"This Experience has been a Total Life Changer for Me"

 I think 99.9% of Cherry Ward staff are fabulous. They are great they work incredibly hard dealing with difficult situations in an organised way which I haven't seen before with difficult patients. My admiration for their work has grown and grown.

I haven't let it show because I'm not a qualified counsellor or psychotherapist but I'm not sure who it was and haven't seen the person since. They were supervising at meal time. Maybe they were not a regular staff member? I made a few observations, that the staff member wasn't as sensitive to patients as other staff. Maybe they didn't know the patient well. I looked at the patient and felt that they were not comfortable as the staff member was a tad impatient. It was unpleasant.

Something I learnt from a former therapist, I would say don't be quick to judge people. Don't judge that person or illness, there's a person inside there. I was a bit disappointed I thought the staff member could have behaved better. It couldn't have been handled better.

However, I've grown to respect what staff are doing and I see the results they get, and they've taken my breath away. One outstanding thing is that they get some difficult arrivals and have a duty to protect the more vulnerable patients and I noticed that they discreetly keep an eye on them. I noticed a patient get upset and threw a knife and staff went up to the patient and told the patient they had to leave the dining room. so that people could eat in peace. I was so impressed at the speed, efficiency and incredible skill that removed the patient from the situation, but they were mindful of other patients. They were aware of the sensitive patients.

I noticed staff checking that patients were ok, and it was discretely done.

By gum, they did that absolutely right!