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.

INQUEST Charity: Deaths in Mental Health settings

"Psychiatric patients are owed a positive duty of protection under human rights law, which means that hospitals must ensure that they take appropriate steps to prevent patients from taking their own lives. However, there continues to be a high number of suicides in psychiatric settings. There is also a high number of deaths of people with mental illness in circumstances involving the use of restraint by police. In 2012, INQUEST opened 67 cases that involved deaths in mental health settings.

"Unlike deaths in prison or police custody, there is no independent agency responsible for investigating deaths in mental health detention. INQUEST believes it is unjust that institutions responsible for the care of mentally ill people should not be subject to the same scrutiny given to other forms of detention.

"INQUEST has been involved in supporting the families of a high number of mental-health related deaths in custody, from Roger Sylvester’s death in 1999 through to Sean Rigg’s death in 2008 and Olaseni Lewis’ in 2010, and is continuing to monitor these deaths closely. INQUEST believes that the individual and institutional neglect uncovered by recent inquests should prompt the Home Office and Department of Health to review how the police and mental health providers work together to respond to people in crisis."

http://www.inquest.org.uk

INQUEST, 3rd Floor, 89-93 Fonthill Road, London, N4 3JH
Tel. 020 7263 1111

Man on roof at Bradgate mental health unit at Glenfield Hospital | Leicester Mercury

Link: Man on roof at Bradgate mental health unit at Glenfield Hospital | Leicester Mercury

J was on the same ward as this man. I’ve met him too. Nice guy. No idea what led up to this. Around this time another patient we knew managed to scale a fence and run off, I don’t believe it led to harm. My instinct is often to point blame at aggravating situations, such as patients being turned down for escorted leave because the right nursing staff are not available.

BBC News - Concerns raised over mental health unit deaths

Link: BBC News - Concerns raised over mental health unit deaths

An older article from last year regarding the Bradgate Unit in Leicestershire, UK. The figures are certainly higher than this.

BBC News -Jersey child mental health patients 'kept in police cells'

Link: BBC News -Jersey child mental health patients 'kept in police cells'

BBC News - 'Improvement needed' in NHS Tayside mental health care

Link: BBC News - 'Improvement needed' in NHS Tayside mental health care

BBC News - Mental health patients forced to travel miles for care

Link: BBC News - Mental health patients forced to travel miles for care