I have been in good hospitals and bad ones. The bad one I was in was terrible, and I havent heard of anyone with a good word to say about the place. Conversely the good hospital was excellent and a lot of people I know who went there say the same. So its clear they vary a lot.
Both were NHS hospitals, the good one an adolescent unit and the **** one, an adult unit, surprise surprise.
I think the worst thing about it is the people in such a place are too unwell to complain. I know I was, I did tell my parents what people said to me and they thought it was me being 'me' aka, taking everything the wrong way to which is was supposibly intended.
Im not sure what can be done, though I agree wholeheartedly something HAS to be done.
Some places seem to be a breeding ground for emotional/physical abuse in hospitals because once the majority of people working on a unit enforce that attitude, the only people left either follow suit, or become disgusted and leave their job... the only people that end up staying are abusive, or seemingly able to ignore their collegues behaviour.
If I could have recorded what was said on camera or dictaphone/mp3 device, I sorely wish I had of done. I always consider bringing my mp3 player (which can record 10mins of audio at a time) into all meetings with psychiatric professionals or into hospital; because I know proving something happened is damn near impossible, and thats if your even fit enough to complain in the first place.
My advice to anyone experiancing abuse or mistreatment in hospital is to;
-Tell a decent member of staff, if there is one
-Tell your friend or family and ask them to make a complaint for you
-Get a recording device and try and film/record sound and complain yourself
-Write down what was said, by whom, and when, and keep it as a record, as soon as you are well enough to use the evidense, report the person/people
The last 2 are all so dependant on being mentally well enough to carry out these tasks that I can see why so many cases are not investigated.
It makes me so angry that the people supposed to care for you at your most vulnerable can have so little empathy or compassion, and in the end, those staff that ignore what goes on have just as little compassion as the people who abuse or mistreat. Its incredibly damaging and makes many illnesses worse.
I know someone who has seen a girl being dragged accross the floor by her hair in a ward in London, and suffered carpet burns on her face. I have been screamed at for self harming and dragged viciously into a room where several people stood around me and called me pathetic, stupid, and a time waster... Amoungst other experiances.
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