If not for BMHI …

After rising above and beyond the call of duty day after day, the last thing Bangor Mental Health Institute’s mental health workers, LPNs and registered nurses need to hear is that mental health workers here perceive the patients as less than human. I know the Bangor Daily News is not the originator of this negative statement. What angers me is that it was publicized.

If anything, I would say it is departments or organizations such as the Department of Human Services, Community Health and Counseling Services and Acadia Hospital that have been known to perceive BMHI’s mental health workers as less than human.

The “Acadia’s Decade” editorial (BDN, Aug. 27) emphasizing 10 years of existence and experience seems to peculiarly overshadow BMHI’s 100 years of existence and experience. I assume we are to believe that newer is better.

I have never worked at Acadia, so I can’t make a fair judgment on its positives and negatives. One thing I can say for sure is that we are no worse. We must have learned something about the treatment in mental health in our 100 years.

You asked us to ask ourselves: “Where would we be without Acadia?” We need to ask the question: “Where would Acadia and the state of Maine be without BMHI?”

Skip Umel

Bangor