A Recent Experience

My apologies for the length of this post. I have tried to keep it as succinct as possible. Thanks in advance if you do read it all.😊

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I thought I would post this story so I can share my experience with the mental health care system.

In May, my son was voluntarily admitted to a private young person’s mental health unit for treatment of his depressive disorder which at that time was severe. The inpatient program is generally for three weeks. At the time of his admission, we were still living with my abusive personality disordered husband. I was at the end stage of planning our exit and was working towards leaving during his absence over a long weekend four weeks into the future.

Upon admission, my son put me down for full disclosure and listed his father for non-disclosure. My son also requested that I do not disclose his admission to his father. I agreed, with no guarantee that I would be able to maintain this for the duration of his stay. Our home was so dysfunctional, and his father so disengaged from reality, that I was able to conceal his absence without any difficulty.

Meanwhile, my son was being treated in the unit under the direction of a new psychiatrist. He was fully aware of the domestic violence and social issues that surrounded my son and appeared to understand the dynamics. He was also aware of the tenuous and harmful relationship that existed between my son and his father and knew that I was planning to leave.

I was called to attend a "Family Meeting" with my son and his psychiatrist in the second week of his stay. During this meeting, the psychiatrist interviewed me at length and concluded that from what my son and I had told him, my husband was clearly suffering from an undiagnosed personality disorder. Given that I was planning to leave one week after my son's discharge he recommended that he remain in the unit until this was over.

The following week I again met with my son, his psychiatrist and a psychologist. The entire session was dedicated to safety planning. The psychiatrist emphasised this and advised me that he was lowering the threshold for notification to the police because of the paranoid delusions my husband had exhibited in recent weeks. He advised me to notify police at the first signs of agitation, amongst many other things. He was more than happy to keep my son in the unit throughout this high conflict and potentially unsafe time. I was greatly relieved that my son was not going to be present during this move and would be in a physically and psychologically safe place.

That weekend I left my husband successfully while he was away and over the following week had to deal with the fallout. The psychiatrist conducted a conference call with me on Wednesday and again emphasized safety and how important caution is during this potentially dangerous time when an escalation of abusive behaviour was likely. He again assured me that the unit would keep my son on a "see as we go basis" until things had settled sufficiently. He scheduled a review meeting for the following Monday to discuss this.

By the Friday of that week, my husband had become quite irrational and was desperately attempting to contact our son. He concluded that I was deliberately blocking his communications and that I had brainwashed our son. He began harassing both of us with a string of phone calls and text messages. My son decided to answer his messages and in the course of communicating told his father where he was and added that he never wanted to see him again. Naturally, this angered my husband and led to him to ring the unit demanding information. They did not disclose anything and did not even confirm my son's existence, which in turn angered him further. He concluded by advising that he intended to visit on the following day.

The staff of the unit contacted the psychiatrist who immediately instructed staff to suspend my son's weekend day leave and remove his phone. This decision seemed reasonable and was to protect my son. The following morning I received a call from the psychiatrist to advise me that he had decided to discharge our son. He justified this decision by saying that he did not want a "flashpoint situation" occurring when my husband arrives and is not permitted entry. He added that this would be stressful and harmful to our son and other inpatients. I was advised to collect my son as soon as possible and also told that hospital security had been notified and placed on stand-by.

My son was very distressed to learn that he was being discharged and began crying. Nursing staff tried to console him, but he was very upset and repeatedly said, "He's won again. He ruins everything".

I arrived to collect my son, and as we were leaving, we were offered a security escort to the car. That clearly indicated the situation was unsafe. On our return trip, we were bombarded with a total of a combination of over 20 calls, SMS's and voicemails from my husband. He threatened to report our son as a missing person to the police, accused me of subterfuge, threatened to track us down, etc. This situation created so much anxiety in my son that he became nauseous and wanted to vomit. Thankfully we arrived home safely and the irrational communications from my husband ceased with a final message that contained veiled threats.

As a result of the abrupt discharge the scheduled psychiatric review was not conducted, no discharge plan was made, and no follow-up was conducted.

I contacted my son's psychologist immediately to advise her of what had happened, and she instantly expressed her disapproval and condemned the actions of the unit. She believed that my son's welfare was jeopardized and that they were in breach of the Children and Young Person's (Care and Protection) Act and did not exercise a basic duty of care. She also questioned what psychological impact this would have on him.

The psychology practice wrote a letter of complaint to the Executive Director of the hospital and the head of the unit. This letter was signed by the Director of the psychology practice, my psychologist, my son's psychologist and his psychiatrist (who was the referring Dr). Although I am unaware of their exact response, I have been told enough to know that the psychiatrist is not a very happy man and that we appear to have burnt our bridges with the unit.

Unless I’m missing something, discharging my son at a time when his father was in a volatile mood is exactly what should NOT have been done due to the risks involved. My husband could not have entered the unit in any case as it is secured with an electronic release door. The way I see it is that the facility did not want to have to deal with my husband and his rage on their property, so they discharged my son and in doing so compromised his safety. He should have been permitted to stay in the unit and deserved to be discharged in a planned and normal manner at a time when the risk to his internal/external safety was low. It also completely contradicts the safety plan that psychiatrist emphasised.

My son was already particularly susceptible to emotional and psychological trauma due to his past chronic exposures to domestic violence and current psychological health. I fail to understand the logic of how a facility that is dedicated specifically to helping individuals with emotional and psychological issues can do something like this and potentially harm someone further.

It appears that my son will no longer be able to use this facility for treatment. That is a real shame because he responded very well to the inpatient treatment and bonded with many staff within the unit. Despite the abrupt end, the rest of his inpatient stay was good and yielded positive outcomes.

He recently expressed a desire to return because of his worsening depression, and I explained that this may not be possible. It broke my heart when my son was abruptly discharged from a place where he felt safe. It now breaks my heart even further to tell him that he is no longer welcome there. How can something like this be good for a young person struggling with severe depression?

I would love to hear comments and opinions. I'm curious to know if I'm just not seeing it from the right perspective.

Janna ❤️