To make a complain against my own employer

[tocomplainornottocomplain]

I will be deliberately vague, but will try and put as much info as possible to avoid drip feeding - NC'd.

Very recently I had a phone call at work from a friend who work as a civilian in a police station - she had seen my son (16) in the police station and had found out he had been arrested, been in a cell overnight detained under the mental health act, sectioned and was shortly to be transferred to a secure psychiatric unit.

He had been arrested the night before, my friend phoned me at 1pm in the afternoon. My son had gone to stay the night at a friends about 8 miles away, this was nothing unusual for the summer holidays and I had no reason to be concerned.

I phoned the police station, they said they couldn't tell me much over the phone, my son had just left for the psychiatric unit. They gave me a telephone number.

Then followed a series of phone calls being passed around where nobody was aware where my son was, nobody was expecting him - the phone number was a referral unit who were unaware of my son, the psychiatric unit told me he wouldn't be going there as it was an adult unit, gave me CAMHS number for my area. Phoned them, they didn't know were he was, gave me the number of a different CAMHS - they had never heard of him. Phoned back to the psychiatric unit, and they said oh yes because he was being sectioned he would be going there as he was 16 but would be assessed by CAMHS, phoned back two more CAMHS, also social services and left my number everywhere.

My son had been out with his friend and they had been drinking. My son was in the street threatening to kill himself, which is why he was arrested as he kept saying he was going to kill himself.

I should mention here that I am a health professional working for the same mental health trust that the services above are under. I found the phone calls distressing and was distraught by the end of it, and I am used to speaking to these agencies - if I had been a non health working parent I am pretty sure I would have been worse.

Eventually I got a phone call at 6pm from a social worker, telling me that my son had been discharged, they had put him in a taxi back to an address he had given them - but they couldn't tell me what address it was as my son didn't want me to!

When I said why hadn't I had input into his health care plan - I had PR, they had not asked me any of his mental health or physical health history, and why wasn't he discharged to a parent, they said because he was fraser competent he could take his own consent. I said but surely if he had been sectioned he was deemed incompetent of any sort of consent, they then said he hadn't been sectioned, just detained and he could take consent. They had assessed it was alcohol related and not mental health related and would not be reviewing him.

I also queried that even if it wasn't mental health related, they were not aware of it at the time when they put him in an adult prison cell overnight without informing parents, without establishing his medical status - for all they knew he could be epileptic/diabetic/on meds or anything. My son has had police involvement 6 months ago for an unrelated incident and the police contacted me, so my name and number is linked to his on their system.

My son then went sofa surfing and was unlocatable for a week - I eventually persuaded him to come home, and we are trying to make sense of it all and get him some help.

As well as the extreme worry about my son, I am still absolutely fuming about the way that our family were cut out of the loop of this and the way I was treated when I tried to get information. Also, since when was 16 an adult?

I want to complain to the trust, even though I work for them. My husband is reluctant, and says what difference will it make. I say that I don't want other parents to be treated like this, and I want them to realise that their systems are not working.

[vj32]

I would want to complain. But won't you get your friend into trouble for breaking confidentiality and telling you he was in custody in the first place??

[tocomplainornottocomplain]

I don't think so - I was aware that she had taken a risk, so when I phoned into the police station I said that my son's friend had told me he had been arrested and I was trying to locate him.

[MissMuesli]

Poor you, sounds like a hellish night with lots of miscommunication between agencies. Not sure what to advise but hope you manage to get your son sorted and happy again

[ASmidgeofMidge]

I think police should've made arrangements for the parent/carer to be contacted, and for your son to have had an 'appropriate adult' present even before taking into account the subsequent mh involvement tbh.

[ASmidgeofMidge]

Sorry: in answer to your q I probably would complain. But maybe first seek to meet with someone to get a timeline/sense of the chain of events and decision making processes