What could be different in mental health care, what helps, and what have you found to be useful reading?

[OwFriggingOw]

First off - this is a thread inspired by another thread - not about another thread.

I am a lecturer who teaches mainly MH nursing students, but also Adult, Child and Learning Disability field nurses about MH, and also occasionally medical students. I have no agenda for this thread bar a genuine desire to listen, share ideas, and have an open discussion about what is helpful / less so. I worked in NHS MH for 13 odd years.

In case anyone links the other threads that inspired this thread - I have been comissioned to edit a book about people's experiences (service users and carers / family / friends) within MH services and with MH issues. NONE OF THE POSTS HERE WILL BE USED IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM FOR THIS BOOK. You have my ABSOLUTE word on that. Similarly, NONE of the posts here will be used in any of my teaching.

My aim in starting this stems from several PM's and several on-thread comments about how this would be useful/ I hope it can be a helpful, supportive and productive meeting place for thoughts and ideas about what people have found helpful with regards MH care / services / support (statutory and non statutory) and what has been less helpful. Most importantly with regards the less helpful - what can be done differently?

And - beacuse I like books - maybe we can share reading ideas :)

Would it be helpful if I shared parts of my long thread from earlier regarding what I see as needed, without any other details from the thread?

daisee
I'm concerned that your use of language and your very negative posts regarding in patient stay could really unnecessarily frighten other people who could do with the help.

I understand that you have had a poor experience but that doesn't represent everyone's experience and I find your use of language disturbing and at time offensive.
Some of my fellow inpatients and I myself were medicated to safe and appropriate levels to help control our illnesses under hospital supervision. I really hate that you find it appropriate to describe myself or them as zombies whilst this process was undertaken.

To be clear
We also had free access to fruit
As we were a medical ward diabetic care was excellent
We always had a suggestion box
We spoke to staff at least twice a day, much more when appropriate.

I will stop posting here as I feel it isn't useful for me to get anymore involved.

Perry - my brother's experiences sound similar to your own.

One person's bad experience does not mean everyone else's follow suit.

Unfortunately i think this thread is going the way it wasn't set up for and i'm sorry for that Ow.

Another waste of money, that could have been spent on bananas:

They decided that I should have an MRI scan, so they ordered an ambulance to drive me the quarter of a mile to the real hospital. The paperwork in the ambulance took ages. I spent the night in the real hospital, and because I was under section, I had to have a member of the psychiatric nursing team by my bed at all times. They changed shifts every two hours, which was quite pleasant for me because I just chatted all night. I stayed in the real hospital for over 24 hours, with no scan, and then was taken by ambulance back to alcatraz. How much did that cost?

Later the following day I walked with a nurse to the real hospital and had the scan (no problems there, and the staff were wonderful. It is like going into an iron lung but you have a sort of 'panic button' in case of agraphobia).

I would love Alan Sugar to go through the finances of that place.

As you can see, Ow, I have put a lot of thoughts into how to improve that place, and have tried to be as positive as possible. I have a draft of an 'alternative xward handbook somewhere and I'll send it on to you when I find it.

The main problem seemed to be the staff. The place appeared to be run for their benefit and the patients were just the income streams.

I think better community provision before and after is desperately needed - to prevent admission wherever possible, and to provide safe and effective after are not least in terms of making certain people get home safely with effective support. Some Home Treatment Teams work with a range of inpatient wards to provide Early Discharge (much more intensive discharge support than 'just' normal after are but this does seem to be patchy again.

I think we can all agree that much more investment in personalised, supportive care is desperately needed rather than cuts.

Really helpful to see a range of experiences on this thread - I hope that may demonstrate that not all services and experiences are negative, and that similarly some people's experiences are less than supportive or helpful for a range of reasons.

i dont think the thread is going anywhere bad. we all have mixed experiences some good some bad. all are valid imo. hope you come back perry

I appreciate your thoughts and contribution to what may nee looking at Daisee, thank you.

I hope others can stay on thread if it's useful to them - and that we can continue to share resources and links in particular?

don't lose sight of the ones who did say it was amazing that you have achieved what you have daisee... honestly there were a core of us who are rooting for you and do think that it is amazing that you have managed to achieve things with how you are feeling and living.

i thought all hosps had a patients charter or is that excluded from psych wards?

this is interesting:

www.mind.org.uk/assets/0000/0353/ward_watch_report.pdf

medical care is a problem on some wards I think, my daughter went straight from intensive care as soon as she was extubated and sort of awake enough to be sectioned, to a psychiatric hospital and should have had chest physio (she'd had aspiration pneumonia). Only one member of staff had had any medical education or training, not including the SHO, the rest were sort of health care assistants

I think I've been one of those stumbling around patients, my children remember visiting me when I couldn't walk properly or talk very well because of antipsychotic drugs. Is this another one of those awful experiences that you mustn't talk about because of the effect it has on other people's emotions?

both points are valid alameda i think. its good that perry did not witness that but the reality for many is the overly sleepy and shuffling patients esp those who have been on a roundabout of admissions and on drugs a long time. "liquid cosh" - chlorpromazine, haloperidol, depot injections can all make a person feel and appear very "zombie like" especially in the beginning and that can be very frightening

Thanks jumping for all the links and thoughts are really glad you've found positives to take away from here. All best wishes for the future :)

Bloody hell, Aesop, that Mind report sure puts paid to those who doubt the word of posters who had bad experiences It's outrageous!

I get very cross about elderly care, as well, and it really all seems to point to "care" workers - and those who do the finances - not giving a shit about those they see as 'other'.

The overall intelligence & consideration at Posh Hospital ended at the gates, unfortunately. The therapy I got was private. Being dumped into a vacuum after the loveliness led 7/23 of my group to suicide within the year - one, aged 19, within 24 hours.

In groups after discharge, I met lots of ex-patients, some with horror stories of their hospitalisation (always brushed off by professionals as delusory; how convenient mental illness is for abusers!) and many killed themselves.

I still find it strange to hear shocked reactions to threats of suicide (as happened on D's first thread) because suicide is now so much a part of my life.

That's not how it should be, is it, Ow?

Daisee

Why not start your own thread about your experiences. I fear that your powerful posts may be over looked in this more general thread

I thought this thread would be really useful for me as my knowledge of mental health could be improved. However, it's turned into A thread about one posters mental health issues. I'm going to leave the thread too - maybe another time there could be a discussion about good practice in mental health and what makes a service successful, don't think that will be possible on this thread now.

Raisin, I am assuming that ow will note them. I am not really regarding this thread as about my experience, more of practical suggestions how to prevent anyone else going through what I have been through. There have been two threads about me already, one in mental health, (not an appropriate place, imo) and one in site stuff, which someone was kind enought to alert me to.

I have 4 months of diaries and I hope to turn them into a retrospective blog at some point. At the moment I am too traumatised to function. I am trying to eat. Those are my level of goals at this stage. I have a drip visiting on Friday and I am trying to plan how he could do anything to help, because I have had no help so far apart from an attempt to get me to commit fraud on a DLA form.