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trust

annie1268Contributor04 Feb 2015, 11:22 pm AEDT

trust

how do we trust a facility and a system that can lose a patient ..i arrived at 11am to bring my daughter home only to be told that childservices had already taken her at 9 am and why was i even there?,,i said no there must be a mistake shes and adult why would childrens services take her she also knew I was coming and would not have left, The patronizing voice of nurse as she gently told me that my daughter has a mental illness and sometimes will do irrational things.. trying my hardest not to explode as the sign on the wall says agressive behaviour will not be tollerated i explain there were two girls with the same first name maybe theres a bit on confusion,the nurse said "yes maybe but not on our part Mrs....... " blood boiling head banging and determined to stay calm i asked if they could please check her room...nurse says her room is empty Mrs..... ive already made it up for new patient..i asked her to just humor me please and have a quick look outside or in the interview rooms andshe said yes ok i will when i get time we are very busy you know...i waited waited and at 12.30 a patient walked past and said "i she'll be glad to see you ill get her case manager to wake her up...yep she was asleep in her room had been there waiting for me ,so by the time the nurse was called to wake her it was 12.45 she had not been seen by anyone since about 8.30 when meds were given out 4 and a quarter hours,,,,,how the heck does that happen..the nurse became invisible...and dont get me started on how the hospital treat her if they hear the initial BPD,,ive learnt to say her brain is a bit sore.. i was a sane rational mother until 7 years ago im now a feisty grumpy cynical old lady whos slowly losing her mind...rant over

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In response to: trust

Kiera80Senior Contributor05 Feb 2015, 11:10 am AEDT

Re: trust

Hi @annie1268 , I love your rant. I'm also a fiesty, grumpy and cynical person these days, although I wish I wasn't.

The mental hospital system in my opinion is at the best of times in complete disarray. Not surprising they lost someone in there. There are times that patients will sneak out a door or go over a wall but usually they are wandering around somewhere or sleeping, as was the case with your daughter.

I do feel sorry for the majority of people that work there. Between the calls of "code grey" over the PA system to the patients that won't leave the staff alone it's just a madhouse from what I've seen on my visits. On the other hand, they do have a job to do and when you can't get straight answers your blood boils. Sometimes I got more information out of the other patients than I did from the doctors, even regarding the medication my sibling was taking. Ha!

I remember when I visited my sibling not one doctor or nurse came up to talk to me. They took no notice that I was there at all. I got more conversation out of my siblings new buddies in there.

I kicked up a big stink with the hospital staff one day because I was so frustrated at the lack of information (stuff the aggressive behaviour sign). In the end I got to sit down for an hour with one of the doctors who ran through the treatment plan and the care required for my sibling. Surprise, surprise, I even got to find out what the diagnosis was - BPD. Up until then I was completely in the dark and would have remained that way because my sibling was also considered an adult and the doctors and nurses won't disclose information to anyone else because of the privacy laws.

My advice annie is to get mad and demand your right as a mother to know what medication your daughter is being given, when it's being given, why it's being given, what are the side effects and how it will help her. Find out what long term plan they want to put in place and go from there. If you don't lose the plot a bit yourself you don't get very far in "the system".

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