"An excellent standard of support, care, and..."

Both on my behalf personally as a visitor, and on the behalf of my friend who has been a patient of Pebble Lodge (As I am, in effect, the closest 'family' they have), I would like to thank Pebble Lodge for the excellent quality of care and support during my friend's stay.

I was impressed with Pebble right from the start. The first time I phoned Pebble to speak to my friend, the staff member already knew exactly who I was, and passed me over immediately! (This was in stark contrast to the past psychiatric hospitals where I had to explain who I was *every* time).

Eventually, there was a time when my friend wanted me to visit, I sent an email to Pebble asking about visiting. I got a friendly and helpful reply within a day, giving me all of the information I needed to visit. My friend let the staff know the day I was visiting, and when I called to let them know I was visiting that day, they already knew I was coming (another example of excellent coordination).

My first visit to Pebble went very well. Me and my friend were given a room that we could go into to chat, however there were also few restrictions about walking around and going where we wanted to. Every single staff member was very courteous and helpful, especially when we wanted to go outside at short notice or go into the garden. Subsequent visits went very well too, and the staff decided it was appropriate to lower my friends security level due to how much better they felt with me around. All of our visits were enjoyable and the staff definitely contributed to that, especially the times they helped us with cooking.

On one of my visits, my friend had an incident. Despite this, the staff only intervened when they absolutely had to, and calmed them down quickly. Unfortunately visitors weren't allowed to continue visiting after such an event - However, a staff member spoke to me for at least 20 minutes about what happened, and was very reassuring. The support given to friends/visitors is outstanding.

Pebble was the first psychiatric hospital my friend trusted to speak to about what they had been through. I believe Pebble can be trusted to be working for the patient in a coordinated team effort to assist them, and this was not a sort of trust either of us had for the past psychiatric hospitals. In the end, not enough action was taken. However Pebble took what action they could to help protect my friend.

Pebble also allowed some mobile phone usage, and this helped my friend a lot.

My friend is currently in another hospital, and they wish they were back at Pebble again. I heard very few complaints about the staff, and they were always very kind to my friend, as well as very forgiving and lenient where possible. I could list many examples of this, however there isn't enough space to do so.

Pebble has been the best hospital my friend has been in, and my praise is endless - But, unfortunately, this review is not.

Thank you, Pebble Lodge.