"Parent with an adolescent on a HDU"

My child has been to several units in psychiatric hospitals but the adolescent HDU unit here was definately the worst. There are kind, compassionate staff here but they work from within a system that is not fit for purpose. If you have any choice about it or can find an alternative way to help your child do not allow them to enter into the sort of mental health care provided by these people. My child was sectioned, so I didn't have a choice. I have watched my adolescent in hospital turn from a troubled depressed teenager into a suicidal person with severe depression and no control over their behaviour. Previous education, jobs, and friendships all ended with hospital admission. No one seems to be able to acknowledge that being in hospital with everything you are familiar with taken from you including any privacy is actually really depressing and enough to make anyone ill. The solution here seems to be to administer lots of medication. My child would now be unable to cope without drugs. It is normal for children to be sent to units hundreds of miles from their home. The child who you have brought up for all their life will now only be able to see you if you can afford to travel to see them. There is no money available from this hospital to help parents visit. If your child is sectioned they have a right to legal representation and at their most vulnurable will be preyed upon by junior solicitors hungry for work. Your child will possibly be advised to go through futile hospital appeals and tribunals, all covered by legal aid. So, why does the solicitor get paid and parents are not given financial help to visit?

However nice the staff are, this does not make up for the disgraceful treatment of sick adolesents and their families. This country and it's health service should be ashamed.