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Mental health facilities

Posted By indusjc49

"Mental health facilities"

About: Causeway Hospital / Mental Health Liason Service Holywell Hospital / Inver 4 - inpatient unit Ross Thompson Unit

(as a service user),

Hi there from my experience inside mental health facilities inside northern Ireland I have found there is major lack of activities that actually improve mental health of patients the doctors employed in these facilities make assumptions based on short conversation with patients these doctors would rather prescribe medication than find alternative remedies to the patients problems if patients are expected to go back into society. I believe they should be learning skills and occupations that will benefit them on there return to the community.

A more practical hands on experience would benefit some patients so they can manage there problems more effectively on the outside and reduce there need for help staff.

Just because these doctors have qualifications does not mean they know best a lot of there assumptions of patients are only over short interactions and there go to remedies is to prescribe medication that they know very little about instead of finding solution without medication.

Some patients have over active brains that would be more a help to society than leaving them medicated for problems they have been diagnosed with by doctors that do not know what patients have been through in there life or what experience they have had more in-depth analysis of patients would be essential and alternative action plans should be made to accommodate with every patients individual needs.

I feel a review should be made to the mental health care facilities and alterations carried out to accommodate a better health care practice.

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Responses

Response from Ashleigh Moss, Northern Health and Social Care Trust last month
Ashleigh Moss
Northern Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 04/07/2025 at 11:11
Published on Care Opinion at 15:42

My name is Ashleigh Moss and I am the Head of Service for Mental Health Inpatients (Holywell and Ross Thomson Unit). I am really sorry to hear that you have found the activities to be lacking and not having any real impact on a patient’s mental health recovery.

I would like to thank you for bringing this to our attention and taking the time to raise these concerns. As you stated, activities and therapeutic interventions are a vital part of a person’s journey to recovery, helping to support a person live a fulfilling and meaningful life.

While medication is an important part of the treatment process, I truly agree with you that activities and therapies should be individualised and have a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing. Our model of care supports helping patients to return to the community as soon as they are well enough, as we realise that a person’s own home or community is often the best place for continued recovery after a period of intensive treatment. As we do try to help patients return to their home or community setting as soon as is safe to do so, we are constrained by the timeframes if patients wish to engage in longer term courses or practical experience but this is something that we will take into consideration with our Community Mental Health Teams.

Since commencing my post in December 2024, I have begun to review the activities and therapeutic interventions that are currently offered across all of our inpatient services. I fully support your comments that they should benefit a patient on their return to the community and hope you are assured that this review of services is being progressed to accommodate better health care practice. This review will be carried out in collaboration with our patients to gain their feedback and comments. We are working towards a more interactive way of managing our therapies and activities through daily feedback and suggestions from patients.

Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention as I welcome all feedback to help us deliver a service of excellence for our patients. I would very much welcome your suggestions or ideas for ways of working to improve our therapeutic interventions as this is an area that I have a real passion for and want to improve but can not do it without the input of people with lived experience.

Kind Regards

Ashleigh Moss

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by indusjc49 (a service user)

Hi Ashleigh

Thanks for response I would be glade to try help find solutions.

Talking to some inpatients some believe maybe some workshop based activities some suggestions I was thinking of was possibly building some summer seats,bird houses or flowerpots These are easy activities that gets patients hands on other than playing games.

There is the basics of good facilities like gardens and pitches these seem to be neglected and inpatients help to maintain these facilities could be beneficial to both patients and the trust some inpatients have suggested the likes of even cutting the grass and tidying hedges.

Other suggestions I can think of are running we competitions

Like football,tennis, badminton, pool or table tennis although everyone might not want to join in it is good spectator evens and may help some patients interact with others.

Although I have not got a great insight into the facilities so far I do believe holywell has a greenhouse that is overgrown and maybe tidying and repairs to this from inpatients would be a good idea this gives others the chance to pursue horticulture or gardening as another activity.

Some insight from staff would help determine what individuals would like to pursue when they leave the facilities and maybe offering these patients different choices would help with there recovery.

I do believe tho that patients should be made at least keep there own room tidy and should be expected to make there own beds and mop there bedroom floor this should be mandatory because they would be expected to do so when they transition back into the community this helps create a habit and on leaving the facilities this would not be done for them failure to upkeep this practice when in the facilities privileges should be withdrawn.

I hope this gives a bit of help to you and we can keep collaborating to try improve the structure and help others with their recovery.

Response from Ashleigh Moss, Northern Health and Social Care Trust last month
We are preparing to make a change
Ashleigh Moss
Northern Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 07/07/2025 at 11:50
Published on Care Opinion at 13:07

Hi

Thank you so much for all those fantastic suggestions which I have made a note of. It would be lovely to have your input and help in taking this forward.

I would be happy to meet with you and we can have a look at all the facilities together and see what we come up with or alternatively if you want to email me with any other suggestions or ideas, I would be very grateful. My email address is ashleigh.moss@northerntrust.hscni.net, or you can call me on 028 9441 3119.

Look forward to hearing from you

Ashleigh

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