Ah Fluffy and Keema - you've made me think of my 2 IP stays (first in 1995 and 2nd in 2010 - both for 3 months) The first one wasn't too bad as it was my first experience of mental illness - severe depression following the death of my closest and dearest friend at aged 46. I responded well to the meds and so got better quickly but the lovely consultant psych on the ward didn't believe in rushing people out and was very caring, if a little odd! I made a complete recovery and was back at work within 3 months of discharge.
I relapsed in 2010 (after coming off the ADs I had been on for 15 years!) even though I did it slowly, within 4 months off finishing I had relapsed. By this time I was 66 and in the "Older People's Ward" - what struck me almost immediately was there was no change in the 15 years between my admissions, in that very basic courtesies were not extended to patients. Staff didn't introduce themselves and that I found really distressing when I was first in and scared of how bad I felt. Oh there was a change - because the Nursing Assts now sat with the patients but it was worse as they just ignored us or talked over our heads or around us.........they never asked how we were or offered any comfort. They were bored out of their minds and often complained about this..........saying how much they had to do at home. The staff nurses were always in the office or bustling about with meds.
There was one NA who was horrendous and my friend commented that she had "the social skills of a slug" so she became known as The Slug. She had a very loud voice and was used to shout rather than talk in a normal voice. She was utterly uncaring and said very nasty things to us and one day actually told me to "pull myself together" - I could barely believe this and I did tell my named nurse, and she wanted to know who had said it but I was too intimidated by the Slug to tell her. The consultant psych was a nightmare - a horrible man who avoided eye contact and he too scored zero in terms of social skills. Reviews were a Q and A session between me and him. All the ward staff were afraid of him and might just as well have been cardboard cut outs in the review, as they dared not speak. He admitted me but then did his best to get me out and I was so bored on the ward, and disliked the NAs so much, but wanted to recover completely before I was discharged as I thought this would happen but of course it didn't this time.
However I did get my own back quite by chance. I was given the opportunity of seeing a Clinical Psychologist on the NHS (she was attached to the psych hospital and worked specifically with older people) I had some 20 sessions with her and I liked her immensely and we had some very useful sessions but unfortunately it didn't improve the fluctuations in my MH. It so happened that during this time the Care Quality Commission (CQC) were carrying out an inspection of the hospital and the psychologist asked if I would like to provide feedback to them, about her and my CPN which I was very happy to do. She didn't think they would want feedback about my IP stay as it was 4 years ago, but it turned out that they definitely did want this feedback, and so I gave it them (in detail!) and I named the Slug and others. Obviously I don't know the outcome but I felt good being able to do this and hope that it might have brought about some improvement in patient care.
Sorry - your comment about a nice 1 : 1 started me on this track Fluffy - also I am putting off cleaning the house..........!