Bethel - He is driven by change

Hands-on, committed, full of drive for change - this is how those who have worked with him would probably describe Ulrich Mönkedieck. Yet he says of himself: "I'm the laziest person in the world." He wants to make things easy for himself, which is why he does things directly, he explains. The nursing manager of psychiatric ward A3 at Bethel Protestant Hospital is pragmatic - something he has done well for 45 years of his career at Bethel.

When the then untrained nursing assistant Ulrich Mönkedieck started his career at the end of the 1970s after completing his civilian service at Bethel, many things were still different in the German psychiatric landscape. "There were colleagues who clattered around the corridor with a huge bunch of keys and saw the carers as ward attendants," he recalls. Patients were locked in the "parlour" for days on end and left to their own devices. "I got to know the classic closed ward." He liked the nursing profession, but the attitude towards patients less so. Even then, his idea of what psychiatric care should look like was different.

"I would choose this job again and again because I can't imagine any other job where you get so much positive feedback."
Ulrich Mönkedieck

He trained as a social and community educator. "I didn't want to be satisfied with the circumstances and looked for allies." He was not alone in this. Psychiatry in Bethel was in a state of upheaval. "The 1980s and 1990s were very exciting times." Dr Niels Pörksen, a formative figure in psychiatric reform, arrived in 1984. He introduced social psychiatric elements and developed new structures - despite headwinds from Bethel.

A regular exchange between the ward managers is important: Ulrich Mönekdiek and Dr Georgeta Dembski have been working closely together for 13 years.

A few years later, there were no longer any closed wards in the hospital. Patients were involved in treatment decisions. "That was revolutionary," says Ulrich Mönkedieck. However, there were also colleagues who were critical of the changes. "I realised that if I wanted to change something, I had to become a ward manager and put together my own team."

Ulrich Mönkedieck has now been a ward manager for over 30 years. He favours a democratic management style: "Everyone in the team should contribute their ideas." Of course there are conflicts, that's normal after all. But he is keen to solve problems at an early stage. "It is important to me that the nursing staff are self-confident and that the hierarchies are as flat as possible," says Ulrich Mönkedieck. He has worked closely with the medical ward manager, Dr Georgeta Dembski, for 13 years. The senior physician greatly appreciates her colleague. "He is a good judge of character." The team will miss him very much. This is because the long-serving Bethel employee will be retiring in August.

Ulrich Mönkedieck is looking forward to the new phase of his life. He won't miss his work, but he will miss his colleagues. He is tired after more than 40 years in the job. The past few years in the pandemic have been particularly exhausting. "I would still choose the profession again and again, because I can't imagine any other job where you get so much positive feedback," he emphasises. For nursing staff, psychiatry is attractive because you have more time for patients than in other areas. Ulrich Mönkedieck is not yet thinking about what he will do with his free time in the future: "I've never made any plans in my life and I'm not going to start now."

Text: Christina Heitkämper | Photos: Mario Haase

This story simply told

Ulrich Mönkedieck has been working at Bethel for 45 years. For over 30 years, he has been the head nurse of a ward in the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Bethel Protestant Hospital. During this time, he has experienced and helped to shape many changes.

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    Evangelisches Klinikum Bethel (EvKB)
    Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
    Haus Gilead IV
    Remterweg 69/71
    33617 Bielefeld

    0521 772-700

    To the website of the facility

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    The Evangelisches Klinikum Bethel (EvKB) - Universitätsklinikum OWL der Universität Bielefeld (UK OWL) - is a maximum care hospital and one of the most important healthcare facilities in NRW. With a wide range of inpatient, outpatient and day-care services, 170,000 patients a year receive specialised treatment - from infancy to old age. 5,000 employees work at the hospital. The Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy treats mentally ill patients from the Bielefeld area. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has given it the care mandate for this purpose.

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