"I felt unsafe and uncared for"

I had to take a family member (fm) to ED as they were behaving bizarrely and experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations. They had a similar episode 4 weeks prior to this whilst overseas and had to be hospitalised and sedated. On their return to Perth they were referred to the community mental health team.

I had been given an emergency number I could call if there were any issues and I called them - I was advised that it would be better to take them to ED as it sounded like they would need an admit.

On their advice we presented to Rockingham ED.

We had been waiting about 3 hours to be seen when my fm was becoming more agitated and stating they were going to leave. I spoke to the triage nurse and said I was concerned re the increasing agitation and was worried I wouldn't be able to keep them there. I recall the nurse stated that they would put us in the RAT room and the medical assessment could be done prior to seeing the psych,

This is where I felt it all went wrong. We were put into a small cubicle adjacent to the resus area/ambulance doors - I believe we were not put into the RAT room (I was involved with the health service many years ago so was well aware of the location - I recall the RAT room is behind triage).

I felt we were isolated and during the 30 minutes we were in this room I did not see anyone and no one walked past.

My fm is a lot larger than me. So I was left isolated with an agitated psychotic person - who at this stage had no diagnosis.

I felt there was no regard for my safety or for that of my fm - if they had become physically aggressive I would have had no way of protecting myself and no way to call for help,

This to me just showed an absolute disregard for both of us - it really felt like we had been shoved into a space where we were out of sight and out of mind.

At this point I completely lost my trust in this ED and I felt a complete lack of care - I left with my fm

We went to a different ED where my fm was admitted promptly and given the appropriate medication - they were also given safe care and I felt I could trust the staff to look after them appropriately.