With regard to the Cawley Centre, I will start with the positive. The consultant who runs the centre and his second, are sincere about what they do. I think his second is a pleasant individual with a good attitude to patients.
Now for my critique.
I believe the approach of the Cawley Centre as a whole is severely broken. In my opinion the patient community has a myriad of problems and between one to one time with individual counsellors and group therapy, we are left to our own devices.
This has become a problem as patients, I feel often have difficulties relating to each other, some can be unreasonable.
I feel like this will inevitably lead to people being provoked and which can cause great upset and distress. The faulty logic assumes that a calm rational debate about it later will alleviate these behavioural problems.
I find the emotional reactions of many people, like myself are not thought out. For me, they happen spontaneously and are a conditioned response that has become unconscious.
I think talking to people later when they are calm does nothing but make them feel guilty and hopeless.
A reaction happens in a split second and once in an emotional state, I find it hard to respond.
It seems to me that some of the staff clearly aren't interested in what the patients think. I think the patients are often highly intelligent people, and the highly cultivated calm demeanor of staff with their placating body language gestures I find patronising and insulting. The patient may be acting like a five year old but they are not one. I feel as if talking to patients like me as such merely provokes further hostility.
I also believe the language in use by the professionals here is the worst kind of exported political correctness. They use the words "safe" or "unsafe" when referring to a situation that may cause distress to others. Such use of unnecessary simplification I think is insulting to the intellect of the patients.
We are all adults, though we may act otherwise from emotional issues. I think the Cawley Centre is demeaning to patients dignity. I want to be spoken to like a peer, not like I'm mentally deficient. I half expect to be asked to attend an afternoon of sponge painting.
I do not think the fairly poor social skills of some staff is hardly going to help rehabilitate the more pathologically antisocial patients.
In my opinion, there is also no realistic way that a patient could be protected from an outbreak of violence within the centre, which I think can be a possibility. When tempers flare some staff have demonstrated to me that they are woefully ineffectual at diffusing a situation. I think better people management skills are needed for the qualified staff who carry out behavioural therapies.
"Problems at Cawley centre, Denmark Hill, London."
About: South London And Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust / Homeless mental health South London And Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Homeless mental health SE5 8AZ
Posted by aprilshowers33 (as ),
Do you have a similar story to tell?
Tell your story & make a difference ››
Responses
See more responses from Su Glazier
See more responses from Jill Lockett