"Family involvement"

This is our first encounter with this hospital though not the first encounter with my partners ilness so I know from where I speak. The staff are harried, seem to avoid contact with family members. i was asked only once if I had any concerns and that was the evening of my partners admittance. They allow the patients home without warning to the family and in my partners case they even tried to decieve me as to her whereabouts they told me she was on the unit when in fact she had arrived home unexpectedly. To be fair to some of the staff it would seem to me that due to cuts targets and directives the whole system is collapsing at dire cost to the patients. They seem ultra keen to get those they have sectioned off the section prematurely in order to allow them to let the patients have as much home time as possible thus relieving some of the strain on the unit for them. The down side to this however means the patients can once again refuse medication or anything else designed to help them. And most perplexing of all is the look of disbelief on the staffs faces when the patient once again becomes ill. But as they say "it is the patients choice" even though in most cases the patients are in there because they have lost the ability to make rational choices.