George E., New York, mental institution survivor   They were going to 'cap' home care in my state. It would have been that you could either get into bed at night or out of bed in the morning. Some people wouldn't get enough assistance to do both in one day. Molly S., Wisconsin, independent living advocate   It was like a jail house, the nursing home. They told me if I left I'd get killed. If stayed there, I'd be killed. I am free now. I come and go as I please and you know what? I don't get hurt. Losing your freedom is what hurts. Karen G., West Virginia   Every day of every year, I wanted to go home. We all did. Norm B., Montana, veterans home survivor   The entire atmosphere was of a zombie-like child care center, where keeping quiet and following rules, usually facilitated by over-medicating the patients, was the main priority. Human touch was prohibited. Neglect was considered therapeutic. Will H., Washington, mental institution survivor   They said I'd never have a job, or a wife, or a child. I have all that now. They wasted years of my life. Jim P., New Mexico, nursing home survivor   I have escaped from hell to tell every American: nursing homes are nothing but concentration camps. Manuel E., New York   It happened right after we got her diagnosis, the whole medical establishment, it was like they ganged up on us. They took me on a tour of the right placement' for my daughter. It gives me the shivers to remember those poor children. They didn't have a thing in the world, not even a mother. I've met people who grew up that way, a few of them who managed to get out. They didn't get 'care' there. Society just threw them away for not being perfect. Elaine M., Tennessee mother of a child with a disability   If one is being coerced to get a treatment, more harm is done than any possible good the treatment could do. Deep down, people know what is and what isn't acceptable to them, what is and what isn't negotiable in their lives. We need to honor that. Ethel Q., psychiatric survivor   In the nursing home, we had to live by their rules. We need a new rule: free our people. George R., Colorado   It was like being a guest in a stranger's house. And the stranger doesn't want you there. Arthur A., Maine, nursing home survivor     More testimony Freedom Clearinghouse is a project of Free Hand Press, publisher of Mouth magazine. Website developed by Cliffwood Organic Works. Website hosted by DIMENET. | E-mail | Home |