"Experience at Skye house"

Following multiple suicide attempts, I had been admitted to Skye House for 7 weeks in the Mull Ward, majority on March 2025.

Firstly, the nurses were welcoming and kind. One even took the time to untangle my matted hair over several nights. Some listened and really cared. 

I read the welcome pack, and looked through the rules. I think that this is slightly outdated and needs to be updated. It would've been helpful to know things such as the weekend schedule as the timings are different, and more clarity on the rules. I thought that I could come in here prepared, knowing what to do, but there were also rules left out of the online pack.

I've been told that bedrooms are fully cleaned after every patient is discharged, but mine had an opened unused tampon and deodorant on the window sill.

I think other nurses didn't know how to communicate with me. I have an ASD diagnosis, something that the staff should've been aware of but seemed like they didn't or weren't educated enough on it. This led to so much miscommunication where staff and I didn't understand eachother.

For example, I can experience autistic shutdowns, which for me means that I physically cannot speak even if I want to. Autism is a neurological disorder affecting the brain so I cannot control this. However I can still communicate by writing notes, and nodding/shaking my head. I had showed a note to a member of the nursing staff asking if they could charge my digital clock. They had said that they would not do that unless I verbally ask and it was not done until over 24 hours later despite repeatedly asking. My autistic shutdowns can last anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of weeks. And I could tell that people were getting bored and annoyed of it. Other members of the nursing staff had also responded by trying to get me to speak by saying things like "I won't (give you/do) X until you use your voice," and than laughing. Some one else told me to join the other adolescents in the lounge to watch a movie. A movie was never played and instead was a karaoke. I had many people telling me to sing and even though I wanted to, I physically couldn't. This made me feel extremely left out and upset.

I think that as well as learning about different mental health disorders and learning disabilities, staff should also be educated on ASD. Many adolescents on the ward had ASD as autism and poor mental health are extremely comorbid, so I feel that this is something that should be taught.

I felt that rules weren't being enforced by staff. I saw that other patients had a cables plugged into their sockets and headphones unsupervised, personal blankets in rooms, nightwear being worn out of rooms, and posters not being properly laminated as per fire regulations. Young people were given laptops outside of phone time, which was unfair on others, and people also snuck their phone and went on it during dinner. When I addressed these issues to members of staff, nothing that I saw had been done. 

My bedroom shared a wall with the pantry and the nursing staff would often come there to use the kettle. At night, this is extremely loud and distracting when I am trying to sleep. Nursing staff would also talk extremely loudly in the corridor making it hard to sleep at night too. 

I felt that the corridor was used by both nursing staff and other adolescents as a lounge instead of using the actual lounge. Games would be played here as well as loud conversations. This was right outside my door, I like to use the bedroom as a space to relax, but I could not do this when I could hear constant things that should have been in the lounge instead of a corridor.

The food here was not great. Staff always said it was due the NHS having low money, but I have been to hospitals with much better food. Most of the time, food was undercooked and almost raw. The rice was crunchy, the pastry was hard etc... My mum and brother came on a visit during a meal time (which was also against the rules) so they tried some chips off my plate. Both had spat it out as it wasn't cooked.

Once, nursing staff had taken some of my things out of my room with no explanation why. Whenever I asked why or if I couldn't have them back, I was met with "I'm too busy", "I'm not sure", "I'll have to ask someone else". I was never met with an answer and my things were only given back to me after discharge. However, they had not given me everything back. After unpacking everything at home, I made a list of what I was missing and my mum called them about it. The first time she called, they said that they were not aware that they still had my possessions, and that they will make a list to tell the rest of the staff to look out for. They also said to expect a call within that week. We never received a call, so we called them again. The person on the phone had said that they had no record of the list, we gave them it again and got told the same thing. We have called many times since, to be met with the same response. I would like an update on the whereabouts of my possessions and how I could get these back.