"Treatment of mentally ill patients in A&E"

I recently accompanied a relative who was suffering with stress related condition resulting in him being extremely agitated, confused and delusional. He was clearly suffering with a mental condition that required urgent treatment. Although the staff in the A&E Clinical Diagnostic Unit (CDU) ward were very helpful and caring, he was asked to wait for assessment in bed that was surrounded by people with physical injury. One patient in the CDU was vomiting and another was crying out in pain. Placement of mental patients along with those suffering from physical injury is completely inappropriate and dangerous (for both types of patients). People with mental problems need to wait in a safe, calm and low stress environment. In the case of my relative, he found the CDU ward was too stressful and he spent his time pacing up and down the corridor outside the ward. We had arrived at Worthing A&E at 05:00 in the morning and he had to wait until 07:00 in the evening before he was admitted to a psychiatric ward in another hospital. In my view it is appalling that we are placing mentally ill people in beds next to people with physical injury. Mental illness should be given better resources, higher priority and treated more sensitively.