Visiting Hours Thoughts

billiambabble (via Tumblr):

Drawing desert tiles, whilst charging phone, in reception at the hospital before visiting J. An efficient use of spare time. ;)
An odd day. Felt like we were brokering a deal with the doctor in charge of her care. Pragmatism usually wins at the expense of optimism, and maybe at the expense of recovery. Hard to explain. Reluctant gaolers asking prisoner patients to be in control and choose to be free? Informal stays vs. MHA Section, are you safe from yourself? Take responsibility whilst we've taken everything away? If you don'™t get well then maybe you're not working at it hard enough? No therapy, just containment. Keep her safe. This isn't a paranoid rant about social control. This seems real. It feels like being at school in the headmaster'™s office. The questions all seem tortological. We've all been here before. It's like having to retake the worst classes with teachers you no longer have respect for (because they keep failing you). May have to write about it at a later date - with the actual details. Really trying to avoid making generalisations atm. Must keep mind open. People genuinely want what's best.
The worst hand at a game with the highest stakes.
No, it was a better day, some switches have been reset, things will move forward. Onwards and upwards! ;) Thanks for reading.
#visitinghours #Latergram #mentalhealthward #hospital #diagnosis #carer #patient

Family of hanged Nottingham pensioner say "system failed her" Nottingham Post 4 Sept 2014

Family of hanged Nottingham pensioner say "system failed her"

 Nottingham Post 4 Sept 2014

As I read this I became more and more angry at what the doctor says at the inquest. It certainly raises more questions regarding hospital accountability than it answers. Really shocking.

Visiting Hours

billiambabble:

From the other day. Although I approve of extra precautions, getting the visitors to wait in a small dining area, where they are then joined by the patient, it can at times, remind one of how prison visiting is portrayed on TV. Of course it’s nothing like that really. This modern MH ward is a big improvement on the others.

#visitinghours #mentalhealthward #nophotos

Got really pissed off with the stupid doors and intercom system today, misdirected frustration? J is pretty unwell, and there’s still the odd care issue, but like I said, this a much better ward than the others.

Source: billiambabble

Rise in self-harm incidents in Leicestershire's mental health wards | Leicester Mercury 3 Sept 2014

Rise in self-harm incidents in Leicestershire's mental health wards
Leicester Mercury, 3 September 2014

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Rise-self-harm-incidents-Leicestershire-s-mental/story-22870617-detail/story.html

This article is mainly focussed on the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (which includes the Bradgate Mental Health Unit)

From what I've seen as a visitor and heard anecdotally (locally) the approaches and responses to patient self harm vary from nurse to nurse and ward to ward.  Also I believe that with statistics like these that there is a confusion over actual suicide attempts, sudden acts of frustration and ritualistic, negative coping repeated self harm of a specific type.  This may depend upon how it reflects upon the staff on duty and whether or not they have properly risk assessed the patient and taken sensible, yet sensitive, precautions.  Sometimes having a room stripped of possessions or being put in a seclusion room will happen after a traumatic self harm event or suicide attempt and the patient will feel as though they are being punished by staff.  I am unaware of any specialist therapy or advice provided by LPT in the cases of self harm, apart from "talk to staff".  It's one thing to have policies about patient risk, to have rules about "collapsible ligature points" and so forth, but it's another to actually train staff in understanding some of very common acts of mental health sufferers.  Perhaps they do they train their nurses, but maybe some days the staff all come from an agency where the nurses barely understand what a mental health ward actually is. (Just surmising here)

Regarding Self harm and injury two good UK resourses are
LifeSIGNs   http://www.lifesigns.org.uk/
and
NSHN  http://www.nshn.co.uk/

See also:
Mind Charity - Info on S/H 
http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/self-harm/
Suicide help from The Samaritans
http://www.samaritans.org/

Query: What is the Bradgate Mental Health Unit like inside?

What is the Bradgate Mental Health unit like inside? Is it modern? It doesn't appear to be very 'homely'. Most units are less 'clinical looking' but I've heard that BMHU is lots of different 'wards'? and that it looks just like a hospital inside, unlike other units? Is this true? Like are the beds hospital beds? Are there any single rooms? and apart from the bedrooms, what other rooms are available to patients to utilise? Thank you

Anonymous, Sept  2nd,  2014 (on Tumblr)

Hi, Sorry for the delay. I’ll try to put together some pictures taken over the last few years. Basically there’s older wards which have a mixture of single rooms and dormitories and then there’s some very new wards where patients get their own rooms with en-suite loos and shower. The newer wards have more small lounges for special activities, whereas the older wards have one dining area and lounge which doubles as a TV room through which can be accessed a kitchen for making hot drinks. The older wards have toilets and showers which are shared. Every now and then they redecorate the wards, but the older wards seem very institutional. The dorms aren’t like the bays with beds in normal hospital, it’s quite literally just a room with four beds in (no nurses’ station).
I’ll ask J if we can use her couple of her photos of her room on the newer ward, and we can compare them with the rather stark and functional environs in the odd picture I’ve been able to take. The main experience of a ward can often be down the the personalities of staff and patients. I’ll try to post some pics and diagrams sometime.

Today at the Bradgate Mental Health Unit

There's nothing more reassuring to wake up and to find that the organization which is caring for my partner's welfare was in the newspapers yet again for professional misconduct. However, in the greater scheme of absconding patients and deaths at the Bradgate Unit, a nurse flirting by text with a patient is hard for me to gauge without more information. Nonetheless, there's vulnerability, safeguarding and possible grooming issues, and just straight forward unprofessionalism.

The current ward J is on is a world away from Bosworth and Ashby Ward. It's one of the more newly built wards, and although I have no access as a visitor to the main ward or rooms, J has shown me photos, and the accommodation is of a better quality. She has a room with an en-suite loo and shower. This is a far cry from her sleeping in chairs because she was petrified of her bed in a shared dormitory.

She's still pretty unwell, but at least the ward itself, the staff, and the other patients seem to be less triggering. I won't go into to details but she is still managing to do things which shouldn't happen in a safe and secure environment, and she even managed to escape off the ward and run down a couple of corridors. The new secure doors and intercoms were out of order (possibly due to recent rain damage). It's very easy to see how this place can go from being secure to open, due to one electrical fault and staff not closing doors properly.

Mental health nurse Leigh Jennison struck off for sex messaging (BBC News Leicestershire)

Mental health nurse Leigh Jennison struck off for sex messaging

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-29012119
BBC News Leics.

The nurse in question was working for the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and at the Bradgate Mental Health Unit (based on on article at the time of posting)