Children’s mental health hospitals are making patients worse off, a major charity has found, with more than half of those treated in them reporting negative experiences.
Britain’s inpatient mental health units are being used as ‘holding places’ for those in need of treatment and are failing to improve the mental health of those with the most severe needs, according to a report by Mind.
The charity says the findings of its latest survey of children in hospital should “stop the government in its tracks” and called for a public inquiry into hospital mental health services.
The reportt shared with The Independent, found that almost half of the children said their mental health had worsened after being admitted, while almost 70 per cent said they had not had a positive experience of hospital care.
Tiva, a 20-year-old woman from London, said The Independent that her experiences in three inpatient units left her more traumatized than before she was admitted, adding that she still has nightmares about her time there.
It comes after The Independent revealed allegations of “systemic abuse” by 50 patients at children’s mental health hospitals run by The Huntercombe Group, which was sold in 2021.
An NHS report on children’s mental health care in 2021 found that children suffer six times more restraint in hospitals than adults. Meanwhile, the latest NHS figures on restraint in mental health hospitals show that at least 200 children are subjected to a form of restraint each month. This can include being kept face down on the floor and being placed in solitary confinement rooms for days at a time.
“We’re Gonna Die Tonight”
Tiwa was admitted to a children’s mental health hospital in London in 2019 when she was 16 years old.
Describing the care she received as a patient on the ward, she said: “There were times when I was restrained several times a day. I was injected to calm myself down and it was just constant really … you’re a teenager and then all of a sudden there are five big men (trying to hold you down) that you’ve never seen before because they work in the other wards.”
Tiwa is now doing well and studying at university
(Mind)
She added: “It was so traumatic. It’s still traumatic. I still have nightmares every night, really. (The hospital) didn’t make me better. I went in traumatized and came out 10 times more traumatized.”
Inpatient emergency departments in England have vacancy rates of more than 20 per cent, NHS mental health director Clare Murdoch told the public accounts committee last month.
Tiwa said staff shortages led to nights in hospital where her own life and the safety of other patients were at risk. One night, she recalled, four “terrified” staff members were “in tears” as they tried to deal with 11 suffering patients.
“I watched my friends almost die at several stages and there were moments where I thought, ‘A lot of us are going to die tonight.'”
Tiwa said there were staff who saved her life and would have done everything they could to help her, but they were limited by shortages in the mental health system. She said she was moved between wards without warning and that despite requests from staff not to put her in holds or in a closed ambulance, she was ignored.
“Failure System”
Mind’s report on the state of children’s hospital services covered the experiences of more than 400 children and young people, most of whom said they had been admitted multiple times.
The report warned of a host of failings in inpatient wards, including understaffing, excessive use of restraints and medication and children being “inappropriately” placed in adult inpatient wards.
Shockingly, children placed “informally” in inpatient units without being “sectioned” do not have the same legal right to advocacy as those in involuntary detention.
Gemma Byrne, head of policy at Mind, said The Independent: “What we see in hospital care is completely unacceptable. We see cases of abuse, neglect, unsafe care. The fact that the environment itself is not therapeutic and often the care people receive is not compassionate enough.
“Kids have described a system that is failing us – sometimes putting them in harm’s way and harming their mental health… This should give the government pause, make them take a second to look and say, ‘This can’t be right. What’s wrong here? We must take immediate action.”
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said everyone receiving inpatient treatment deserves high quality care and to be cared for with dignity and respect.
The results of a DHSC-commissioned rapid review of hospital mental health services are expected to be published soon.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour’s shadow cabinet minister for mental health, said: “Patients continue to fail as a direct result of the mental health crisis created by the government. Young people increasingly lack access to appropriate mental health treatment and the government is failing to provide the care they need to recover.
She continued: “Inpatient services in England need to be overhauled – with patients’ voices at the centre. We need prevention and reform of mental health services to ensure the best possible treatment for all.
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