Latest news with #KidsonThePsychiatricWard
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Cruelty claims at children's unit 'must lead to change'
A BBC documentary on alleged cruelty in a children's psychiatric unit "must and will lead to improvements", a government minister has pledged. Patients who were teenagers when they were admitted to Skye House, a specialist NHS unit in Glasgow, told BBC Disclosure about a culture of cruelty among nursing staff. Maree Todd, minister for mental wellbeing, told the Scottish Parliament she was treating the issues raised in the documentary "with the utmost seriousness". Government ministers will meet leaders of all health boards with child and adolescent mental health units on Wednesday. Programme-makers spoke to 28 former patients, some of whom had been detained under the mental health act, while making BBC Disclosure's Kids on The Psychiatric Ward documentary. One said the 24-bed psychiatric hospital, which sits in the grounds of Glasgow's Stobhill hospital, was like "hell". Skye House, which opened in 2009, accepts children aged 12 to 18 who are usually at crisis point. Most are detained under the Mental Health Act, which means they cannot leave until doctors decide they are fit to be discharged. The BBC began investigating after one young patient reported her treatment at the unit. Many other cases soon came to light. Speaking at Holyrood, Todd said the culture depicted in the documentary was "disturbing" and the conduct of some staff fell far below "basic standards of decency and compassion". "I treat the issues raised in the documentary with the utmost seriousness," she said. "It must, and will, result in improvements." But she said NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had assured her that issues raised had been dealt with, standards had already improved and internal and external reviews had been commissioned. She added: "I will carefully scrutinise both of these reviews as soon as they come out and expected Greater Glasgow and Clyde to act immediately on any recommendations for improvement. "I will also be asking about the governance arrangement in place to make sure that this can never happen again." Responding to a question from Conservative health spokesman Sandesh Gulhane about who had been held to account for the incidents at Skye House, Todd said improvements had already been made at Skye House. "What I heard in the programme has shocked me and has put in place a sequence of events that will give myself and others in this chamber assurance that the situation has changed since the time period of the programme," she added. Tory Meghan Gallacher said individual cases were "critical for shining a light on the lack of action taken by staff, the NHS and the Scottish government. "The Scottish government didn't find about this through the BBC documentary, they had known for years," she said. She added that one of her constituents had been contacting the government about the way her daughter was treated since 2023. "I've no idea how the minister can stand here today and pretend to be shocked because she's known about this for years." Todd said ministers received a "huge amount of correspondence daily" and letters about medical cases were normally referred to their health board. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde previously said a review of medication was carried out in 2023 and this changed the way medication was administered. Teenagers mocked by nurses at psychiatric unit Child psychiatric units to get extra inspections
BBC News
25-02-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Cruelty claims at Skye House children's unit 'must lead to change'
A BBC documentary on alleged cruelty in a children's psychiatric unit "must and will lead to improvements", a government minister has pledged. Patients who were teenagers when they were admitted to Skye House, a specialist NHS unit in Glasgow, told BBC Disclosure about a culture of cruelty among nursing Todd, minister for mental wellbeing, told the Scottish Parliament she was treating the issues raised in the documentary "with the utmost seriousness".Government ministers will meet leaders of all health boards with child and adolescent mental health units on Wednesday. Programme-makers spoke to 28 former patients, some of whom had been detained under the mental health act, while making BBC Disclosure's Kids on The Psychiatric Ward said the 24-bed psychiatric hospital, which sits in the grounds of Glasgow's Stobhill hospital, was like "hell". Conduct 'fell below basic decency' Skye House, which opened in 2009, accepts children aged 12 to 18 who are usually at crisis are detained under the Mental Health Act, which means they cannot leave until doctors decide they are fit to be BBC began investigating after one young patient reported her treatment at the other cases soon came to at Holyrood, Todd said the culture depicted in the documentary was "disturbing" and the conduct of some staff fell far below "basic standards of decency and compassion". "I treat the issues raised in the documentary with the utmost seriousness," she said. "It must, and will, result in improvements."But she said NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had assured her that issues raised had been dealt with, standards had already improved and internal and external reviews had been commissioned. She added: "I will carefully scrutinise both of these reviews as soon as they come out and expected Greater Glasgow and Clyde to act immediately on any recommendations for improvement."I will also be asking about the governance arrangement in place to make sure that this can never happen again." Responding to a question from Conservative health spokesman Sandesh Gulhane about who had been held to account for the incidents at Skye House, Todd said improvements had already been made at Skye House."What I heard in the programme has shocked me and has put in place a sequence of events that will give myself and others in this chamber assurance that the situation has changed since the time period of the programme," she added. Tory Meghan Gallacher said individual cases were "critical for shining a light on the lack of action taken by staff, the NHS and the Scottish government. "The Scottish government didn't find about this through the BBC documentary, they had known for years," she added that one of her constituents had been contacting the government about the way her daughter was treated since 2023."I've no idea how the minister can stand here today and pretend to be shocked because she's known about this for years."Todd said ministers received a "huge amount of correspondence daily" and letters about medical cases were normally referred to their health board. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde previously said a review of medication was carried out in 2023 and this changed the way medication was administered.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Child psychiatric units to get extra inspections
Extra inspections are to be carried out at children's psychiatric units following allegations about cruelty made in a BBC documentary, a government minister has revealed. Patients who were teenagers when they were admitted to Skye House, a specialist NHS unit in Glasgow, told BBC Disclosure about a culture of cruelty among nursing staff. Maree Todd, minister for mental wellbeing, told the Scottish Parliament she had requested visits and recommendations for improvements in response to the programme. "The care and treatment of young people as described in the programme are completely and wholly unacceptable," she said. Programme-makers spoke to 28 former patients while making BBC Disclosure's Kids on The Psychiatric Ward documentary. One said the 24-bed psychiatric hospital, which sits in the grounds of Glasgow's Stobhill hospital, was like "hell". On Wednesday, Meghan Gallacher, Conservative MSP for Central Scotland, asked in the Scottish Parliament how the Scottish government was responding to the programme. She said she had been supporting a family whose daughter was "illegally sectioned and brought to Skye house" where she was "subjected to abuse and neglectful care" in 2022. "The abuse and cruelty that were shown in the documentary lay bare the institutional crisis at Skye house," Ms Gallacher said. "Those young women were children - children who needed our care and support." Ms Todd said the programme was a "difficult watch" and thanked the young people and their families for "having the courage to come forward". "The cabinet secretary and I will meet NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as soon as possible to seek direct assurance," she said. "We will also meet NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside, which host the other two adolescent units in Scotland." She said she had asked Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland to carry out a series of joint visits to all adolescent in-patient units in Scotland and the national child in-patient unit. "HIS and the commission will use those visits to make recommendations on what is required to ensure the quality and safety of our child and adolescent mental health services in-patient units, both now and into the future," Ms Todd added. "I will be focused on ensuring that the improvements in child and adolescent mental health services, which are clearly needed, happen as a result of our interventions." NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde previously said a review of medication was carried out in 2023 and this changed the way medication was administered. Teenagers mocked by nurses at psychiatric unit
BBC News
20-02-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Child psychiatric units to get extra inspections following BBC report
Extra inspections are to be carried out at children's psychiatric units following allegations about cruelty made in a BBC documentary, a government minister has revealed. Patients who were teenagers when they were admitted to Skye House, a specialist NHS unit in Glasgow, told BBC Disclosure about a culture of cruelty among nursing Todd, minister for mental wellbeing, told the Scottish Parliament she had requested visits and recommendations for improvements in response to the programme. "The care and treatment of young people as described in the programme are completely and wholly unacceptable," she said. Programme-makers spoke to 28 former patients while making BBC Disclosure's Kids on The Psychiatric Ward said the 24-bed psychiatric hospital, which sits in the grounds of Glasgow's Stobhill hospital, was like "hell". 'Institutional crisis' On Wednesday, Meghan Gallacher, Conservative MSP for Central Scotland, asked in the Scottish Parliament how the Scottish government was responding to the programme. She said she had been supporting a family whose daughter was "illegally sectioned and brought to Skye house" where she was "subjected to abuse and neglectful care" in 2022."The abuse and cruelty that were shown in the documentary lay bare the institutional crisis at Skye house," Ms Gallacher said. "Those young women were children - children who needed our care and support."Ms Todd said the programme was a "difficult watch" and thanked the young people and their families for "having the courage to come forward". "The cabinet secretary and I will meet NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as soon as possible to seek direct assurance," she said."We will also meet NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside, which host the other two adolescent units in Scotland."She said she had asked Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland to carry out a series of joint visits to all adolescent in-patient units in Scotland and the national child in-patient unit. "HIS and the commission will use those visits to make recommendations on what is required to ensure the quality and safety of our child and adolescent mental health services in-patient units, both now and into the future," Ms Todd added."I will be focused on ensuring that the improvements in child and adolescent mental health services, which are clearly needed, happen as a result of our interventions."NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde previously said a review of medication was carried out in 2023 and this changed the way medication was administered.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Nurses at psychiatric unit called teens 'pathetic'
Former patients at Scotland's biggest children's psychiatric hospital have told a BBC investigation of a culture of cruelty among nursing staff. Patients who were teenagers when they were admitted to Skye House, a specialist NHS unit in Glasgow, told BBC Disclosure some nurses called them "pathetic" and "disgusting" - and even mocked their suicide attempts. "It was almost as if I was getting treated like an animal," one young patient, being treated for anorexia, said. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it was "incredibly sorry" and has launched two inquiries into the allegations uncovered by the BBC's investigation. Programme-makers spoke to 28 former patients while making BBC Disclosure's Kids on The Psychiatric Ward documentary. One said the 24-bed psychiatric hospital, which sits in the grounds of Glasgow's Stobhill hospital, was like "hell". "I'd say the culture of the nursing team was quite toxic. A lot of them, to be honest, were quite cruel a lot of the time," she added. The young people, who were admitted between 2017 and 2024, told the programme that nurses quickly resorted to force, including physical restraint and dragging patients down corridors, leaving them bruised and traumatised. One said she wanted the police to be called after an alleged assault but was afraid she would be treated worse. Others reported the over-use of medication and sedative injections so the staff could have a quiet shift, leaving patients like "walking zombies". Some patients said they were punished for being unwell, including being made to clean up their own blood from self-harm incidents. Warning: Some readers may find details in this report distressing Skye House, which opened in 2009, accepts children aged 12 to 18 who are usually at crisis point. Most are detained under the Mental Health Act, which means they cannot leave until doctors decide they are fit to be discharged. The BBC began investigating after one young patient reported her treatment at the unit. Many other cases soon came to light. Cara spent more than two years in the unit, from the age of 16, being treated for anorexia. She was restrained more than 400 times over 18 months, medical records reviewed by the BBC show. She was often left with bruises and on one occasion a clump of her hair was pulled out. "It traumatises you. You can't forget it," she said. Up to five nurses could be involved in physically restraining someone to a bed or the floor if they were a danger to others or themselves. Guidelines say restraints should only ever be used as a last resort, when all other de-escalation tactics have been exhausted. Cara, now 21, would sometimes have to be restrained to prevent her from self-harming but says most of her restraints could have been avoided if staff had first attempted to speak to her instead of using restraints "as a first port of call". She said one restraint in 2021 left her bruised and shaken. "He held me down by the neck to the floor," Cara said. "Quite scary, to have this man hovering over you, holding you down. His handprint was left around my neck." On another occasion, Cara's medical notes reveal she felt she had been assaulted after being pushed to the floor by the same nurse. Cara had asked to call the police, only to later change her mind. She told Disclosure this was because she was scared of the outcome. "I just thought they might treat me worse than they already were," she said. When Jenna, from Inverness, was 16, she was suffering with depression, an eating disorder and had started to self-harm. The nearest adolescent psychiatric unit was in Dundee but there were no beds and she was sent to Skye House. "It was hell, like a prison kind of environment," Jenna said. Jenna spent about nine months in the unit. She was treated for anorexia by being fed through a nasogastric (NG) tube, a common but invasive treatment for malnourished people which involves threading a tube through the nose into the stomach. Sometimes she would be restrained for this but she says the way staff administered this treatment has left her traumatised. "Sometimes they would just come up to me and grab my arms and take me away," she said. "I would just be dragged by however many nurses was needed." She said sometimes staff would be so rough with her she'd be left bleeding and bruised. "It was a kind of subtle punishment to teach me a lesson." Self-harm behaviour was a feature in the lives of nearly all the patients who spoke to the BBC. They claimed nursing staff would often miss mandatory 15-minute checks on patients, providing opportunities to hurt themselves. Jenna and Cara told Disclosure there were occasions they had self-harmed and would be made to clean up their own blood from walls and floors. Jenna said: "I remember the staff member kind of saying, 'You're disgusting, like that's disgusting, you need to clean that up'. It made me feel really horrible." Cara said staff would sometimes be careless with her NG feeds and deliver the liquid too fast, causing her to vomit. She said she would be made to clean her sick up herself. Cara said: "They would give me wipes, and I'd be made to wipe the floor. It felt like a punishment, as if I'd done it on purpose. "I just felt like I was constantly punished for things." Stephanie was in Skye House for several admissions suffering from depression, from 2020 when she was 16. She said she had been left with trauma from her time there. "The nurses never really treated you with care or compassion," she said. "Instead of asking you what's wrong, they just put you on the floor and inject you with medication." On one occasion Stephanie alleges she was assaulted by a staff member who became frustrated at her refusal to take a shower. Stephanie said: "The nurse got angry with me. "She's then dragged me off the bed by my legs, and turned a shower on, and put me in the shower with my clothes on. And then just walked away and left. "At the time I just thought it was normal. Everybody else was really getting the same kind of treatment." Jane Heslop is a retired NHS chief nurse who spent her career in child and adolescent mental health services and reviewed the BBC's evidence. "It's abusive, it's completely wrong," she said. "If that occurred as that young person described, it's absolutely and completely unacceptable." Ms Heslop said that it appeared "some of these staff have lost some of their boundaries". Abby is autistic and was admitted to Skye House at the age of 14 when she was self-harming and suicidal. She was there for two and half years and says she felt bullied by staff, some of whom could be verbally abusive. On one occasion, she said she was mocked for self-harming. "The nurse came up to me and almost chuckled, like a kind of grin, and said 'You're being pathetic, like look at yourself'," Abby said. "It felt like bullying sometimes. To the point where I just wanted to hurt myself. "It felt true to me that if other people are seeing me as pathetic, I am pathetic." Abby and her family believe she was over-medicated in Skye House. She said: "A lot of the patients were like walking zombies, me included. "Like a lot of the time we were just sedated to the point where I guess our personalities were dimmed." Jenna said staff would over-use intramuscular sedative injections when patients were in distress. Emergency medication should only be given as a last resort. Jenna said: "Without kind of trying to talk to me first, or calm me down, they would just go straight to giving an [injection]. "I think to be honest it was so that they could have an easier shift whilst all their patients were kind of sedated." NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said a review of medication was carried out in 2023 and this changed the way medication was administered. Dr Scott Davidson, medical director of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said he found the allegations "very difficult to listen to" and accepted there were instances where care has "been below the level we would expect for our young people". "In light of these experiences and of the accounts of other patients, a full review of the quality of care has been launched," he said. "We have also asked for an independent review of the unit." The health board said it had made a number of improvements to patient care including staff recruitment and training of safe-holds. It acknowledged that Skye House had faced staffing challenges in the past which meant agency and bank staff worked in the unit. A statement said: "This was not ideal as they lacked experience in inpatient units and the complexities of the young people being cared for in Skye House." It said action has since been taken to address staffing levels. The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland has visited Skye House six times since 2017. The main issues raised in the BBC's investigation do not feature in any of its published reports. If you've been affected by the issues in this story you can find information and support here.
