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"I was left with nothing to do"

About: Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust / Inpatient mental health care

(as a service user),

I was admitted to the Lowry ward at Hadrian Clinic a few months ago, I was suffering from severe mental illness. I had asked to be admitted but they had refused admission and then when my illness took a turn the police admitted me.

When I got there I was extremely cooperative and I was willing to do whatever it took to take care of my mental health with medication. My health began to improve.

However it felt like this ward punishes and victimise patients they do not follow guidelines they do not adhere to section 17 and they do nothing to help the mentally ill.

When I got there, when the medication started working I was made informal. I could see that my health was improving and I could see that the medication was working. I was extremely grateful I was taken off my section 2 and made informal and I could tell that I was getting better and I was looking forward to returning to my life. I was driving and I had the occasional drink of alcohol with lunch. No one informed me that I was not allowed to drive or that I was not allowed to drink alcohol, one day I was called in to speak to staff and they informed me that they knew that I was driving and that they knew that I had had a drink and for that reason they were putting me on a 5-2 hold, I told them I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to do this and that I wouldn’t do it in the future they said that this was very risky behaviour and because of that they revoked my informal leave and put me on a section 3.

I was extremely upset about this because these two behaviours had nothing to do with my illness. whilst on section 3 I was being refused leave even though I had sold my car and assured them that I would not drink alcohol again and why would I? If it’s bad for my mental health? The worst thing is that I have been granted some escorted leave, but I am constantly refused it because they refused to give me staff to take my leave as a consequence. I was left to wander the hallways all day long with absolutely nothing to do which was having a very negative effect on my mental health.

Recently I had an absolute meltdown because some of the symptoms of my illness started to return and I feel that is because of their incompetence and lack of care, I feel that this was the worst place for mental health.

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Responses

Response from Paul Sams, Feedback and Outcomes Lead, Information and Performance Team, Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust last month
Paul Sams
Feedback and Outcomes Lead, Information and Performance Team,
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust

I look after all things feedback and outcomes. Working towards everyone knowing they can feedback and explaining what we do with that feedback.

Submitted on 29/08/2025 at 13:36
Published on Care Opinion at 13:42


picture of Paul Sams

Thank you for sharing your experience during your admission to Lowry. I apologise that you felt your section 17 leave was not adhered to as prescribed and would be happy to investigate this further. Section 17 should be used for therapeutic purposes such as home leave, exercise therapy, spending time with family / friends and engaging in community-based activities. Prior to all periods of section 17 leave nursing staff are required to complete a mental state assessment and document a leave and egress on your progress notes. I am sorry if you felt that your section 17 leave was not facilitated as prescribed and would like to review any instances where this occurred.

We take a least restrictive approach when supporting people to get better during their hospital admission however there are times where restrictive interventions may be required to maintain safety and promote recovery. Depending on which medication you were prescribed it is recommended not to drive as a common side effect is drowsiness which makes driving a vehicle unsafe. Utilising periods of leave to consume alcohol can have a detrimental impact on your mental state, delay recovery and can also have negative interactions with some medications. I understand that changes to your care and treatment plan can be upsetting, especially if you felt the recommendations around avoiding driving and consuming alcohol were not clearly communicated. This is an important learning point that I will share with the team as it should have been communicated on admission.

I apologise if you felt as though there were not enough activities to engage with on the ward during your admission. Therapeutic activities are an important part of engagement, assessment and recovery. We have 2 full-time activity facilitators and a peer support worker who work collaboratively with service users and the wider multi-disciplinary team to provide daily activities which are displayed on our activity timetables. We also discuss group and individual activity requests during our weekly mutual help and community meetings. If you could please provide some feedback on how we can improve these processes, I would be happy to share this with the team.

I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience with us. Our primary aim is to support the recovery of our service users, maintain safety and promote sustained wellness following discharge back to the community. We are always happy to receive feedback which enables us to reflect, learn and adapt our approaches to improve service delivery and patient experience.

We hope our response is thorough and apologies for the delayed response, the Trust's Feedback Lead has unfortunately been away from work for a period.

If you still feel this response has not been satisfactory, we would encourage you to explore a complaint. The team can be contacted in a variety of ways and they will guide you through the process. This could be an opportunity for closure for yourself but also for the service to implement changes from any learning around your experience.

Their contact details are:

By post

Complaints Department
St. Nicholas Hospital
Gosforth
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE3 3XT

By email

complaints@cntw.nhs.uk

By phone

Call us on 0191 245 6672

Thanks again for sharing this experience

Rob - Ward Manager

Paul - Feedback and Outcomes Lead

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