Was in A & E very recently. Through the flimsy curtain, could hear a patient talking to a doctor about a paracetamol overdose after a row with her partner. She had young kids and was seeing a CPN regularly. Doc said that they'd have to alert the police and that the pysch team would be down. (At that point, she should have been taken into a side room, surely.) The woman seemed unhappy about having prolonged medical treatment which apparently was what was required. I left but, as I was doing so, could see a policeman escorting her through A & E to the exit. She was crying - saying that she'd had enough of 'services' etc.
I found this disturbing. I guess by this stage, she'd decided not to stay in hospital but couldn't someone other than a male police officer deal with this situation, at least to start with? I don't know where the pysch team were but what about a nurse, a midwife if available (if postnatal issues were behind her depression) - an on call MHN?
I wanted to rush up to her and tell her about MN, about local support but, very obviously, I couldn't.
Was the hospital correct in saying that in (adult) OD cases, the police must be called in?
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Mental health
Overdose + hospital + police notified?
Eleanor04 · 03/01/2016 16:19
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