Now I get to share with you my reading audience, what I used to do before becoming an author. Mom always said I lived off the seat of my pants with one foot on a banana peel and the other in a grave. You see my job, a Licensed Psychiatric Technician is a dangerous job in that we get combative patients and have to restrain them for their own protection and the protection of others.  Psych Techs are employed in prisons, nursing homes, treatment programs, state hospitals and state hospital prisons.  The pay is good but the injuries are many. It’s a very dangerous job and not for the light hearted. You have to be on your toes all the time, never be alone in hallways or dorms. 

        When I started working, I was in a state hospital for high-risk critically ill children. My kids were post-drowning victims or had disabilities that were so severe they couldn’t live at home, as other kids do.  Psych techs have to be licensed but it doesn’t end at school. You have to take many classes as a PT. Every year there are update classes in medication administration, CPR, management of assaultive behavior and others. Management of assaultive behavior is a class that teaches you how to save your bacon, in other words save yourself and your peers. After 5 yrs of working with the developmentally disabled, I knew it was time for a change so off to another state hospital I went. This was a mental hospital and soon thereafter became a prison. I became a teacher for MAB, and CPR, but years afterwards.  My first assignment was 2 months of orientation to that hospital. Everywhere you go you have a long orientation because each hospital rules are different. In my case, I went to a hospital, which is converted to a prison with the Department of Justice (DOJ) overseeing our work. This meant more training. Lots of training, things the normal jobs don’t offer.  I remained in the prison part of the hospital for the remainder of my years. In safety retirement, you can retire at 55 years old and those many years of state service and I had so many injuries I couldn’t perform my job any longer so I medically retired. That is when I became a teacher and hold credentials for the state of California. I have taught other psych tech programs, CPR and a variety of classes. I also went to school and earned my bachelors degree and my Masters degrees. During one conversation with my fulfillment officer, he asked me to write this article so you can understand me as a person any why I wrote that book on Bullying. There is a lot of that in prisons. I’m just glad I retired with the injuries I had. Some didn’t make it. Little did I know that MAB class I was certified to teach would be able to help kids that are being bullied to protect themselves.

Lydia Greico

Website: www.lydiagreicobooks.com