I am the friend, carer & landlord of a person with borderline personality disorder whose condition was made worse by events a few years ago by that lead to him having post traumatic stress disorder in addition to his existing mental health issues.
Over the past year he became increasingly suicidal and paranoid, and there have been several occasions where he attempted suicide and in most cases these were by drugs overdose. This has resulted in all drugs that could cause him harm being kept in a safe at home so he could only be given them by a responsible adult. It had got so bad that I had friends staying so he was never left alone.
He has been admitted to South London and Maudsley (SLAM) hospitals several times but has quickly been discharged or when attending A&E just left to his own devices and returned home when obviously despite multiple sluiced attempts and being taken to hospital by the police. The only time he had any quality care was after taking him to Chelsea & Westminster A&E where he was sectioned for assessment (as there was no local bed) admitted to a private psychiatric hospital just outside Bolton.
After a one month stay he became stable but I had concerns about his discharge. He was discharged on the condition that ASAP after his return the Comunity health team would attend to assist with his medication and care. Following his discharge and return nobody turned up at the expected time and it took several phone calls before two people, not informed about him, arrived in what I thought was a “tick the box” exercise.
Several months after that, with no real therapy or treatment being given he became increasingly suicidal; he attempted suicide after retaining pills daily to take all at once. He must now be watched taking his pills but has also resorted to getting hold of ‘G’ and has overdosed on this several times.
At the last meeting with him, his community mental health nurse, a psychiatrist and me it was jointly decided that he needed a hospital stay and should be sectioned (he wanted this as he knew that if he went voluntarily, knowing his own impulsive behaviour, he would discharge himself before he was in a fit state to leave). It was decided that we would attend A&E so his physical health could be checked , whilst the procedure to section him was taking place and he could be admitted to hospital. Shortly, following him agreeing to this, he ran away after taking an overdose of G and intended to harm himself. The police were called and searched for him, this included the use of a helicopter, due to concerns about his safety. Finally, he returned home and the police later arrived, an ambulance was called and he was taken to A&E for assessment accompanied by the police and myself. After just over 24 hours in A&E he was placed on a section 2 and admitted to the Maudsley.
The next day following an incident on the ward where he was the target of homophobic abuse, he contacted me, told me he was being discharged and asked if it was ok to come home; I said yes but was shocked he was being discharged. Later, his community psychiatric nurse got in touch, told me they were not happy that he was going to be discharged (next day) and asked me what I thought. I told them that, while I was happy for him to come home if he were to be discharged, I did not agree with him being discharged in the first place. They asked me to contact his consultant about that. After several attempts to contact the ward and no one picking up, I went to the hospital. When I got to the ward, no one came to the door and, through the intercom, I was repeatedly told that he had been discharged and that I would only be able to talk to a doctor the next day.
I returned home to find him agitated and in possession of enough pills that, had he taken them (as in several other occasions), would have been enough to kill him (several times over).
In summary: his discharge (despite a well-known and thoroughly-documented history of suicide attempts) with enough pills to enable yet another suicide can only be understood as irresponsible, to say the least. As a result, I now have zero trust in SLAM and I am posting to make others aware of my experiences.
Treatment
Medication
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