"Improvements needed in Mental Health care."

Had an admission after a traumatic incident to the Caboolture Mental Health facility. A couple of staff were brilliant and took the time to support me, but for the most part I was totally disgusted by the way I was treated and the way I saw other patients treated. I had a diagnosis of PTSD, and it appeared that the majority of staff had no idea about working with people suffering from significant trauma issues. Some of the responses from staff when I was in great distress and having flashbacks was dismal. Instead of taking the time to sit with, talk to, or find out what sort of support was needed staff seemed to get frustrated or something like the fact that someone is in crisis or distress is an inconvenience to them.

Was really disappointed in the lack of professionalism shown by staff. I was really horrified about the lack of recovery focused, or trauma informed care. Discharge planning was non existent, and I had to fight to have them listen to my circumstances so that planning for discharge could happen. I was woken up one morning, started on new medications only 3 days prior, having major side effects and they told me I was going home. I was still far from ready to go home. Medications not stabilised, no ongoing support set up, still unsafe and unstable etc. I felt totally overwhelmed and distressed as I believe staff said - if I didn't pack my stuff up within half an hour they would do it for me. Refusing to get a senior staff member I had requested to see. In the end the senior staff member came to see me, I had a review and second opinion by another doctor who agreed I was far from ready, safe or stable to go home, and was kept in hospital for another 2 weeks. In this time it appeared that some staff clearly didn't like that I was standing up for myself and speaking up about my concerns etc and I felt some staff became very difficult to engage with.

Quite disappointing over all. The new facilities were nice, the meals were well done and as a vegetarian the number of options was impressive. The sensory/quiet room was my haven, the cleanliness of the ward was pretty gross and in need of a good spring clean (considering how new it is, it's bad how much of a backlog of cleaning needed to be done, the normal daily basic clean was done well, but it's the extra stuff that doesn't need doing every day). There were a few really good members of staff, but for the most I believe it was a dismal fail as far as what the recovery movement is supposed to be all about.