Author: Steve Antipolo

Meeting with the social worker today. There is stuff which is in the background it’s not appropriate to talk about in a public forum so, ask if you see me perhaps. Suffice to say, it might not have been so pleasant for the social worker to take the line she did earlier when up against 3 Williams!

We finally ran out of patience with all the estimates running into months of how much longer she would spend in hospital and I today gave a notice of intent to discharge her.

They have until just after midday on Monday to respond.

My guess is, if they have any common sense left, they will approve the discharge, if they don’t then I take it to tribunal. We need to keep Zoey safe and we can’t protect her whilst she is in a place for people with mental illness which she clearly does not have.

Zoey sobbed her eyes out earlier saying she wants to come home, she is coming home ASAP!

URGENT – Our family and Zoey needs your help

It seems that we as a family are being blamed for causing her current condition. In a recent report with regard safeguarding it states that:

“Zoey was admitted to NGH in crisis –the risks of returning home are currently yet to be understood.”

It makes it clear elsewhere they consider there is a question mark as to her safety at home. Each professional involved with Zoey at every opportunity asks over and over what it was which triggered her situation at home. They are talking about potentially months of keeping Zoey at Berrywood whilst they investigate this. In my opinion, they know she shouldn’t be in an Acute Mental Health hospital but don’t want to admit their mistake. They want to justify their decision by claiming it is for safeguarding reasons.

What do I need you to do?

I need only those who know how much we cared for Zoey here, who know us as a family and who know how loving and caring we are to write to Berrywood Hospital. I understand that I am open this up to those who may seek to destroy this family but I ask that they remember that we’re talking about Zoey here, please don’t make up nonsense to stir up trouble for the rest of us sacrificing her in the meantime.

The contact Details are:

Berrywood Hospital
Berrywood Dr,
Northampton
NN5 6UD

Attention of Dr Mann (Bay Ward)

For those who have read the blog entries, you will know the full extent of what has happened the past few months. Others might just know how they feel about us as a family and whether we are suitable to send Zoey home to. Anything you feel it is important to share with the Dr is important. It also helps if you describe the Zoey you perhaps knew from personal experience.

Please share as you might know someone on your friends list who isn’t on mine who might want to help too.

Thank you

Why do Doctors and managers and hospitals worry more about covering their own backsides than they do about their patients?

Hell no, let’s go back a bit … I’ve been trying to speak to the consultant treating Zoey for weeks. I make an appointment and he doesn’t show up. Today I finally get a meeting where he and I can talk so I expect it is me and he sitting down in a room and having a chat. Clearly I forgot how these things work. There was him, his trainee, the ward manager, the LD coordinator and me in a conference room.

Do you know, as a Carer how you feel like there is them and then you? Well, no, of course you don’t unless you’ve been there but that’s how it was. No one was in my corner and, by ‘MY’ corner I mean Zoey’s. The overwhelming feeling seems to be that clearly we were the cause of this problem, something must have happened at home. That if we were able to cope then she wouldn’t have been sent to hospital. I obviously, well, obvious to me, pointed out that we’d managed to cope just fine for 24 years but something this year changed and it was more than likely the urine infection. They acknowledged that urine infections can cause such issues and reactions BUT … you will love this one … young women her age if they are looking after themselves properly or looked after properly rarely get such infections, clearly she wasn’t cared for properly and they need to know she is safe.

At this point it would be fair to say that I was feeling the need to sign myself into the hospital because they were sure as hell making me mad!

I asked if they could identify a single recognisable mental health issue with Zoey that they were certain were not part of her disabilities, they couldn’t. They queried that she might be depressed but they couldn’t be certain, it was just something they wanted to rule out! I’ll get back to that one!

They said that they need to wait until Zoey is able to engage in the process, voice her opinion. I asked what they knew about Zoey that made them believe that she was going to start doing something there which she’d not done for the rest of her life to date? That was news to them apparently, they were under the impression that she was able to engage in conversation. I did point out that this was glaringly obviously why they should have spoken directly with the family when she was admitted and not waited over a month to do so, they agreed. I mean, they actually agreed they would have found it useful. I mean, who the absolute **** is running the place that knowing this they still didn’t do it despite my making two appointments previously?

The Doctor queried autism, perhaps aspergers and said this was something else they needed to explore, I agreed, absolutely we do but I asked whether they routinely got patients in their acute mental health hospital to be assessed for such things or whether they would more likely happen at home. He replied “fair enough, I see your point”

It seems to me they just don’t get that Zoey actually could be OK at home. That everything which needs to be sorted out can be sorted out at home, it doesn’t need to be in an acute mental health hospital where she is picking up on so much negative behaviour.

The anti depressants … they will take about two weeks to see whether they are doing anything. The doctor acknowledged that the side effects, if there are any, could be quite upsetting for Zoey so … how about we take an already really scared person with learning disability and give them drugs they might not need which could well scare them anymore, yeah, excellent decision.

Bottom line is, I’ve told them that week starting December 2 I am going to officially challenge the section 3 and unless they can have some evidence of a mental health problem by then, despite what they believe this allegedly awful house is for her, she’s coming home!

For the record, no, as a parent you don’t cope with this, not like some people cope. You bounce along the bottom of sanity trying to carve a path through the madness you have to deal with.

Of course, I am not actually Zoey’s carer any more, I got sacked by the government because she went into hospital! I am broke and likely to get more broke!””

I think the visits with Zoey are getting better. I am quite certain her remaining in hospital is a mistake. It’s a mistake which is going to see her degenerate loads if we’re not careful. She’s seeing too many things she shouldn’t see, picking up too many behaviours from other patients that she doesn’t understand.

As far as I can see, there are totally no mental health issues with Zoey at all now and it amazes me that the consultant on the ward has not picked up on this already. Those nurses who deal with her on a regular basis know it already so, why is she still on a section 3?

I am seeing the consultant tomorrow, if he turns up. This will be the third arranged meeting and the man has failed to attend the first two.

I’ve put in an official complaint highlighting my concerns to the Care Quality Commission who oversee such places. I don’t expect them to have acted before Zoey is released. I used the word ‘released’ as opposed to ‘discharged’ because that is the nature of a section 3, someone cannot choose to discharge themselves, they have to be released from a section 3 order.

I’m not seeing Social Services until Friday, that is the earliest I could arrange a meeting. That’s a little crazy seeing as if my plans for her release go through, she’s going to be home next week with not a lot in place for her.

As anyone can see from the picture, drinking isn’t an issue, if I’d taken a picture of her scoffing her McDonald’s breakfast after already having had cornflakes and toast this morning, you’d know that eating isn’t one either. She smells OK so is obviously doing some sort of washing, I suspect she’d do more at home as it’s more private. In case you’ve not seen inside a Berrywood room, and why would you have, these is no privacy at all. Nurses walk in and out of the rooms as they want especially with someone like Zoey who isn’t talking to them. The toilet door is so low it’s easy to see over the top of it, indeed, unavoidable. That cannot be good for Zoey especially as we’ve been trying to teach her about personal space.

Certainly it is fair to say I’ve not been happy about the care she’s had there, simply not good enough for all the reasons you might have read about before. The sooner she comes home the better.