"Very good experience of mental healthcare"

I took an overdose in an attempt on my life. I was taken to Ninewells Hospital and admitted straight to the A&E observation ward and given life saving treatment through an IV drip. I was immediately brought to tears by the junior doctor's compassion in how he spoke to me. I felt like I was not worthy of care because I had done this to myself, but he reassured me that I was just as deserving of care as any other patient and I mattered.

As I would be staying the night, I was transferred to the Acute Medical Unit in Ninewells later on that evening and kept on my drip for about 14 hours in total. The next day, I was reluctant to speak to a liaison psychiatrist, but finally decided to after a discussion with another very empathetic and compassionate female junior doctor. The male liaison psychiatrist spoke to me very kindly and we agreed that a short admission to Carseview would be beneficial to me.

He returned with the news that he had allocated me a bed in Ward 2 of Carseview; I was initially very wary as I have a diagnosis of Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD) which carries a lot of stigma and I had previously not had the best experience in that ward.

However, I was very pleasantly surprised that the care seems to have improved tenfold since my last admission. I have spent two weeks here and I have always felt like staff were approachable, they have talked me down from a bad mood countless times and were very helpful offering safe alternatives to self harm and distraction methods while I was distressed. The discharge planning was also great, my Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN) was involved in my final meeting with the doctor and we discussed further care and medication arrangements for after my discharge from hospital.

Ward 2 is trialling a new method of treating patients with a diagnosis of EUPD and this treatment plan has improved dramatically since my last admission. Staff now seem far more empathetic and understanding, and previous strict boundaries have been loosened a bit to allow room for mistakes and managing distress on the patient's part.

Staff remembered me from my last admission, but it felt like a totally blank slate and they treated me completely differently this time, for the better.

One thing that is still an issue, though not with the staff themselves, is the lack of one to one time patients are able to have. This is due to nurses being weighed down by paperwork and other duties which take away a lot of nursing hours that could be spent talking with patients. However, I am aware that a few staff are taking training courses specifically geared towards helping patients with a diagnosis of EUPD and trauma. If the time could be made for staff to actually put these skills to use during 1:1 sessions, I think that Ward 2 could lead the way in effective inpatient treatment for EUPD.

My named nurses in particular were fantastic and I loved the time I spent with them. I was made to feel like I was important and valuable as a person which is a huge positive.

I am very proud of myself for a positive admission to an inpatient ward and very optimistic about the future of Ward 2's new approach.