Woman evicted from NHS hospital ward after being stuck for 18 months

[SerendipityJane]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c897ew0ekp4o

Sorry but this is nuts. Nobody has to force her to wear headphones, they could just have security removed and store her / phone? Like a teacher would do.

• "we set up dedicated provision centres for refractory cases of specific psychiatric disorders."

and how do we make them go there and stay there?

This, but there are many people who have tunnel vision in cases like this who are insistent everyone else must pander and bend to the demands of one, and no-one else matters.

Not now perhaps but there was a point when they could have and instead allowed her to learn to behave in this way. It is learned behaviour- from years of drama-creating, shouting, refusing, creating chaos, being violent and knowing people give in to it. The monster was fed and indulged.

Many of those 120 (no doubt private) professional care providers did not want to care for her- why would they? Why would anyone?

I don't understand why they don't just remove the actual bed? She goes to the loo, the bed is wheeled away and not replaced, along with the bedside chair .

There was nothing physically wrong with her that necessitated her being on the ward in a bed after the first, what perhaps a week.She wanted to stay with no right to stay and was an utter nightmare to all and sundry.
Damn right she had no right being in a hospital ward.
Utterly disgraceful that she was in a hospital ward and not psychiatric ward or removed from the hospital within weeks and told she gets placed where she is told or make her own arrangements.
I say this as someone who has been in psychiatric hospital 3 times not sectioned and been in resus and on a ward many many times with chest problems. Screaming and kicking off is par for the course with being in psychiatric hospital but I would have been absolutely raging while receiving in a ward after being in resus and having to suffer this selfish manipulative bitch whilst very physically ill.

She should have been restrained, sedated, removed and placed in a secure medical facility, if necessary kept sedated.

My guess is she didn’t leave her bed - probably for that very reason.

Actually, there is a difference for me when I'm at the receiving end, for verbal abuse anyway.

A long time ago, I was in a hobby group with a man whose wife was disabled. It got to end-of-life stage, but he didn't tell us that. His character changed suddenly, he became awful, people started to leave. For reasons relating to the structure of the hobby group, I sat near him and I got the worst of it. I started skipping meetings to avoid him. I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong to cause this.

Then she died and only then he finally told us that she'd been dying for a while. I realised that his personality change had happened at the same time that she'd started terminal decline. I knew it wasn't my fault any more, it was him reacting unfairly to the stress. Note: I say "reacting unfairly", because, whilst knowing why allowed me to reframe it, it didn't make it nice.

This doesn't respond to my original question which this poster quoted. I understand and accept both those points but still wonder where and when is the line drawn. Yes the needs of others were considered but there was still 18 months of disruption on that ward and almost as long when other vulnerable people were delayed in getting the bed they needed.

My question was theoretical but still ask how do we manage the manage the human rights of one person when they impinge on the human rights of another? Imagine if your Mum, say, had been in the next bed, had been stuck in a corridor waiting for a bed or been an already stressed nurse on the ward.

It is easy to take a side but that solves nothing in the current situation re health and social care. We need to face up to the difficult decisions.

By definition, someone who's cutting, even if it is with the intention to manipulate, is mentally-ill. No sane person harms their own body like that.

People mutilate themselves all the time. When I was in college it was fashionable amongst some (the Emos) to cut themselves. Some even liked to brand patterns into their skin. Doesn't mean they were not sane.

I've talked already about how a structural solution requires nationalisation of social care.

What we don't do to resolve this is claim that EUPD is "pathologised selfishness" nor call patients "bitches". That's not "taking sides", that's demanding that the patient be treated as human even when we have lost patience with her.

Emos who self-harm and self-brand aren't what I would call sane. Bet they weren't using sterile procedure?

Your body isn't a blank canvas, it's you, and you can't replace it if you screw up.

@selffellatingouroborosofhate

There's a lot of assumption that she was cutting herself. If someone is at genuine risk of self harm by cutting, tell me - would that person be permitted to have a sharp knife about their person to cut up their apples with? Would they be issued with standard stainless steel cutlery? This inpatient was, and I never once saw her attempt anything inappropriate with them.

She did however take offence at being asked to turn her music down. So she ate several bags of crisp, biscuits and drank milkshake before inducing repeated vomiting by sticking her fingers down her throat. She then proceeded to lie down and pick the vomit bowl up, deliberately pouring it over her face, before pressing her call bell and fake choking on her own vomit (having quickly thrown the empty sick bowl under the bed first to hide the evidence).

Thankfully, an earlier nurse hadn't shut her curtains fully at one end, thus affording me a clear view of the whole shit show from my bed opposite. I gladly informed the nursing staff what had actually happened, and I was spat at for my troubles.

I'm truly sorry for your trauma, but honestly you are giving a benefit of the doubt to someone who massively doesn't warrant it.

I'm much more stable now too. I think I'm getting better and current therapist seems satisfied too.

Thanks for understanding, I appreciate it so much. It's good to know someone "gets it" although I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Same to you @LaTristesseDureraToujours

Ah 'demanding' least you're honest with your insistence that no view or opinion than what you say is the right one is allowed @selffellatingouroborosofhate

Some of my previous bosses have been pretty abusive, including one who did that Henry Eight stance and facial expression where he looks like he's about to sock the artist who's painting him. That was in retail. Some customers were terrible too, swearing, banging money on the counter.

They didn't ever tell me an explanation for their behaviour so I couldn't use them as an example of when I discovered that knowing why matters for me.

You have twisted what I have said.

Disabled people have the right to be treated as human and we have the moral obligation to demand that right for other disabled people.

There is a prevailing view that disabled people should be grateful for everything we get, that we are only here under sufferance and should never forget it. We aren't allowed to have bad days or be sad. If we show any emotion, it should be pollyanna positivity or fawning gratitude. Nah, we are human, even the most difficult of us.

So you've previously worked in retail, when/what role have you worked in health care to have your sanctimonious view of it?

I don't believe I said anything of the sort, nor would I even think it. But everyone deserves to be treated as human which goes back to my point. What do we do when maintaining one person's human means impinging on the human rights of others? Even with nationalisation of social care (which I fully support) this is still a moral question we have to answer.

It’s not a case of losing patience, there was absolutely no right for her appalling behaviour to have been suffered by anyone else, patients or staff.
And that’s over and above the appalling fact she bed blocked for a disgraceful amount of time without being physically ill.
Oh it’s proper pissed me off.

@selffellatingouroborosofhate am assuming you're on the report and delete train now, I looking back at earlier posts see you have you have your eggs in the patients baskets with your stating re screaming at staff when things aren't going your way, ao no point engaging as I'll end up banned with repeated reports!