Cygnet Hospital Sheffield

"Being a parent of a youngster who was struggling on Admission to Cygnet after escalations post discharge from a different Tier 4 hospital meant she needed readmitting to Cygnet instead, without understanding the challenges and how best to support I have been on a very difficult journey, where my own coping mechanisms weren't helping matters. It was hard at first when facing this reality. Cygnet and in particular the lead Psychiatrist was essentially supported with staff who sing from the same hymn sheet and communicate with us and each other to make sure everybody involved with our child is on the same page (so important when this is a child who struggles to communicate for themselves verbally). They helped us through this, and reassured us to know we are in this together for the purpose of helping the child and not giving blame yet learning to accept where arguments have happened this has had an effect on our child and working through those feelings as a parent. We were reassured that we were getting so many things right and have confidence in that. We were helped with Family Therapy to make sense of the dynamics in the family, and where they were unhelpful rectify this and empathise and given excellent guidance and learning as regards window of tolerance, self harm, and acceptance of neurodiversity. We are grateful to Educaton got her through the resits and organised her a college course which has given her purpose and structure which she will take step by step. Her special needs were discussed between Pegasus school and the college and the ward rounds ensured the developmental reports could be passed on to her new college. OT always were a safe part of call and offered many interesting activities which she felt the community of being included and involved if she wanted to. We are in a place now where a further diagnosis was able to come out of this, which has provided the support and understanding of our child's challenges. This is after a previous placement elsewhere that gave a diagnosis that on the face of it does seem more gentle, but did not validate our child and speak of the true challenges they face. My child has had a life-changing experience from the help she has got at Pegasus and we will be always grateful. She is in the community now, and Pegasus lead psychiatrist made sure the full package of support is there in the community, crisis management session between pschologist at Pegasus, Family therapists and parents with our child, Camhs visits, crisis team visits, social worker support and funding and further CETR meetings post discharge. Our daughter is not well, but is well enough to not be in a ward and the initial difficulties post discharge of settling back in at home are something we have been prepared to handle and support our child as a family. The discharge and goodbyes were really kind and am grateful that as my daughter didn't make strong bonds with the staff on the ward this is a good thing to make saying goodbye and integration into the community easier. Her condition would have made those bonds difficult to establish anyway. Safeguarding is something that is standout excellent as we would want for our children for things to be dealt with and their concerns heard for their protection. We had regular communication and the admin support team are very efficient. Thank you for all of your support, and making us stronger together ❤️"

"In 2021 a young girl died, ligature suicide, in this hospital. The coroner recently reported the staff had 'limited concern for vulnerable people. ' Her regular checks on her safety, were late, she died of asphyxiation due to a ligature. Staff failed to check her safety on time, tragically she died. It just doesn't get any more disgraceful than that. Read about it, look up Chelsea Blue Mooney on Google. Why is this hospital allowing such disasters to continue??"

"This review relates to Pegasus ward: I am an MSc student mental health nurse and spent a couple of months on this ward as one of my placements. I can truthfully say that the staff on this ward provide outstanding person centred care to their patients and if any one of my family were to need treatment I would rest assured that they were safe and well looked after by the team here. From some of the incredible support workers such as Becca, Ahmed and Charles, to the school teachers, psychologists, OTs, clinicians and nurses, the staff here genuinely care about their patients. Particular credit goes to the nursing team who follow the nursing code to the letter, placing ethics and high quality care at the forefront of everything that they do. I spent several months on a different ward within the hospital, however Pegasus sets a standard that the rest of the hospital should be following. I hope they are proud and give credit to themselves for the incredible work that they do."

"My son has been here for 6 months and the care that he has received has been consistently good. The ward that he was in - Pegasus - may have been unsettled at times but the staff were always transparent in their communication. The new system of emails at the end of every shift is such a great innovation as the phones are often busy and it is hard to speak to a nurse ( they are busy nursing!). Even though we were so far away and the journeys were sometimes awful and at the beginning often only for an hour I wouldn’t have wanted him to stay anywhere else. All the staff from the reception / admin team to the Medical teams and MDTeams are super and work together to provide the best care possible. The ward manager must work dbl time! It’s difficult to do a review as such but when your child is placed in a unit and you are searching for some reassurance I hope that you read this and you feel some sense that things although feel difficult and bewildering your child will be looked after and cared for and will hopefully return in a better place."

"My son was admitted to Unicorn Ward where he spent over 5 months. During the time of his stay I found all members of staff very open, approachable and supportive. Whether it was during online ward rounds, CPA meetings or when I personally called to the hospital they have always kept me informed with what was happening and regularly sending me my son's updated care plans. They listen to us and included our suggestions in decission making regarding my son's next steps. They also spoke with my son as an adult and took his opinion to stay in hospital seriously therefore he was able to appeal and went through tribunal process in which he had lots of support too. Even though that he moaned about the noise and the food and did not want to stay in hospital, he enjoyed his take aways, haircuts, beauty treatments and the PROMS. So BIG THANK YOU to all of you who organised it. THANK YOU to all of you on Unicorn Ward who were engaged in my son's care, made sure that he is safe and got better. THANK YOU also for organising the transport and bringing my son back to me for home visits as we live 3 hours away from Sheffield and otherwise I would not be able to see him. Thank you also for sending me newsletters, podcast link(which I really enjoyed listenning) and parents online support. As well as all the lovely Good Luck cards that my son received from you. His eyes lit with happiness when he read them. You are excellent team and I wish you all best in the future."