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Berrywood Hospital 2023-03-14 Person 1 5 0

First visit to ward was a Sunday. Very chaotic. No one seemed to know anything about our son? He was in a waiting room, heavily sedated. The congealed remains of a meal on the sofa and all his belongings with him. He was in great discomfort. On trying to find out what was happening and get advice the female ward nurse was very defensive. Asked me if he had contraband with him? I said no but why hasn’t he been checked? The nurse didn’t appear to appreciate she worked in a psychiatric hospital. On trying to give medical information on our son she wrote it on a paper towel. On another visit before seeing Dr [name removed] for our son’s assessment we were talking to a male nurse in the waiting area. The conversation went on for a few minutes. The nurse telling us that if our son stopped using substances the likelihood his tendencies towards suicide would decrease. This wasn’t our son he was talking about but another patient with the same name! So much for patient confidentiality. There was one nurse called [name removed] who was most helpful and reassuring. We never met in person but we spoke on the phone. He was the one beacon of hope in a very difficult week before our son was moved for appropriate care.

Have more trained nurses working at the weekend. The difference between the weekend and a week day on the ward is like night and day. Patients appear to be held in limbo for a long time. They’re heavily sedated, confused upset. We left devastated after that first visit. We thought things couldn’t have got worse for our son. This was after days of having him psychotic at home and we were on our knees. But it felt worse leaving him there.