I have been sectioned.

[lazyhazydaisy]

I have just got access to the internet. I am much less petrified than I was at first but definitely 0 out of ten. I have a tribunal and if that fails I think I will be here until July. I feel as though I am living in a nightmare. I have never felt so alone.

The police, I mean. Why make a hole in my door which is hundreds of years old, instead of my 1930s window.

I have spoken to a lot of people here who have been treated even more brutally by the police. I have a nurse assigned to me and, whatever else her views, she is full of horror stories about how the police have treated people who are sectioned. Women in their late 60s, forced into straightjackets and forced to kneel with their hands tethered to a sort of ring on the side of the police van.

If it hadn't happened to me I would not believe it.

Daisy, maybe you could blog? Maybe it would help? If you do, be careful not to make yourself recognisable.

Good luck.

When is your tribunal? Please stay strong till then.

Gosh, I am shocked to hear how they took you away - seems very heavy handed

I've had some time in a MH unit about 30 years ago and it was pretty horrific tbh; I visited someone in a unit about a year ago and it was an entirely different kettle of fish - thank goodness. Is your room ok? It sounds like you're chatting to the nurses which must normalise things a bit. What do they let you have - can you get someone to bring in some arts materials? Or some decent books? You need some beauty around you in some form or other eg books, flowers. The language tapes sound great.

This must be an immense shock. Thinking of you, keep posting xx

lhd the previous thread about sectioning is here

Hope you find it helpful

So sorry about the way you were sectioned and there certainly are people about who , from own experience or that of loved ones , will believe there are inaccuracies / mistakes in notes , diagnoses etc .

In the mental health section of MN theres are occasional threads which support people who've been sectioned , but mostly people on a ward struggle to maintain internet phone etc - so glad you have been able to get online .

im a police officer. im very sorry that you feel you have been mistreated. Under what legislation have you been detained OP?
i am not quite following why the police had to break into your house....?

what were the circumstances that led to your being detained?

perhaps then i can help a little, but you have to be honest with me.

hi lazyhazy

so sorry to read your OP, but wanted to let you know that getting someone sectioned is not an easy process

i tried previously to get a family member sectioned for their own safety (and other people) and it was nigh on impossible

do you want to talk about what was going on in your life?

Hi lazy, sorry to hear you have been sectioned. I hope you are feeling more positive soon. I agree with the poster who suggested blogging, I think it would help you as well as others

Morning all,

We have moved this thread to Mental Health.

Best wishes

MNHQ

@MavisG, when I was pacing around in tears I was desperate to go online and ask for advice, and also to give any, if my experience can be of any help. I have to be deliberately vague in order not to out myself, particularly because it might out other people here. Hope you understand. My advice to anyone in this position is to:
= Lodge an appeal within 2 weeks; you get a lawyer on legal aid
= Contact 'Rethink', who act as advocates and are brilliant
= Ask a member of staff for a form requesting your medical notes. This takes up to 21 days, so do it immediately.

I agree with everyone who has expressed surprise that I am allowed online.

My tribunal is in roughly 3 weeks. I postponed it because I don't feel it is fair that I have not had access to all of my notes, which should be arriving soon.

Vicar, thanks for your reply. I will let you know the facts when I find them out myself. It was truly awful. There were no female police officers involved. I do not understand the police thing at all. I have no idea why they broke my door (and have sent me, at last, a new key, for a new lock).

Vicar, the policeman who put handcuffs on me clicked them and then clicked them again, which made three deep marks on my wrists. I hadn't known that that handcuffs were used like that. I was making no attempt to 'abscond'; pretty silly considering that I had at least 6 people in the sitting room. It caused a lot of pain, a huge amount of mental trauma, and I don't know what service it served except to inflict pain. The police were very, very rough.

Hi lhd, what was happening in the run up to this that made them decide to section you? My psych threatened to readmit me to hosp on Tuesday, and is. Ringing me today to check up. Made me.wish I'd not opened up to her when I saw her!

They will have broken in to gain access because they would have feared for your welfare.
Someone must have called them.

Your perception will be different to the officers involved, and i am sorry you had a horrible time, but they will have had to detain you for good reason if you have been sectioned.

Sometimes detained people are self harming or threatening suicide. They are detained to stop them hurting themselves or others.

the cuffs thing - they are adjustable, the clicking you heard was just them being ratcheted to make them tighter, but they are horrible to wear and they are not comfortable - they do leave marks - when we are training with them we have to wear them, but they may have been used to ensure your own safety and the safety of the officers involved - without actually knowing what the circumstances were its difficult to comment, and of course i cannot speak for them, but they will have had their own reasons for using the cuffs. Sometimes detained people have been self harming and have a blade on them, sometimes that is why they are cuffed, some forces have a policy that all detained persons are cuffed to maintain everyones safety.

a member of staff at the mental health unit we use the other day had her thumb bitten off by an uncuffed patient, who was perfectly rational in the moments before doing this, and was ashamed and guilty the moment after, but that tends to be why we use cuffs.

i realise that what you went through will have been frightening and confusing, especially if you are not well, i think women officers are sometimes better in these situations, but not always. I wish you well in your recovery.

Vicar, when the handcuffing happened there were at least half a dozen people, including one woman in the room. It doesn't make sense to me but, as I have said, I need the medical notes to work out what has been going on.

I am 8 stone and I cannot imagine the rationale. I am grateful to you for your reply and I did hope that a police officer responded. It is interesting that officers in training are made to where them when ratcheted. I was in a small sitting room, leading to a small kitchen and was of no danger to anyone whatsoever.

I was also forced into a police van, into the 'cell' of a police van. I think that vicar will know what I mean; I little triangular corner of a van. I have just read in my notes that the police van was outside my house for 4 hours.

I was not in any danger; I would understand the reasoning if I was hanging myself, or drunk senseless or unconcsious, etc. But, apart from the fact that I was none of these things (and the nursing 'progress notes' record that I was 'warm and happily conversing and playing cards with other patients') I will find the exact quote for you but I am deliberately not looking at notes now until I receive the GP notes and the police report (there will be a police report, won't there?).

I am very grateful to vicar for her knowledge of police procedure. The hospital staff wouldn't photograph the bruising (which is part of their protocol), but the woman from retrain took photographs on her mobile a few days later.

(From recently received notes) this 'cold call was organised a couple of weeks before it happened and I have fairly detailed reports (emails, details of phone calls from 9am on the day that it happened. It happened at 3.30pm, but (the records show) it had been planned in detail from 9am the same day.

As I continue to say, and as I said to the doctor (not the psychiatrist) more later; woman from physio has just arrived to help me with my computer.

I was on the 'I've been sectioned' thread.

Quite a number of years ago but was for 2 weeks at a time, twice.

Went through a similar experience with police involvement as you. It was very scary. Have come to terms with it though and as Vicar has explained, there are reasons.

If you really don't need to be there, they will relax things for you a bit, try to read, listen to music, that sort of thing.

Yes, some other patients can be an issue, but, I did meet some really decent 'mates' (at the time) there too, we supported each other.

at the 'Brownie' activities, we ended up making bracelets out of cardboard, how useless is that, but it did pass the time.

Wishing you well

Hello Daisy (can I call you that, it's nicer than lazyhazy) So sorry to hear that you were handled roughly by the police and this is something you can take up at a later date.

The trouble is that when people have a psychotic illness (being out of touch with reality) they often don't realise that there is anything wrong with them, and can't understand why they are in hospital. It's a trick that this kind of illness plays on you.

In one post you gave a very detailed and lucid account of the things you were not going to do on the ward and things that you could do. I've been on a psych ward twice (3 months each time) though not sectioned. They are very boring places and as you say the nurses don't really talk with you, they are usually in the office or giving out meds.

Having said that I am 100% sure you are in the right place. The reason for the Section is because you would not have agreed to go into hospital because you didn't realise how ill you are. It is possible for a Section patient to be changed to voluntary patient, but only on the understanding that you will not try to leave the hospital. The reason for this is because you are very mentally ill at the moment and need to be kept safe in the hospital, and get the right meds to help you think rationally again. This will happen but it will take time, and you need to try to be a bit patient with yourself.

You will usually just have a review once a week with the psychiatrist, which is really just about the meds, how you are feeling, are you eating/drinking/sleeping and do you have any side effects from the meds, that sort of thing. Nursing staff will also be at the review. You can have someone with you for moral support if you wish, as it can be very hard when we are feeling so ill, to be faced with so many strangers.

Ok I've probably said enough - try to do the activities that are available and that interest you. We had excellent occupational therapy every morning, which really distracted us from our illnesses, but hopsitals differ so much in this respect. The first time I was admitted at age 51 I was asked if I wanted to "do some sticking" (like a 3 yr old would do) or paint a jam jar!!

Keep posting as there is lots of support for you here.

The obvious problem is that I do not accept (or have any 'insight') into any other the diagnosis, particularly as they were written by people who did not know me and appear to be based on what my mother has said. They are also based on 'obs' of nurses. I spent the first two nights pacing the corridors in a state of abject shock and horror, which I think is a fairly appropriate response to it all, especially the police brutality.

I can't get over the way that the police treated me at all. Why tighten the hand cuffs so tightly that they created weals? Why force me, head down, very dramatic, into the 'cell' of the police van? I have no history of violence. Their response was more appropriate to someone who was armed.

I am rotting with boredom and nothing will make me take up bracelet making, or jigsaws. What the hell is that all about?

@vicar, there were already at least people with me in the room when the police broke the door. They couldn't have been worried for my health.

Excellent post NanaNina.

Daisy, just so you are clear, a Section 3 is for up to 6 months, you could be discharged from Section at any point during that time if you are well.

It really isn't a straight forward process to detain someone under the Mental Health Act. It involves assessment by 2 Psychiatrists and an Approved Mental Health Professional, normally a specialist Social Worker. They all then have to agree you are mentally unwell and posing a risk to yourself or others.

I'm not surprised you have internet access. We remove chargers as policy due to ligature risk but not mobile phones unless there is a clinical need.

I hope everything works out for you op.

I've always.had internet access on my phone in general and mbu wards. When I was in the Mother & baby unit other patients had laptops and dongles for internet access.

I agree with Doyouthink. NanaNina has made a phenomenal post with a lot of valuable insights.
Also, as she pointed out, you can take up your complaint for Police brutality at a later date. I have friends who are officers, I know they would be compassionate and not brutal.
Do you have any children? Who were the adults who were in your house with you?
Sorry if you've already given that info.
I wish you a peaceful night's sleep.

Hello lazyhazy, sorry to hear you are in hospital - it all sounds like the most horrible shock. I hope Reform can help you challenge the way you were treated but I also hope the hospital can help you recover from whatever it was that made your GP so concerned.

Kreecher, of course we'd all like to think our friends are compassionate, and yours may well be, but I'm afraid not all police officers are decent to people with mental health problems or learning disabilities. Sadly there are some very worrying cases but this is not the right thread to discuss details.

No, quite. YOu are right edam.
OP, hope you had a better night.

This morning I was handed one of those little waxed cups with about 5 pills, two of them capsules which I had not seen before. I gulped them down as instructed, and then I asked the nurse to write down what I had taken, as they were unfamiliar, and anyway, I don't take anything on the 8am pill-giving session. I didn't think anything more of it until a staff nurse knocked on my door and informed me I had been given someone else's pills.

She has the same name as me, but different spelling, and she is new, so I can see how the mix up happened. They only found out when she went to ask for her medication and was assured that she had already been given it.

I had to be fairly closely observed but there were no adverse affects. I would NOT like to be the student nurse who made that blunder.

I haven't done much today except be fed up. I paid around £8 for my dongle. Does this run out like a telephone card in telephone boxes, or, if I go over my limit, do they take huge amounts of money out of my bank account? I am with O2.

I have spent ages reading, 'Windows 7 in Simple Steps', but they are not simple enough for me.

I am going to watch Timewatch, try to do some of the crossword and then have another go.

I have been talking to another nurse about police brutality and he said it is they way they are trained. I cannot tell you how awful it was, and I yet I have heard worse stories from patients and nurses. I don't know what to do. Do I write to the top policeman in the county? I have plenty of witnesses to my poor wrists? Does anyone else have experiences of this?

There is a girl who has just left who maintained that she would far rather be in prison. She has gone now and there is no-one I can relate to or talk to. The loneliness and the boredom.

Thanks for the human interaction!

Hello Daisy, good to hear from you but sorry to hear about the medicine mix-up. Sorry it seems to be so boring in there - are you using a smartphone to MN? Maybe download some e-books?