"Is the customer always right? Not if they have MH..."

In the past I have been a patient at the Newberry Centre. I felt at first that the staff were very oppositional. The psychiatrist and psychologist said things like "you can still hurt yourself in hospital, we aren't secure." and "if you wanted to kill yourself you could." - This type of thing doesn't help when you are feeling at your lowest. Activities weren't well planned and there are limitations due to low budgets. Most of them never even happened because of the nature of the ward and more staff being needed on the ward if it was unsettled. Staffing was generally an issue and there was never enough! Where's bank staff when you need them? I feel like the phrase "your admission will be questioned" was grossly overused by ward staff and used as a threat if you weren't complying, even before they bothered to ask if there was a reason behind behaviour. The MDT jump the gun and make a lot of decisions without your inclusion. Overall I thought there was a lack of care for patients in general which was evident from the fact that patients were left alone for copious amounts of time even when their observation levels were high and the fact that they barely validated your concerns. One time a patient was in a distressed state but the staff were too busy to handle it at that moment and they said "you aren't our biggest concern at the moment." People were left to handle panic attacks on their own and it was horrendous. If people couldn't calm down they would just call their parents and send them home! Even if the risks were high! So they couldn't be blamed for it. If people were too risky they were discharged immediately because if they did hurt themselves on the unit then again they would be blamed. And also they gave people razors when they were distressed and shrugged it off saying "oh well, it's their responsibility." Overall I think it was appalling how a place that should be so caring can be so uncaring. My stay was fairly recent so some changes definitely need to happen! However my psychologist was decent. And some staff actually gave you the time of day.