AIBU to draw attention to how mental health patients are being treated/things having to deal with through lockdown.

[UndertheCedartree]

It's not something that I've really seen spoken about but psychiatric wards are obviously in a difficult position right now but it seems they are more interested in covering themselves than thinking of the patients rights/needs.

One unit I know are not allowing any leave whatsoever. Not even for informal patients...not even just outside the front for a smoke. There is no outside space on the wards so literally no fresh air for any of them and as most MH use smoking as a coping strategy that important strategy has been removed. And surely it must be illegal to keep informal patients detained?

I am usualy on a mental health unit for EUPD during the week and home at weekends. Just before all leave was cancelled I got scared and went home. About 3/4. ward had Covid but many without symptoms. I presuably caught it from someone and have been ill for a couple of weeks. I think my DS may now have it. Obviously I couldn't go back to the ward after catching it. But it has been so difficut. I'm stuck at home with my anxiety through the roof, obsessing about my DCs education and feeling very down that I'm not coping well. I've been at home nearly 4 weeks now and I feel so anxious about going back and leaving my children - I don't know when I'll get leave again. The difficult thing is usualy on leave I have support from a volunteer, a charity helping sort my money and my DC SW plus meetings at school. Obviously not happening now. I also have support from my BF and the DC's dad. Don't get me wrong they've been great - the DC dad has been bringing food round and phones me everyday to see how I am. I've isolated upstairs and my BF has been in a couple of times to disinfect the downstairs, feed the kids and get things from the corner shop for us. Even my brother sent us a fruit and veg box which was lovely.

Sorry this is just a ramble/vent - this is so hard and I feel stuck in a world of anxiety, depression, paranoia, obsession and....far too many cigarettes 😷😞

@Ghostoast - why keep clinging on to the smoking issue? There is so much more in my OP! Why shouldn't they be allowed 'come and go' and get some fresh air? You can - you can go to the shops, to exercise - if you fancy a fag (or glass of wine or chocolate bar) you can. Why are you so outraged at another human having those things?? I bet your mum comes and goes? And just telling seriously unwell people to leave €no proper discharge?) because they might struggle not seeing family or having to stare at 4 brick walls everyday?! But let's say it was all about smoking and therefore who cares what happens to them. I'm so glad my hospital is caring and compassionate not like the horror stories being told here

@Ghostoast - do you really have no sympathy to all the mothers seperated from their children for who knows how long?

@Ghostoast - what are you talking about? Someone imunnocompressed will die if someone goes and stands at the hospital gate to get some fresh air? Do you ever gp out??

@LilacTree1 - thanks
@EL8888 - you said yourself your job isn't to be nice - it is your lack of care and compassion that shines through. Yes swathes of hospitals are smoke free - patients still smoke. The fact you think it is completely fine to just lock patients in with no fresh air. My OP included much more than smoking yet you jumped on that on your high horse. Failed to see this wasn't about smoking policy but a change to a patients routine due to Covid. Didn't comment on other issues. Yes, I am incredibly grateful to not have staff like you at our hospital - they care about us as individuals. What have you put in place to help those you no longer allow to smoke? What have you put in place because of the lack of excercise and patients not been able to get to the shop?

@Complexico - awesome to hear you have goven up. i hope to join you soon we have a great smoking cessation group at my hospital.

UndertheCedartree

Routine is so important to those who suffer with mental health problems. It sounds so easy to other people, but it’s getting into the routine that’s hard! But once you do, will help you a great deal.

I’ve been diagnosed 4 years, but my background is working on low and medium secure units, older people services etc.

I was a smoker but gave up a year ago. I remember when smoking was allowed on units etc, so much of our time was spent dealing with smoking issues- handing out cigarettes, stealing, supervising etc. I didn’t understand that desire for a cigarette even though I was a smoker. Until my mental health deteriorated and I realised that smoking was a big issue for me.

Obviously I can only speak for myself, but giving up, although hard, made my bipolar easier to deal with. I no longer had this desire and want to have a cigarette, the longer, the counting down to the next one, wondering when I was out where I could go for one etc.

It was if this weight had been taken away if that makes sense? So yes I can see it from each point of view- staff, service user, smoker and non smoker. I will stand by my view that I believe more should be done to help people quit. How? I’ve no idea. Funding and resources🤷‍♀️

UndertheCedartree

We have to remember too that many many people are stuck in doors- isolating and shielding. So it’s not only patients in units. There are many in the same boat for similar reasons. Those who live in flats and high rise buildings with no garden or balcony. So they aren’t the only ones. Surely safety is the priority?

Christ alive - you’re not wrong at all, but I’m astounded that you get support from children’s services. My mental health took a nosedive because of domestic violence and the SS GAVE my children to my rapist and my abuser. No professional curiosity, no going back and checking documents to see whether or not the rapist and the abuser were telling the truth: just automatic blanket - you’ve got mental health problems and your children belong with their dads.

I guess I’m glad to see that not all local authorities treat mental health as an automatic bar to being a parent.

And yes - at the best of times mental health is the poor relation in health and social care, but at the moment it’s awful.

@reallymissthegym - yes routine is so important. I've been in hospital over 2 and a half years and it is so hard to get into a routine out of hospital. I was getting there at the weekend but now with all my support gone due to Covid I am really struggling. I remember not so long ago when smoking was allowed on wards too (my background is as a dual trained nurse). I hadn't smoked for 10 years before I became unwell. I stopped at Stoptober last year for a while. For me it feels as if the cigarettes control and it was great to be free from it. But ultimately it wasn't the right time for me. I like most others use smoking as a coping mechanism and now with all the extra anxiety around is not the time to take that crutch away from a patient who is already struggling so much. Luckily my hospital is aware of that.

@Reallymissthegym - yes, there are reasons - I'm self isolating as I have Covid. Others on the ward were self isolating too. I can still go in my garden. Those with balconies can go to the shop or for a walk. I don't see why those on a ward not shielding or self isolating shouldn't also be able to get some fresh air the same as everyone else?

@LaLaLandIsNoFun - I'm so sorry to hear truly heart breaking 💐

Thanks @UndertheCedartree. It’s good to see that some LAs aren’t so appalling. Mine has been told to do something about it (I ‘won’ my complaint against them).

Hang in there, ok? Take all the support you can get and rightfully deserve.

Thankyou @LaLaland - my best wishes to you too ❤

LaLaLandIsNoFun

I’m sorry to hear what you are going/gone through. I can only speak from my experience, I have never had any concerns raised regarding to my parenting. I am a single parent, have a partner who doesn’t live with me, and have two boys 15 & 19, who have different dads (typical bipolar fine it hard to manage a relationship lol). But never once has my parenting been questioned, and my care and treatment plan always at no concern under parenting.

My boys are well clued up on my mental health, and have no worries about telling their friend either. I’ve always made sure friends parents are aware before they stay at my home, but have never had a parent refuse. Normally they are curious and ask questions, which I’m more than happy to answer.

During reviews they will ask how the boys are, what they are up too- GCSE’s and university, talk about their hobbies, friends and girlfriends.
And that’s it.

Do you think areas really treatment parents differently?

@UndertheCedartree they can't come and go on an informal basis as that would be mixing households. Why should staff and other patients be put at risk? And no nobody can go to the shop for chocolate, wine or fags. We are supposed to buy non essentials when buying essentials as otherwise would be selfish and unnecessary.
If you went to walk outside for fresh air you would be crossing paths with multiple people and probably the staff don't want to be in work as it is, and loads are off sick, so it's about protecting them from going off sick.
Me and my mum do not do what we want, we go to work and back, do not mix households, and go to the shop for essentials. Id rather be locked in my house than risking my life for people who are ungrateful.

@Ghostoast - going to the gate for some fresh air is hardly mixing households. We can indeed go to the shop for anything we like as confirmed by the government. But ok by your rules - it is ok for a patient to go to the shop for sanpro? We are allowed out for walks maintaining social distancing - why would we cross multiple people?? You travel to work, make lots of trips to the shop, get fresh air - patients are more at risk from you!!

@Reallymissthegym I Colby only day that my experience is as I said it was - that’s the cliff notes version. I went through right to a stage 3 complaints panel. The panel consisted of one former director of children’s services and two other retired heads of dept (including an AMHP) All three were incredibly concerned at the way I had been treated, at the attitudes of the social workers, at their attitudes nearly two years later when being interviews for the complaints process, at the lack of investigation of allegations, at the lack of understanding of mental health, at the desire to do their best to exclude me from the process as much as they could, at the whitewashing of domestic abuse, and they didn’t believe for one second that I am an isolated case.

In a nutshell their analysis was that: SWs had developed ‘tunnel vision’ based on what my rapist and my abuser said to them (which they in no way tried to verify as true - they just decided it was true).

Oh and not one single professional backed children’s services - but children’s services didn’t give a damn about that sbd if they didn’t hear what they wanted to from MH professionals, they just made it up. And I was able to prove that.

Being “nice” is rarely helpful, typically that involves letting people do exactly what they want and validating or facilitating unwise things. Plus nice is really not the same as care or compassion. Patients have asked me in the past to give them more medication then they have been prescribed (l refuse), patients ask to use escorted leave straight after they have been to court for attacking staff (I refuse and yes routinely report patients to the police for attacking me -my colleagues also report violence / aggression). I’m a qualified professional and l make decisions based on what is best for the patient and not what’s nice. Yes, lm firm, boundaried and professional, not deliberately rude or unpleasant. But lm a professional, in the same way my lawyer when l got divorced was professional and helpful. He wasn’t nice as such but he was there to do a job which he did. There are normally a ward full of unwell patients and people getting better and everyone being safe are my priority

When did l write that it’s fine to lock people up with no fresh air? I didn’t write that as l don’t think that. Smoking cessation products have been available at every hospital l have worked at, smoke inhalers are often one of the first things patients get prescribed

Oh and l don’t know why you think people are going to the shop left right and centre for chocolate, crisps, magazines, cigarettes etc. They really shouldn’t and l haven’t. Its a shop once a week job with everything in it where possible

LaLaLandIsNoFun

Please believe me when I say I am absolutely gutted for what you went through. I haven’t experienced domestic abuse to me, but I was a child who witnessed serious domestic abuse.

But it’s interesting what you say about people not understanding mental health. I’ve worked in a training role for years. Looking for a new job. Interviews go fine until I mention my bipolar then the shutters come down.

This is in an industry that supports people with mental health problems! Yes I know I don’t have to disclose it, but I refuse to keep part of me hidden. I’d rather know before hand what their views are before working somewhere then having to take sick leave. Three places I knew someone who worked there that told me after, that I was going to be appointed until I told them of my bipolar. They thought I would take too much time off. If they’d contacted my references they would have found I hadn’t had one day off in 18 months, and actually my moods made me more productive! lol

But if I can’t secure a job in the industry that are supposed to be the experts on this, then where do I??

@Ghostoast - what have I said that is ungrateful? And how exactly are you risking your life? Do you work on a psych ward? I really hope not with that attitude. The ward is our patients home and we need to always comply with least restrictive practice. Sounds like you want most restrictive practice! Also known as the laziest option.

@Reallymissthegym that’s really harsh and unfair. I have 1 work friend who has bipolar and another who has BPD. Both great staff and very well respected. It’s a shame the employers you have encountered are so blinkered and prejudiced

@Reallymissthegym - sadly that doesn’t surprise me at all. It’s blatant discrimination

the thought of going through that in the current circumstances, without visitors, or tiny pleasures like maybe a smoke might be for someone, or the chance to see the sky, with minimal staff and the fear of sickness as well is honestly unimaginable

You do realise that thousands of covid patients in hospital are doing exactly that? And 20000 of them have died in hospital, many of them alone?