"My care at Ty llidiard"

I was admitted partially voluntarily ( i say partially because my care co and team said if I didn’t go willingly I would be put on a section) in May 2023 I was there for 19 weeks and 2 days until I got discharged in September I initially went in for suspected anorexia and ocd and this was hard enough because due to my ocd i never used to go out so I wasn’t in education prior to my admission for probably about a year.

I got admitted and it was horrible because I thought I would be allowed to keep my belongings in my bag so they didn’t touch the shelves but that was not the case and they had to do room searches (which I understand was for safety reasons). The majority of nurses and healthcares were lovely and made my experience more pleasant but the doctor I was under didn’t really take notice of my condition. Due to one time I was due to go on home leave and I was not ready and me and my family had both expressed this to the staff and the doctor themself but they still proceeded to send me on leave. I was not allowed to return to the ward that night and my mother was told to give her a blanket and let her sleep in the car it will be like camping (now the reason I wouldn’t enter my house is down to my ocd which they had not helped me with mentally all they did was just trial me on medications). However

 one of my key nurses was absolutely brilliant she was the one who helped me the most with engagement sessions and she did lots of work with me. 

I was able to attend the education centre at Ty llidiard after my first 2 weeks (my school wouldn’t fund  but in the end they did) and the teachers there were very supportive some days I would go up to school but wasn’t feeling in the right headspace and they respected that. Due to an incident on the ward between me and another patient they allowed me to sit in a separate room whilst in school which made me feel a little better on the days I was struggling more.

After a while at Ty llidiard some staff started to make me feel quite unwelcome and like they just wanted my bed for someone else especially because of the one time two nurses said to me that if you don’t go on leave your doctor has wrote in your notes that you will be immediately discharged and we don’t want that because then you can go on leave come back and get the support you need, so that did not help and despite the amount of times me and my family expressed how I was not ready to come home yet that did not change his mind at all. The fact that the nursing staff themselves said that I should go in leave so I could come back and get some more support really shocked me that the doctor still proceeded with their decision.

Some of the staff said some things which were not helpful and made me feel invalidated  at times e.g. you never used to do this at home so why now, “you are triggering other patients” 

The phone policy at Ty llidiard while I was there for the first 4-5 weeks was 1 hour a day and this was hard for me because I found comfort in speaking to my mum or just getting my feelings out in my notes ( I found it extremely hard to verbalise how I was feeling) sometimes when i was  given my phone it would be dead due to staff not putting them on charge properly so I had to wait longer and by this point I just wanted to speak to my mum (phone time was 6pm-7pm). Although we were not allowed our phones all day we were allowed laptops/tablets/ipads which did help me slightly because when the ward got too noisy I was able to listen to my music with my earphones or when there was construction being done on the ward. 

I would get very overwhelmed sometimes due to the amount of people around me so I would go and sit out in the corridor but not all healthcares/nurses were supportive of this and told me I had to go in the lounge otherwise other patients will want to come out here despite it being on everyone’s care plans that we can be outside the lounge if we was supported by a cushion (which I was) so I didn’t understand why I was getting told off for it. 

Within my time at Ty llidiard I found they didn’t really help with the mental side of it more of just the physical side. 

Patients at Ty llidiard are usually checked either every 15 minutes once hourly or 1-1 (or maybe others depending on the situation) when I went on to hourly observations I found that some hours I would go unchecked on which of course could be life threatening to some and other hours I would be checked as if I was on 15’s.

I also found in some situations other patients were left in very distressing situations which I  tried to comfort them but of course sometimes people like their own space which I could understand. I can’t fully blame the staff at Ty llidiard because at times they were extremely understaffed.

Overall I am grateful for my care i received however I wish some staff were more mindful of what they say and that the doctors should take into more consideration the acting of the patients on the ward and should have more in detailed discussions with the nursing staff who spend the majority of the time with the patients.

Most of the nursing staff were helpful.  Most people respected my wishes re hugs.  The sensory room was good.  

Thank you for taking the time to read this :)