Carers UK Forum

Hi All,

I have posted previously about my daughter's mental health problems.
She is currently in a hospital in Manchester (225 miles away from home) she has been there for 4 weeks and has had her meds changed as she is experiencing voice and paranoia.
She is in a cygnet hospital and although the staff have been good she has suffered from terrible bullying from another patient. This patient has also displayed aggressive behaviour and is regularly restrained by staff. Don't get me wrong I understand that this person is also mentally ill however I am concerned for my daughter's safety.

Last night after making some pretty awful comments to my daughter she set about burning things in the kitchen setting off the fire alarms and causing havoc. I had my daughter on the phone at half eleven with shouting and wailing alarms in the background, absolutely hysterical.

I barely slept last night and so maybe that's why I made the rash decision of 'if they don't move this patient then I'm bringing my daughter home'. Cygnet has acknowledged that the ward is not equipped to cope with this other patients behaviour and that she needs to be at PICU but the good old NHS and CAMHs have no bed available so she remains.

So I am travelling to Manchester tomorrow to discharge my daughter and bring her home. and I'm so scared.
She isn't ready to come and I am not ready for her to return home but I cannot listen to night after night of chaos on the phone with my daughter sobbing. I fear for her safety and feel that she cannot recover properly in that environment
I have spoken to the community team here today and they are arranging for the outreach team to be put in place for her return but I fear I have made a mistake.

Why on EARTH can't they simply sedate the aggressive patient! Good grief, if she's settting fire to things she's a risk to others as well as herself. This is insane (literally!). Put the poor wretched girl 'under' with 'downers' or whatever, or at the very least put her in some kind of modern 'padded cell' or whatever.

It's disgraceful that one patient can be so disruptive and dangerous to others. Who cares if there isn't another hospital place to take her! Just give her tranquilliers!!!!!!

I know that's probably frowned on these days, but really, isn't it the obvious thing to do?

the disruptive patient is only thirteen

All incredibly sad. I can't see how this environment is possibly going to make your daughter better, but will you be able to manage her at home?

I really hope so. I've gone through med changes with her before and we've coped. she has been on her new meds for 3 weeks so hopefully, the majority of the side-effects will have settled
I think my family will help a bit more now, I don't think they realised how bad things had got before she was hospitalised.

I do hope it works out for all of you. Keep posting.

Sadly, whatever the child's age, she can't be allowed to be the way she is! If they don't want to sedate her because of her age, then surely she should be isolated/removed etc. What on earth happened to the poor child? All quite ghastly.......

But one patient cannot be allowed to be disruptive and destructive not to mention dangerous to all the others.

Is it possible to take your daughter home but kind of 'reserve' her place to return when and as this aggressive patient is dealt with?

No the longest she can come home on home leave is three days, the doctor couldn't give me any guarantees that the girl will be moved by then, the problem, he tells me, is that she already has a bed so NHS England don't consider her a priority over those children waiting on children's wards for a bed. I do feel I've made a bit of a rash decision but I think you have to follow your maternal instinct and mine is that that patient is going to hurt someone.

The mental health provision for young people in the UK at the present time is just so terrible. So many young people suffering and inadequate services just don't intervene quick enough. it took 3 CAMHs referrals before my daughter was seen and in the end, a suicide attempt (the first of three) was what got her an appointment, this violent kid is suffering just as much as the others the resources just arent there.

There's a much wider problem of disruptive patients being treated on general wards that don't have the resources to manage them. A few people I know have shared wards with them and were (in my opinion rightly) afraid for their own safety. The staff's attitude tends to be they're entitled to treatment like everyone else. The implication being it's too much trouble for the doctors to walk to a more suitable ward to treat them. And that those doctors' welfare is more important than all the other patients and staff on the ward. I think it'll take a well publicised death as a result of this policy before anyone even considers changing it.