"Adult autsim and mental health services"

I attempted to stay at a place called Kwelana. I lasted 5 hours in the facility and just felt like an inconvenience the whole time. Below is all details. It seems it's a government funded, privately run facility.

Initial enquiry. Asked on phone about autism, said they've had other clients with it, and a sensory room.

Assessment meeting. Two staff members specified that they'd had other autistic clients but gave no details. Didn't leave the meeting with anything to go home with, just verbal information which the client remembers nothing of.

Offered place. Via phone, basic instructions of when to arrive and that linen and two weeks of medication are required. No further information (eg who is key worker, what to do on arrival etc) given or email sent. So far up to this point, doesn't seem to us to be majorly professional.

Arrival, about 1:30pm. All day (or all week really) the client had been anxious about the upcoming change in environment and afraid of not being catered to in any way and becoming overwhelmed. On parking the car, the client shut down for a bit and needed reassurance, and the fact that their partner was there to provide it was the only reason they didn't immediately leave.

Led to wait in the sensory room, but there were people leaving it talking and laughing loudly. The client had to step back into they left as they were too loud. Taken to the unit and given paperwork to fill out. We ask what happens next, a staff member says someone will come by later. We move/unload car and read folder/fill out paperwork, which takes about an hour (after visiting art room to get a pen). After this time we wonder if anyone is going to come see the client so we wander back inside.

We run into a staff member who we ask what we do next, after some back and forth the staff member asks if we want them to deal with the paperwork, we say yes. They lead us into the sensory room and sits on the couch, so we have to sit on individual chairs.

After going through the paperwork we ask the staff member what happens next, as it's not been explained at all and the client is getting frustrated at the lack of clarity of everything. Nobody had explained what was going on, but everyone seemed to know and when the client asked, they felt they didn't really get an answer. Side note, it was very hard to distinguish between people, both patients and staff and between staff, since they are wearing masks (which is fine) but they didn't have any name badges or anything. Somehow the client was expected to know who everyone was and who to ask for assistance despite absolutely no introductions being done.

The staff member explained a bit about groups and stuff, including tailoring them to the needs of the clients, which helped dispel the impression they were just set forms of therapy and nothing else.

The client’s partner had to prompt the staff member to explain what the client’s key worker would be doing, and the staff member was in fact not sure who the client's key worker would be, but thought it might be them. So did anyone actually look at the client’s file before they arrived? The staff member went to the office and came back and confirmed that they were in fact the client's key worker. There was some more discussion about what might happen, but it took the client asking to lock in a meeting time for something specific to be agreed upon.

Dinner time. The client was mid-unpacking all their stuff and heard a knock on the door, they looked up and made eye contact with a worker through a perfect gap between the door and blinds (I believe due to bad design). This made the client feel uncomfortable when they were trying to make themselves comfortable. It was workers doing a welfare check.

The client grabbed a bowl and it had food crusted on it. They cleaned it, grabbed dinner and came back to the unit.

The client attempted to relax and watch TV but the speakers weren't connected properly with no instructions. After that the client felt unclean and couldn't eat their dinner.

The client took photos of all other cleanliness issues.

By this point the client had taken their third dose of crisis meds (lorazepam) for the day but it did nothing, all the triggers through the day put them into overload and felt they just had to leave to stay safe.

The client messaged their partner who suggested they call the overnight worker (as it was past 8pm), but the client wasn't capable of this since they didn't know who it was and couldn't trust them. Even at the best of times the client is not good with phone calls, and this one would have resulted in a stranger coming into the client's space.

The client’s partner arrived to pick them up, they tried reception using the room phone but it didn't work. So they rang using their mobile, they said the client was overwhelmed and had asked them to pick them up. The overnight person just said thanks for letting them know, no attempt was made to ask how the client was, just that they'd call them in the morning. The client’s partner said the client wouldn't answer and they'd have to call them.

I believed Kwelana is supposed to be one step away from an inpatient environment but it seems about four miles away.

After sending this email we received no contact or follow up so went to return keys and collect my stuff only to see my name had been wiped from the list of clients. I was scrubbed from their program without discussion and wouldn't have known if I didn't follow up myself. This sent me into a meltdown as I felt abandoned by a place that made zero attempt to help in the first place. My partner made a worker come see the state they'd put me in, only then they asked if we'd like to have a meeting. We agreed as I really wanted someone to take ownership and tell me they'd do better so I could get help but instead I recall it was just defensive excuses, in my opinion, and ‘sorry you feel that way’ language. They ended the meeting with, we decided this service isn’t appropriate for you.