To think it is too hard to get someone sectioned

[fratricidalwoman]

It seems that there is a very low threshold for capacity and even if this is not passed help isn’t always forthcoming. Or am I missing something?

gamerchick

If somebody is telling you that the law has changed you should challenge it because it has not.

If in your area they are actively using a different criteria that is incredibly worrying.

Problem is if they refuse to engage with those other services what do you do

fratricidalwoman

Indeed, I have no idea what the solution is. I don't think there is a good one.

Tess no the law hasn't changed but you can tell crisis till you're blue in the face that leaving your relative on their own means leaving them at danger to themself as they don't know where they are/ will wander into the road/ are non verbal/ have history of setting fire when mental unwell etc ans it makes no differencs.

Each time my relative gets to crisis point she ends up in general hospital by the time she's sectioned it's so wrong.

The problem is not enough staff and not enough beds so they have an impossible job.

I think the criteria does need to be high, however I think the massive lack of inpatient beds plays a big part in sectioning and it shouldn’t.

I do think due to the huge lack of funding inpatient tends to be about medicating and isn’t a particularly therapeutic environment. I’ve also found that putting someone who has made a serious suicide attempt but isn’t cognitively impaired or psychotic can appear to them to be a punishment, and I can see why they would construe it that way. I always think if people can be treated in the community it is better, but that’s currently idealistic as the CMHT and crisis teams are also dangerously short and stretched.

There are definite failings in the system, and staff burn out is a problem (and some negative attitudes sadly exist) however I think by and large the staff within MH services are trying there best in incredibly difficult circumstances. We need more beds, more staff, more occupational therapy and more psychology.

All of what Bear says. Our huge psych unit is very institutionalised (and frightening) . My relative once went to a unit in Weymouth (as ours was full...) and the difference was incredible. Actual therapeutic community rather than just containing patients. They decided to cook a meal together once while there, open access OT and a garden they could use. It's the only time my relative has actually engaged in treatment and has good memories...

... it's being closed due to cost cutting.

Capacity is covered by different rules than section. Sometimes one or other apply, sometimes both.
Thresholds are high for good reason but it is hard to navigate.
Mind, sane helplines good.

I definitely agree with Bear re: the punishment element. My sectioning was honestly one of the worst times of my life, possibly the worst.

I arrived on the ward at 2 am, after 12 hours sitting in A&E. There was a woman wandering the corridor wearing her pants and nothing else, muttering. When I tried to go the toilet, it was blocked with bloody bandages.

On my first day there, a woman saw me playing with my phone and said to give it to her or she'd cut me. Another woman decided I was there to spy on her from the CIA and used to try and go through my stuff to prove it.

I had zero therapy, zero support. The food was atrocious and basically inedible, the TV didn't work, and all there was to do was wander the corridor, pretty much, and hope for medication time as then I could sleep as they were giving me heavy duty sleeping pills.

The place was useless as any kind of treatment. It did, however, act as a good short term storage solution to keep me alive while sorting out some kind of support structure in the community, which is where any kind of meaningful help came from. But it was awful, I hated it, and it felt like prison to me. I'd not wish that on anyone if there were any alternative.

Our big one seems like that . Frankly a terrifying place to be when psychotic as nothing to do, nowhere to go and you have to carry your bits around with you for fear your roommate will take them.

frat skilled and persistent intervention could potentially help someone who won’t/can’t engage but underfunded services means they can’t provide this.