My partner, inpatient “J” on Bosworth Ward, the Bradgate Mental Health Unit, Leics, has been subject to many dismissive comments by nurses and professionals in recent days. It makes you wonder what they all reading in the patient’s notes. Tonight she was crying whilst the nurses were dispensing medication (when I had left her earlier she had been saying that she wanted to kill herself). The letter is a response to way the nurses handled this. I am very proud that tonight she has stood up for herself, when on most days she can barely ask for help of any kind.

Insensitivity or generalizations can be a catastrophic for patients who are depressed, suicidal or have low self esteem. For some patients, chatting to a nurse whilst they are dispensing pills might be the only conversation they have that day.

I have erased the names in case we need to use this in formal complaint about her treatment on the ward.