So she absconds from the mental health ward in Everyday Life

And they didn’t even notice!

Daughter has been on a locked adolescent ward for anorexia, depression and self harm for a few months. Yesterday she told me that on the way up to education several floors up, someone forgot to lock the front door so she made a run for it. The tiny nurse that was with her is obviously stronger than she looks and rugby tackled her to the ground.

Today I get a phone call asking when I last heard from her (a few hours ago). Apparently they just got a call from a train station 40 minutes away in the same city saying she was standing on the track waiting to jump in front of a train. The station staff persuaded her to go inside and called the unit.

The head nurse caught a train there and the police escorted them back a few hours later.

She had escaped by separating from the group of 8 going up to education and hiding. They didn’t notice they were missing one when they got upstairs. When they released the front doors and went back into the locked ward she came out of hiding and made her way to the train station.

I haven’t been able to speak to her since, she doesn’t seem to have her phone on her as messages aren’t getting read. They said she’s physically fine but her mood is low.

I’m not even going to complain about this. I’ve already made 3 official complaints about safety and other things and have another 2 in the queue, so what’s the point. I like the staff on duty today and don’t really want them to get into trouble but OH says that shouldn’t make a difference. It makes a change from the 3 calls a day I usually get about her tying ligatures around her neck anyway.

Mental health services in the UK are really not good at all, the stories I could tell of lies, neglect, safety breaches etc would shock anyone. And if you call them up on it unless you’ve got written evidence, which mostly is difficult, they group together, cover their backs and lie!

It is the same everywhere in the UK apparently. It’s the power imbalance of staff and service users and there’s nothing anyone can do about it but hope for the best.