When I first arrived at Chalkhill the patients were more welcoming than the staff! I was told that I would be put on 1-2-1 but never saw that actually happen! One of the male staff later in my stay told me to "stop being pathetic" and to "not cause problems for myself" because I was having a crisis and apart from mentioning it that once I was left to just sit and cry in the corner! When it was time to start thinking about discharge after 7 weeks my primary nurse said she knew I wasn't ready to leave yet and was going to help me do some work on my self esteem before I left! And yet in my review meeting the next day she was unable to attend and my other nurse was there and none of the staff listened to me during that meeting. So I ended up getting discharged way before I was ready to! And it also seemed that because I wasn't there with an ED (although I did have one at the time but it wasn't 'serious') I, along with a few other patients, were left to just wander about and do our own thing whilst all the ED patients were constantly being entertained/offered things to do/with the staff to talk to. I don't feel that the hospital helped me in anyway because I was still able to self harm in there and I saw more than one way to kill myself whilst in there as well! But when I mentioned to the staff I was feeling suicidal they just said okay and told me they'd check back on me later - which they never did. I am very angry about the service I received and I know some of the other patients (some of whom are still there now) weren't happy either because they often told the other patients about why they were unhappy/angry. The patients were very often left out of making decisions about their care and none of us really felt heard!
"Good for the first week, after that - terrible!"
Posted via nhs.uk
- Story from
- nhs.uk
Do you have a similar story to tell?
Tell your story & make a difference ››
Responses
See more responses from Claire King
See more responses from Chalkhill