Recently, I started an internship at a psychiatric research institute. On my first day of the internship, I got extremely lost because the research institute is surrounded by a maze of buildings and I had no idea which one I had to go into. Thank goodness I left 40 minutes early and got to my internship on time. However, while I was trying to find my building, I walked into a residential building for people with mental and physical disabilities.

Now, when I say I "walked in," I literally just walked in. No locks on the doors. No security. Nothing. When I walked in, the right side of the building looked dark and abandoned, so I turned left where there were lights on. I had no idea where I was, so I walked into the break room, praying someone could help me. Thank goodness there was a sweet woman there who was a sign language interpreter for the patients who helped me find my way. I told her I was an intern and all of a sudden, her face lit up and was very excited. Just as she was going to introduce me to the patients and give me a tour, I told her "I'm actually working in the labs, not with patients." With that, she then directed me to the building across the street where the labs were and I was very thankful.

The problem that I had with this interaction with this woman was that I was a strange person that she was willing to let interact with the patients, only knowing that I am ostensibly an intern and my name is Gianna. It was frightening to me that anyone could walk in there and say the same thing, and automatically interact with the patients. I could have been a pedophile or a drug dealer. I was wearing a backpack, too, so I could have had a gun or a bomb. Of course I didn't have any of these things because I was a lost 19-year-old intern wearing a floral dress, but in today's world, you never know what could happen.

On top of that, the residential building that is supposed to be the patients' home was far from that. The floors were concrete, there was graffiti on the outside of the building, it was dirty, and it was overall depressing and looked like a prison. These people deserve a higher quality of life. They deserve to have a security guard to make sure that only authorized people can enter the building. They deserve to have a clean and comforting home. They deserve to have the utmost respect.

I hope and pray that state mental health facilities will give patients what they need and deserve. They are not prisoners, but people like you and me.