This is a family led forum that offers support, resources and campaigning for people detained in assessment and treatment units; secure hospitals; locked rehab units.
The aim is for the people to be released from detention into a home of their choosing in their community.
Hi Nezumi, I’m happy to say that after a dreadful Christmas spent mostly in seclusion as we expected, good things are starting to happen. A n NHSE case review highlighted the fact that he shouldn’t have been placed there, there needed to be one person taking over the case instead of about three different teams who weren’t communicating with each other, T needs to have some input in the decision about where he goes.
The CCG have got their act together and have found a placement closer to us. It is a hospital that doesn’t do seclusion which is the most important thing. We have been able to visit and have shown T photos and videos. He will have opportunities to talk to staff and already feels included in the process.
It’s still 90 miles away but we are hoping he will be treated kindly while we can get on with the task of finding an ordinary home for T in the community.
When T leaves his current placement he is talking about letting people know what it was like. We will have to be very careful about how he does this but believe me it will be a very interesting story!
How is your son Nezumi? Are you still having to travel to see him?
Hello all, Thought it was time for an update on my son's situation. Very little has changed. He is still 150 miles away in a medium secure forensic unit . Everyone is still in agreement that he shouldn't be there. He is still being secluded, hates it so much he throws himself to the ground so they use a slip sheet to carry him there or drag him down the corridor so he has carpet burns. He worries he will be secluded on Christmas Day, I'm pretty sure he will be. At least our independent supporter can have contact with him again. She was banned from the hospital because she had helped him write a blog to tell people of his experiences. The hospital said he didn't have capacity to do this but after a 6 week wait, an independent capacity assessment proved that he did have capacity. Our local CCG have been doing little to fill us with hope for the future, still 'exploring' other placements and having meetings. So here we are, its December, T has been in seclusion for 2 days solid and the nurse won't tell me why. Nothing has changed.
Thanks for this. These are such useful downloadable pamphlets. They set out clearly what human rights are and the steps you can take if those rights have been interfered with. They will be useful at our son's next ctr.
Things are really tricky at the moment. We are waiting to find out if our supporter can resume contact. She has valuable work to do in terms of creating a service design and a therapeutic plan and above all else she is a friend to T. I'll keep you posted.
Hi Mark, I have an update for you. My son's blog has been taken down because the hospital weren't happy about it. They say our supporter who was helping him to write the blog has breached their trust. At the moment they have banned her from calling or visiting T. This has been devastating all round. We are still waiting to find out if this will be permanent.
For some weeks now, my son Tom who is in a medium secure unit, has been helped to create a blog entitled 'My Life on the Other Side'. He has been helped by our independent supporter who listens to what he says and then writes. This is helping him to feel less powerless and get his voice heard. Obviously we have rules about not naming services and any comments have to be emailed first. I am sharing the link below as I feel that my son is speaking for many. It's a moving and honest account about what life is like for him at the moment.
Hi Nezumi, so sorry to hear about your son. That is such a long way to visit! We wrote to Norman Lamb about our son's case and he was very sympathetic, responded quickly although there wasn't much he could do as we are not in his constituency. (Our own MP failed to even acknowledge the email!). The ctr will be very important as it's an independent panel with very specific criteria. We found this very useful in creating an action plan, keeping things moving however slowly!
Yes Jules, there is a plan to get him back and we are lucky enough to have an independent supporter helping us with this. I really appreciate this forum and I'm sure I'll be using it a lot over the coming months!
He is going to be assessed by a local provider soon and we have very good support from an independent supporter who is putting together a service plan. This will all take time as it will have to be very carefully tailored to meet his needs but it's a start.
Hello, I just wanted to tell a little of my son's story. He is 22 and has autism. Since he was 16 he has been in and out of various hospitals, some close by and others miles away. He recently spent 10 months in a psychiatric intensive care unit while a more suitable placement was found. After a lot of faffing around he was finally placed in an autistic specific unit within a medium secure hospital at the end of July. This has been a disaster. It is 150 miles away, it is little more than an annexe off another ward, it is within a forensic hospital surrounded by a huge perimeter fence. My son is quite rightly angry and bewildered. He has been secluded on numerous occasions, he has things he needs taken away from him, he often feels desperate and has meltdowns. The last ctr concluded that he had been inappropriately placed, the hospital managers meeting said the same but there is nowhere else he can be moved to. Luckily we are getting a lot of help drawing up a service plan for a community placement but this will take time. We also have a solicitor who is helping our son with a tribunal to get off his section. We have a lot we can be positive about but day to day we still have the constant worry of knowing our son is locked away and miles from us.
Sun Jan 21, 2018 10:37 am
An Ordinary Home » Search for Ruth66's content
