"Lack of mental health support"

I attended the department recently with my younger brother with self inflicted stab wounds onto his forearms.

The care was not completely faultless as he had been bandaged whilst waiting to be seen and did not have an issue with the length of time to review. The issue however following this was that he was seen and treated, where his wound was glued/steri-stripped then discharged home with no further dressings nor support.

My brother has extensive ongoing mental health background and has voiced repeatedly that night how he didn’t want to hurt himself and couldn’t understand how he had done it which should be of concern.

I understand from working within the NHS that there are protocols and if someone is under the influence of alcohol they cannot be assessed properly however this subject wasn’t broached at all.

I then had to follow him down a street with his arms actively bleeding through the glue/steri strips and stay with him to make sure he was safe. We have now resulted days later in having to attend a hospital in Lanarkshire  due to his wounds being open, infected and his mental health remaining fragile to the point he is taking every angle for someone to listen and try to help. I understand the pressures from working in the NHS at present however feel a simple chat about this could have alleviated his stress.

We lost our mother to suicide some time ago now and it seems despite being 20 years down the line the service sadly still continues to fail their patients with mental health issues. From experience it’s amazing the effect a simple chat can have with a vulnerable patient even whilst carrying out treatment and I would just like to encourage staff to remember this when dealing with patients in the future.

The NHS is an amazing service to have and events like this push my brother from trusting and engaging with it which is the last thing us as a family or any health professional would want.

Thankfully this time he has entrusted the staff at another health board and has now received adequate support for both his physical and mental health injuries. This may not always be the case for patients in the future which I wanted to highlight to avoid it occurring.