Trauma from force feeding, over medication and over restraint on a general ward for our 14YO - anyone else?

[AnonMM]

Hi—our daughter was admitted to a hospital in Tooting after refusing to eat during a mental health crisis. She was under CAMHS level 3 care at the time.
Despite repeated requests to move her to a nearby mental health unit, which had space, she was kept on a general children’s ward for 3 months. Her distress escalated; she resisted NG tube feeding and became increasingly dysregulated and withdrawn from us as parents. She was disappearing in front of our eyes. On the ward she was frequently violently restrained—often for feeding—and over medicated. Care was inconsistent: sometimes compassionate, but more often traumatic and aimless. The focus was (unsuccessfully) on containment and control, not treatment. Neither the ward nor CAMHS would engage meaningfully with her mental health while she wasn’t eating.

After sustained pressure by her and us, she was finally transferred to a secure mental health unit which could support with NG feeding. She was in a terrible state by then and had suffered much physical and mental harm.

Upon moving wards, she stabilised and began to recover. Two years on, she’s doing incredibly well, but the trauma from the months on that general ward still affects her.

We don’t want any child to go through this. Hospitals must learn: young people in mental health crisis shouldn’t be kept in inappropriate settings and effectively left to rot away.

We are aware that if we decide to embark on the route of pushing for change that it's a lonely path. Before we take this further, surely we are not alone in this experience. Has anyone had a similar experience or know of anyone who has?

Not exactly the same, but one of my daughters was treated on a general ward for ED and the general tone of all treatment is like they are naughty children and are constantly 'in trouble', with added layers of traumatising every now and again. They have a very outdated protocol for ED, as well as some strange beliefs about family care/home hospital, and I think much of this is outdated and not supported by the evidence. The belief is that if you feed your anorexic or non eating child, their brains will recover as it's the lack of nutrition that is driving their abnormal thinking. Under this rationale, it's fine to essentially pressure/force eating at all costs. I think it's far more likely that many children have traumatic and MH related disorders and distress and their refusal to eat is connected with that, the ED is more of a symptom than anything else. The fact they don't treat MH at all, and just focus on the ED is quite bizarre.

The whole few year were incredibly stressful for me. Many of those in ED world are campaigning for more compassionate care and trauma informed care, there was a march last Sat in London that was about this.

My dd is in recovery although her own view is she will always be vulnerable to ED at times of stress and that it's a lifelong predisposition for her, even though she is weight restored and living a relatively normal life.

The ALLIANCE study at the University of Loughborough is looking at how to enhance therapeutic alliance in ED hospital stays.

It is my understanding that they are admitted to a general Paeds ward as they are medically unwell, therefore require refeeding in a medical environment alongside initial medication.
These are general Paeds wards so whilst may have some CAMHS liaison teams, they are not ED psych teams.
Most professionals try to keep young people out of Level 3 psych units, the outcomes are debateable. Having refeeding to a medically acceptable weight and then community ED teams at home is the optimal for young people.