"my experience in ty llidiard"

i was admitted to ty llidiard for my anorexia nervosa twice in the past 12 months.  my experience was not at all helpful. the only motivation it gave me was that i needed to get out because it was not helpful being there. 

most of the staff were extremely kind, and would make conversations with me when i needed it, and respected when i didn’t find conversation helpful. the reason i say most, is because a select few of the staff were incredibly rude, and should not have been working in a mental health setting. one membe of staff admitted to me and a few other patients they did not like her job,  another shared personal information inappropriately.

bank and agency staff were the worst for mine and others mental health,  

     now i would like to move on to the way things were run in ty llidiard. my main concern is that bag searches were not thorough at all. there were multiple times where i brought bladed tools onto the ward and proceeded to hurt myself with them because staff were too lazy to thoroughly check my belongings. they never even noticed the fact that there was blood on my bathroom floor, or on my clothes.

on my first admission, the nurses did a -body-map on me, where they check for scars and marks on your body. i was told on my second admission that they would be doing this again, but it never happened. another thing that happened on my first admission but not my second admission were engagement sessions with nurses. i was having these a lot on my first admission and was kept busy with “homework” from my nurses, where they gave me booklets to fill out. my second admission, i was given no engagement sessions on ward from my key nurses, despite them constantly being in.

another concern i have about my second admission was the fact that my medications were not completely sorted until two weeks in. on my first and second night, i was not given any of my meds, which led to me nearly having a panic attack, and until two weeks later, i was not given my calcium tablets. this concerned me as i struggle with osteopenia (low bone density), and my mother gave them the meds we had from home, but they refused to give them to me, whereas when i was in the general hospital prior to my admissions, i was given my meds as soon as i got there, once my mum handed them over to the nurses, and as soon as the doctor came in, the first thing they asked on each of my admissions was “what meds are you on, and which dosages?” in my opinion ty llidiard is a very poorly run unit.

       now i would like to make a point about the clinical staff of the unit, one was unaware of the meds they had put me on a week prior to a conversation we had about my medication. this confused me, as i believe  you should know which meds you’ve put your patients on. on my second admission, they immediately discharged me following my internal review. there was no period of rolling leave, like there was on my first admission, and no talk of discharge before my review.

while my camhs team pushed for the dr to think more about discharging me, they were adamant on discharging me the same day.

          while i had good experiences at ty llidiard, these were mostly with patients, rather than my care. i urge for there to be better training, possibly a new model, for mental health nursing, and for one of the only two adolescent mental health units, to improve their management. i personally believe bank and agency staff, with an exception of those who have already worked in mental health nursing prior, should not be allowed in mental health settings