I have. Was voluntarily but if I could have turned back time I would not have gone.
Some of the staff, nightshift especially are as "hard" and rough as f**k (but then again, Ayrshire, Scotland in general is rather rough) and a couple of them laughed at me and one called me a name (he whispered an insult to me as he walked past me so noone else would hear). The other patients on the otherhand were all lovely and treated me with a lot of respect one of whom I am in contact with after discharge.
On my 3rd night in hospital I heard the screams of another patient who set herself on fire. Yeah like that is going to do any good to my mental health. Disturbing s**t. And during many nights expect to be woken by doors banging/various screams etc.
I also couldn't help notice a lot of patients in there were angry at the NHS system in general or their own doctor. Some were in against their will or being given medication against their will and were claiming it was against their human rights.
What concerned me was the lack of opportunity to give my perspective. Every Monday you get a 5 minute appointment with your psychiatrist/consultant in this tiny room that also has your named nurse/note-taker/pharmaceutial (sp?) person as well as yourself and your consultant who just snaps at you and is really unfriendly. My consultant wanted to increase the dose of my risperidone (which I wanted off of completely) and I suggested CBT and basically got my head taken off (YOU NEED REASONS FOR CBT!!! WHAT ARE YOUR REASONS!!! and I'm like oh nothing nothing). And after the 5 mins is up the consultant says "thank you!" in a not very nice voice meaning it is time for you to leave.
Then when I got a discharged I was only given 1 day notice???? wtf???? On the Monday I was told I would be discharged on the Tue! Don't psychiatrists who have spent years and years at uni know anything about autism? It helps if I am given notice of change of routine. It would have helped if I had been given a couple or a few days notice of my discharge. I mentioned this to my "named nurse" her reply was "well you have been here 3 weeks what is a few more days going to make" completely missing the point. It's also very lucky I had a family member free to pick me up the next day. 24 hours is very short notice and I would have been stuck if it was too short notice for a family member to come collect me.
Food is good. Breakfast is 1 bowl of cereal, scrambled egg and grilled bacon, croissant or roll, coffee and orange juice. Lunch and dinner you get a 2 course hot meal (choose from starter(soup) or dessert). 8.30pm they put out buttered toast and cake. You are free to make yourself tea/coffee anytime you wish. Tip- they always have spares and most days there is always someone who doesn't eat something. Once you have finished if you want more just ask.
You get your own room (you can lock it from the inside but not from the outside unfortunately and I did witness a patient assault another patient after he entered his room) which has an ensuite bathroom and wet-room shower (the door between bedroom and bathroom is angled at the top to deter self-harm). Shower is a nice comfortable temperature, but the hot sink tap was far too hot so I only used the cold tap. They should consider giving patients a key to their own bedroom.
They would benefit from more games to play. All they have is a jigsaw, a badly designed chess set where it's tricky to tell white pieces from black, and scrabble.
One thing I did like they could do more of is quiz nights. Something to do and encourages interaction between patients.
I also did observe a patient who was admitted the day after myself. On admission he seemed very happy and chuckled and talked to himself most days. After a couple of weeks he was very subdued, spoke little and no longer chuckled. Obvious he had been put on anti-psychotics after admission that's what this medication does to you it sucks out your soul.
oh and you get checked on every single hour of every single day. Your door has privacy shutters which you can close but they close with a loud noise unless closed carefully, so if you want them closed during the night expect to be woken every hour by night shift opening them to check on you and then closing them again. (I ended up leaving them open during the night.) They really could have been designed better so they wouldn't make a loud clunk when closed.
Probably worst of all is the constant scrutiny and lack of privacy. Even if you go for a coffee to the coffeeshop with a staff member they will actually have to record on your notes what you talked about even if it was a small-talk topic. If you pick your nose in there they will write it up on your permanent record.
Best thing about my stay was in there I chose to come off that horrible medication risperidone and they let me come off it. And there is a nice coffeeshop along the road from the hospital (Si!) which I still go to.
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