"I feel there is nothing in the ward to promote recovery"

On Lomond Ward there is nothing in the ward to promote recovery. For patients (like myself) who have little to no time out from the ward they are confined to their bed space, a small tv room, the dining room or a tiny outdoor area.

The hypocrisy is infuriating as the NHS recommends daily exercise for your physical and mental health, but it is borderline impossible to exercise in such a small area. Put simply, the ward is boring. It needs to be acknowledged that staff get to go home at the end of their shift while patients are stuck on the ward - it’s mind numbing.

There’s an activity room but you can only go in it if there are enough staff on shift to supervise. There’s 1 TV which was hogged by older patients watching the news. The meal options were limited and I lost a stone during my 2 week stay on the ward.

Patients expressed that they smoked excessively to pass the time because there is nothing else to do. The smell of smoke permeated areas of the ward with patients smoking indoors.

In my opinion it’s not right that patients with varying degrees of mental illness share dorms. Every day and night while I was on the ward I was verbally abused by the patient in the bed next to me. Because of this I would only go into my bed space for as little time as possible, only to sleep. I was woken by a patient opening my curtains in the middle of the night, swearing at me and turning their light on and off in the early hours of the morning.

There was a clear divide between nursing staff and patients. I often felt like I was viewed as less than them. In no way is this an attack on any member of staff - by the end of my stay I had developed reasonably good relationships with most staff, but there does seem to be a lack of care for patients. A student nurse provided the bulk of my support and she was the only member of staff I had one on one time with.

My psychiatrist on the ward didn’t actively listen. It was clear they knew the outcome of the meetings before we started talking. They didn’t take on board anything I said - even though patients should be at the core of their treatment and involved in decisions made about them.

As an autistic adult I found that my needs were constantly overlooked. I feel like more intense training on the needs of different types people is required so the ward is more inclusive.

I think having a ward for people aged 18-65 is too broad. The needs of an 18 year old and a 65 year old are completely different so neither can be met sufficiently. For all hospital environments I think young people should be a category of their own. Children and older people have more personalised care so I don’t think it’s fair for every age in between to be mixed together because their needs cannot be met appropriately.

I feel I left the ward with more psychological damage than I arrived with.