Some of the things I have heard of people suffering in psychiatric wards is TERRIBLE. I think that laws should be changed to protect psychiatric patients from harm.
Firstly, I wouldn't advocate prolonged restraints; I've actually passed out during one.
What does everyone else think?
Share your experiences if you want, or give ideas for what should be changed.
[if this idea sucks, tell me and I'll delete the post]
PM me if you want a PDF copy of the ICD-10or the Mental Health Act 1983/2007. I ALSO HAVE THE DSM-V BOOK and am a pharmacology student.
I have a visual impairment / neurological problems so I need people to type in clear text and no funny fonts. Also excuse any typos, my vision blocks things out.
I have autism and have problems communicating, PMs included.
Just becasue I type well doesn't mean I speak well. I am only part time verbal.
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.
MissAnnonymous, thank you for your post, you give sound advice.
I agree that people are often too unwell to complain. I've seen a girl who was a normal weight force-fed until she was clearly rather overweight, then forced to eat a ridiculous amount of food every day considering that she was depressed and catatonic, and barely did anything except sit and stare at the floor. She came in a normal weight and came out almost obese. She was too unwell to put up a fight though.
PM me if you want a PDF copy of the ICD-10or the Mental Health Act 1983/2007. I ALSO HAVE THE DSM-V BOOK and am a pharmacology student.
I have a visual impairment / neurological problems so I need people to type in clear text and no funny fonts. Also excuse any typos, my vision blocks things out.
I have autism and have problems communicating, PMs included.
Just becasue I type well doesn't mean I speak well. I am only part time verbal.
I have never been in a psych ward though i think its awful. That people go in sometimes ok not with there consent but the abuse when your already unwell. I cant stand! No one should have to go through abuse anyway and you go in there to be kept safe. Its sick. my opinion.
I've heard a bit about this... even heard of people dying due to some things (mainly the restraints)!
It's the same with everything, there are some good and some bad examples. But more should be done about this as people on pysiatric wards are generally vulnerable, and so should be protected not abused.
There is a website I know of that has a lot of info on this topic and a form to use to report psychiatric abuse, and some of the stories are just awful
I think its horrible. I cant think of anything that I've seen but I know it happens. And heard by someone very close to me about something thats happened but its not my place to discuss it.
Anyways, I think forced treatment like restraining and IM'ing is a bit barbaric. I understand that its necessary sometimes, but maybe restraining then calming the person down in a different mannor instead of forcing drugs into their body would be better?
Its awful and it happens in care homes, hospitals, bleh :/
x
Thank you for the replies.
Ami, I agree, they should devise better ways of calming down patients.
Shadow-light, I think I know which website you're talking about and I agree with you too.
Secret Pain, it is sick, some of the nurses on the adult ward I was on must have been twisted.
PM me if you want a PDF copy of the ICD-10or the Mental Health Act 1983/2007. I ALSO HAVE THE DSM-V BOOK and am a pharmacology student.
I have a visual impairment / neurological problems so I need people to type in clear text and no funny fonts. Also excuse any typos, my vision blocks things out.
I have autism and have problems communicating, PMs included.
Just becasue I type well doesn't mean I speak well. I am only part time verbal.
I was restrained because I didn't want to go to the dinner hall, & I accidentally hit a staff member when they were trying to take me to the hall. I was apologizing over & over, & I was quite distressed, but they kept dragging me into the secluded room... & they still held me whilst I was sitting down... I hated that. They didn't listen to me, & they didn't see how sorry I was & that it was an accident.
I just wanted to go to my room & to be left alone, I don't see why they had to restrain me & didn't listen to what I wanted at all. I hate being controlled.
This isn't as bad as what others have experienced, but yeah.
The hospital didn't help me at all & made me worse.
Well ive been in 5 hoispitals and they were all different. One nof the worst things ive seen was in the Cooks centre:
There was a yong girl and she had previously tried to kill herself by jukping into the river. She therefore didnt take baths because it reminded her of the bad times. ONe night se went in the bath and another patient was concerened so she informed staff. They said they would check her but they didnt. So she asked again, yet they still di nothing. She actually ended up almost dying because she rtied to kill herself, luckily another patient found her.
Honestly that place was god awful.
And if your thoughts should turn to death, you gotta stub them out like a cigarette..
Yeh The Newberry was the best of the 5 and the staff were mainly fantastic. Apparantly alot of the nurses I knew have left (I still see one of them) and someone who had been in after id left sad its not very good anymore.......... shame
And if your thoughts should turn to death, you gotta stub them out like a cigarette..
thankfuly the hospitals i have been in havnt been bad in a major way...apart from perhaps being talked to like a lesser person if you are not happy with your treatment speak up. you are there to get help and recover if need be ask to be moved to another unit.
^^ Well I was sectioned so I wasn't there to "get better" or get any treatment, I was just there under a section 2 & then released... 'cause I was a risk to myself, was sectioned after my fourth OD. After I got out, that place didn't help & I got so much worse & carried on attempting to take my life time&time again & severely self harming, & very mentally unstable, etc.
I've been in about five different hospitals and never really saw anything happen. I saw a lot of restraints, but in my opinion they were justified as the patients concerned were trying to either kill themselves or attack another patient/member of staff.
The worst thing about being in the secure hospital under section though was that my psychiatrist refused to believe I was well and she was going to renew my section for another six months. The nurses could all see I was fine but she didnt for some reason. In the end the managers refused to let the section be renewed! But it was horrible being told I was unwell and lacking insight when I knew I was fine.
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different…
you once called your brain a hard drive, well say hello to the virus.
Yes but it is not your choice, so you are not choosing to get better or to recover or to get treatment, it is forced upon you.
& you can't be forced to get better or recover.
#restraints lasting hours at a time
#complaining about being physically abused, being told that i was too ill to know what was going on
#16 IM's in a day
#seclusion room with no toilet/fresh air etc for 38 hours
#being discharged from private hospital cos funding stopped
#spending over 6 months without going outside in fresh air
#forced to have ect at 16
#being pinned down 4 times a day by 5/6 people to be tube fed
#not being allowed to see family
#being refused meds for physical complaints eg diabetes and epilepsy
#being watched in bathroom every time for over 2 years
#being given a criminal record for assault - throwing a cup of cold water on staff
#had personal belongings taken away and lost
in all the hospitals i have been in, both adult and child, private and nhs, if you spent just a couple of hours on the wards, you would see criminal offences occuring. and they expect you to get better? no. what they mean by better is quiet and no trouble to them, so as long as you are drugged up all day, they are happy. obviously they haven't heard of resisting the sedatives!
The worst thing that happened to me was having all of my clothes and possessions taken away and all my bed linen because I had hidden a blade and self harmed whilst on 1:1. But again, I can see why they did it as they thought I had hidden more blades and they were trying to stop me self harming.
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different…
you once called your brain a hard drive, well say hello to the virus.
