Bethlem Royal Hospital

"Speechless. Things appear to be improving but when I got here a few weeks ago it was, well, ‘Bedlam’. The staff were lethally dangerous and even a couple of the patients thought they’d have a go, too. Can we all be, like, peace-loving hippies yet or not?!?? Xx"

"The teenage ward is very unprofessional and don’t know how to work with children. They provoke you and sit together and laugh about you and then make it seem as if your imagining things when your not . 2 of the most liked girls were tying to bully and attack me but when I reacted I was the one that was sent to the seclusion room whilst they got away with it . When I was locked Inside the room once it took them over 3 hours to bring me my food after dinner time so I was hungry and didn’t eat dinner for a while. They refused to bring me my snacks at snack time even if it’s just 3 biscuits. Their breakfast is horrible it’s pouched eggs that you put in the oven. There was one staff who was really nice to me and would always come and talk to me and give me advice on what I could do against the people not treating me well but then they’d always look at us when we were talking and becsude if this they stopped her from seeing me . Also when they restrain you their very rough for no reason and a lot of them become angry I had one staff pull my hair so far back I thought my neck was gonna snap. The food portion sizes are tiny . They purposely kept putting me with a staff member that they knew I didn’t like . When they came in to clean my room the male staff would always stand right above me to make sure I wouldn’t get up and try anything but it was still very intimidating. Over all these staff members don’t know how to deal with teens at all they all have anger issues and are rude and constantly use your illness against you. And dr Dan is a smug guy who enjoys making young people feel hopeless , he told me that I wouldn’t get anywhere in life and that I’d end up dead or worse if I didn’t change , which isn’t something u should tell a teenager much less someone who’s in mental hospital for obvious reasons . There’s so much I can talk about"

"I was in the mother and baby unit 9 years ago. I hated every second of it. I felt trapped and I had no say in my daily life for the 3 months I was there.in a place like that you soon realise that unless you just do what the staff want you to do, you will be the one who suffers . You'll have no freedom and you'll be in hospital for ages.i didn't find it helpful or therapeutic. In fact all these years later memories of it are still upsetting."

"Very few support workers, seem to be client focused. The whole mental health services need more funding, so that real person centred care can be achieved. Currently SLAM is not fit for purpose. Better client and clinician, communication and transparency needed, to help reduce psychological stresses."