NHS PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALS: THE LUNATICS ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM!

Unfortunately, I was sent to an NHS Psychiatric hospital at the Caludon Centre, (The
Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust), Coventry, because I took a very small overdose of about 30 painkillers in April 2013.  I was sectioned and resectioned and was kept in there for 10 months. I may go into more detail about this fact on another post. Previous to this, I was self-employed as a piano teacher and had never had any involvement with the Mental Health Services.  I lived a very happy and full life, and enjoyed my work as a piano teacher and was on good relations with all my pupils.  I also have a degree in Theology and Visual Arts; I also have a piano teaching qualification. During the course of my stay, I realized that things really weren't right, and came to the conclusion that the Lunatics are running the Asylum in NHS Psychiatric hospitals.

Conditions at the hospital were as such: there were no proper blankets or quilts; there was no heating; there was no or little protein in the food; at night health care assistants shone torches in your eyes, and made lots of noise; Psychiatrists and mental health staff told lies; the curtains were old and dirty and hanging off a few hooks; in some 'bedrooms' there were no curtains at all; also, a number of the showers in the bedrooms weren't working and were never fixed. (There was only one exception to this- on one ward I made continual complaints about the shower, and it actually was fixed, but I found that there was water everywhere, and that my dressing gown tie was found down the toilet).  After I had stayed there for quite a while, I noticed that certain things weren't right and rather peculiar.  I noticed that the sockets in the Library were placed up on high- I couldn't see the reason for this, as there were sockets in the bedrooms, so I don't think that this was due to some kind of safety reason. Then I noticed that there was a clear, sealed plastic container, full of cigarette ends attached to the front of the building.  Why was this container fixed to the front of the building like that? It certainly was an eyesore, and it was not functional as an ashtray.  I also noticed that there were cards fixed to the wall with a picture of a thermometer on it. The notice on the card said that if the temperature reached below a certain level, then the matter should be reported.  What was the point of this? I also noticed something else that was rather strange: a certain health care assistant used to pour buckets of water over the fountain in the outdoor area on a weekly basis.  I asked her why she was doing this, and she told me that she was 'mending the fountain'.  I also asked other members of staff why she was doing this, and they also told me that she was 'mending the fountain'. Previous to this the flow of water from the fountain used to decrease and after she had finished, the flow of water actually mysteriously increased.  I am sure that most people know that fountains are controlled by an internal pump, and that pouring buckets of water over a fountain would have no effect whatsoever on the fountain.  The flow of water must have been controlled by someone else within the building.  Why would this be so, I wonder? Was the hospital actually making fun of people with mental heath patients. It actually seemed to be working, because to my dismay, I asked other patients what they thought that the health care assistant was doing and they thought that she was 'mending the fountain'. Aside from this, there was an outside area where people could smoke.  In the area was a bin which was broken.  This bin would fill up with cups and cigarette ends and would then fall open and everything would go on the floor.  This bin was never fixed, during my whole stay at the hospital. I think that this bin is probably in the same state now.  The outdoor area was never cleaned, and when I mentioned the mess to a hospital manager, he told me that it was up to the patients to clean up this area. In the canteen there were ants crawling over all the tables.  This problem was never sorted out, apart from the fact that one health care assistant used to squash these ants with a tissue.

I found the Caludon centre to be a very distressing place and not at all conducive towards anyone's recovery from mental health issues.  Staff were cold and cruel.  There would often be about 5 health care assistants in the TV room at one time.  They would be on their mobile phones, laughing and chatting to each other; often about how much money they earnt, and where they were going on holiday.  Once, I saw a woman lieing on the floor crying.  No members of staff were attending to her.  So, I went to her to see what was wrong myself, and to try and comfort her.  I was told to leave her alone, and no-one helped her. I had a very flattened pillow at one point, with no lining. I tried asking if I could have another one, but there was none available.  Managers at the hospital never seemed to order in new pillows, or new anything else. I used to keep my mail in my room.  One day, I was looking for an important letter, that I had previously read.  I noticed that it had gone missing.  Some time after this, the assistant manager of the ward produced the letter, and said: 'Is this what you are looking for?'.  I did not even bother asking him what he was doing with my letter, and why it had gone from my room.  I knew that hospital staff from the ward were corrupt from top to bottom.

There was nothing to do at the Caludon centre, apart from watch t.v. and visit the activity room.  In the activity room you could play bingo, string beads together and do colouring in.  There was no form of therapy only the administration of drugs. Washing your clothes was limited to the afternoons for no obvious reason.  At one stage the washing powder ran out.  I asked the ward manager about this and was told that it was up to patients to buy their own washing powder.  How were patients meant to do this when they were confined to the ward? At a later date, washing powder later re-appeared in the laundry room.

Another thing that I found to be highly suspect was the taking of physical observations by healthcare staff. On a quite regular basis, someone would come round with some kind of trolley and take everyone's physical observations, including their blood pressure.  Staff would use scrap pieces of paper to record these observations.  I would question this and ask why they were not using proper forms as one might expect.  I was told that this information would be transferred to proper forms at a later date.  I very much doubt that this happened.  Also, I have had my blood pressure taken many times in the past under normal conditions in a doctor's surgery and had no problem.  However, when it came to having my blood pressure taken at the Caludon centre, the band that was placed around my arm seemed to tighten and maintain the pressure for a prolonged period of time and really hurt.  I was very annoyed by this, and decided that the situation was just not normal and so I ripped the band off my arm.  After experiencing this kind of thing for a few times, I refused to have my physical observations done.  Besides this, I found that when people had their blood taken for tests, they always seemed to have bruises. The excuse that they had been given was that staff could not find a vein.  In all my history of having blood tests taken, I have not experienced this, myself.  One woman's hand was very badly bruised by having the blood taken from a prominent vein in her hand.  I could not believe this.  After this, I refused to have any blood tests done myself because I didn't want them messing me up like that, and insisted that if I was to have any tests done like this, that I would be sent to the 'normal' hospital.  Another rather disturbing thing happen to a woman that I met at the hospital: when she went to the toilet, she found that hospital staff were trying to open the door when she was on the toilet.  The woman panicked and tried to take hold of the door handle, to stop people coming in.  She actually hurt her hand in doing so.  When she asked the reason why such a thing could have happened, she was given some lame excuse.  There was a chinese female patient that was at the hospital whilst I was there.  She could not speak much English, and she could not walk very well.  I tried to befriend her and held her hand.  I cannot remember her name now, but members of staff called her by a different name: 'Fung'.  I kept saying to them that is not her name, call her by the right  name. One of these members of staff was actually an Occupational Therapist. They kept saying, 'Fung, Fung!'. Eventually these members of staff burst out laughing and said that 'Fung' was her name- it was her surname.  I do not know what they found to be so hilarious. This is another example of things not being normal and right.  This woman messed herself at one time, and I had to alert staff that she needed help, because no-one was helping her.  She had a very large family who came to see her.  I tried to warn them about how their mother was being treated.  But of course, it was hopeless, because I was a patient, and supposed to be mentally ill, so I do not think the family took much notice of me. After being at the hospital for a while, I started noticing that identification cards worn by staff seemed out of the ordinary.  Staff would often wear these cards the wrong way round and also their photographs on the cards all seemed to be damaged in some way, or half the image was faded.  This did not seem to be right, and I often asked staff about this, and was given some implausible explanation.  These cards were made of plastic and the image of the staff worker was embedded in the plastic.  I could not see how these cards could be damaged in such a way by normal wear and tear. Was this part of the whole charade put on by the whole of the mental health team of things not seeming to be normal and proper?

As you might be able to see, things just do not seem to be right in NHS Psychiatric hospitals.  One might come to the view, that the lunatics are running the asylum.  Why is the very design of the building of the hospital and it's contents seem to be in question?  Why do the staff from these hospitals and their managers seem to behave in very strange ways?  Why are the curtains so disgusting and old looking?  My mother has curtains that are over 30 years old and they did not look anything like the one's in the the Caludon centre. This must have come from the top. I used to refer to the Caludon centre as the Cauldron centre.  The reason for this is that the centre seemed to be run by a bunch of very twisted individuals (or Nazis), and certainly the conditions in the centre were not normal.  At best, the centre seemed to be some kind of concentration camp, where people were made to suffer, were belittled, and incarcerated for long periods of time for no reason and little chance of escape.   Is it just the Caludon centre where things seem to be amiss?  Are they conducting some kind of twisted social experiment there, or are all NHS Psychiatric wards like the Caludon centre up and down the country? Personally, my own life was destroyed by my very long stay in the Caludon centre.  I lost my business, my home, and my dog and cat; I also lost my reputation after being falsely diagnosed with a mental illness that I showed no symptoms of, and was pumped with anti psychotics for no good reason.  As a result of this I now have health problems and also haven't slept since.

My Father made several complaints to Rachel Newson, Chief Executive at the Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust, by recorded delivery.  Rachel Newson ignored his letters, and finally someone contacted my father and told him that he was complaining to the wrong person.  This is not true.  According to POhWER, an independent NHS Complaints Advocacy, he was complaining to the right person, and he should have expected to hear back from her within 3 working days. There should have been an investigation into the issues that my father raised.  There should have been many things that should have taken place.  What sort of person is Rachel Newson?  Surely not a proper person, who does not behave as you might expect someone of her position to act.  What hope is there for anyone who is imprisoned by The NHS mental health services and plied with poisons and potions? The question has to be asked: who really is running the NHS mental health services? My personal view it that it has to be the Illuminati. Nothing about them is normal, proper or right. What is the point of NHS Psychiatric hospitals? There is no Cognitive Behavioural therapy, no Counselling, no group sessions. What is the point of being sectioned in these dreadful places, where there is no help there. NHS Psychiatric hospitals should be shut down. Tax payers money should go on Counselling, Cognitive behavioural therapy and other forms of well being activities that are condusive towards mental health. It would actually cost far less than the current system that is in place. Very few patients are actually dangerous and need to be segregated from society. I did not meet one patient that I felt personally threatened by in the whole of my 10 month stay at the Caludon Centre. Special facilities should be found for dangerous people, where they are able to receive the appropriate therapy.

In August 2013, my discharge from the Caludon centre was discussed at a ward round meeting.  It was not the Psychiatrist, Dr. Elanjithara that mentioned the discharge, initially, but rather the ward manager.  No reason was given for this, and the matter was put to me as follows: 'Well, you don't like it here, and you want to be discharged; so, you are homeless now, and you obviously need somewhere to go, so we will send you to the council to declare yourself homeless'.  It seems to me to be highly unusual that the Pyschiatrist did not advocate this discharge, but rather just seemed to go along with the ward manager.  Obviously, I did not want to be in the hospital right from the start, and did not like it- so why now?

I would please urge any parents or concerned friends of those with mental health problems to think twice before taking their loved one to NHS mental health services. NHS Psychiatric hospitals are not at all like the one's that they portray on Emmerdale or Eastenders. In such soaps, NHS Psychiatric hospitals are portrayed as safe places, with kind staff, where patients actually recover. One might think that they can trust these services, as the ordinary side of the NHS is normally considered to be very good.  One might think that a person could trust the NHS Psychiatrists with the care of an individual, but I have not found this to be the case.  Once you are caught up in their clutches, they never seem to let you go, and their is very little a person can do about it.  A person with perceived mental health problems would be far better advised to seek counselling.  Tribunals to appeal for release are a sick joke, and they just go through the motions of making an individual think that he or she might stand a chance of escape.  I found that at my tribunal, that everyone else spoke before I did, just talking a load of psycho babble, really, in terms that were undecipherable.  I was only allowed to speak briefly at the end and my words held no significance or bearing on the case against me.  My father asked if he could ask a question and was refused. I should have thought a more fair situation would be one where the patient and the sollicitor were able to put their case for release forward first. Also, that the views of the family should be represented. There is always talk on the TV about more money being needed for the mental health services, and about mental health being as important as physical health. But if more money was spent, it would not go on the patients and improving their standard of care. There would be no therapy or improvement of conditions. The money would just go on the staff.

 I finally escaped the Caludon centre in February 2014, still under a section 3, and under a community treatment order.  I was told that I had to keep on with my medication and made to attend a day centre for another 6 months.  I contined with antipsychotic injections under the care of Dr. Hasler for a few months, but these were suddenly stopped for no apparent reason. (However, I think it might have been because my father was kicking up such a fuss on the internet about the drug giving me brain damage). Of course, I never had any what would be considered to be psychotic episodes after this- not even one- proving that I didn't need the injections in the very first place. Very little happened at this day centre, and the whole experience was a total waste of time.  Psychiatrists said that I had no insight, but what insight was I supposed to have specifically, when I wasn't experiencing any recognizable symptoms of mental illness.  The whole thing was a stitch up, basically.

I have submitted a review of the Caludon centre with: iwantgreatcare.org  I had to submit it twice before I received the verification link.  I am still waiting to hear whether it has been published.