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Being formed under the mental health act and sent home

Posted By Fight4change

"Being formed under the mental health act and sent home"

About: Royal Perth Hospital / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

My private psychiatrist deemed I was not safe to go home alone and at extreme risk of suicide so they formed me after an appt. The police and ambulance came to my house and took me to rph emergency dept Perth. The police were lovely as were the paramedics. The hospital nurses were mostly lovely apart from the nurse that told me they were too busy to get me a cup of water and that wasn’t a priority.

I hadn’t been seen by psychiatry all night and hadn’t had any medication as they had to write it up. By mid-morning the next day I had still not been seen by psychiatrist and still had no medication, I’d missed 2 doses by now and some are for epilepsy. I rang the mental health advocacy service to help me and they must have got onto to psych. My meds were given to me. A mental health nurse came to see me and I recall they told me I didn’t belong in the public health system when I have a private psychiatrist and to just wait and see them next week. The nurse went away and I believe they revoked my forms and came back with a copy and said I could leave. Don’t ask if I was safe to go. Or where I was going. Just let me walk out. If it wasn’t for my friend that was already on their way to visit me in emergency I feel things maybe not have turned out so well.

I complained to them that they didn’t follow the mental health act to which they initially said it was fine I was seen by a mental health nurse. Then they tried to say my own dr revoked the forms, I believe they did not. Then they tried to say a psych registrar saw me, they did not, I’ve seen this nurse in the past, I believe they’re a mental health nurse not a dr. They finally wrote a letter “apologising for any distress they caused” and certain things should have happened that night that didn’t. I feel they simply won’t admit fault or take responsibility for the seriousness of their actions and that sending home a severely suicidal person sent on forms by their psychiatrist to be kept safe could result in a fatality. In my opinion, the mental health system is so broken and I feel very little is being done (at rph anyway) to fix it and change things. I felt like my life was not valued in anyway that day and they didn’t care if I went home and killed myself, they just wanted the bed. I felt like I didn’t deserve treatment or to be kept safe for a period of time until my extreme distress had passed. My psychiatrist never forms people, I believe they hadn’t for 15 years, so for them to form me that day meant they were seriously concerned. I now have no faith in the system. I’m terrified if I get to that point again and need to be kept safe, I’ll just be sent home.

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Responses

Response from Ben Noteboom, Executive Director, Royal Perth Bentley Group 2 months ago
Ben Noteboom
Executive Director,
Royal Perth Bentley Group

Submitted on 7/02/2024 at 1:04 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 1:04 PM

picture of Ben Noteboom

Dear Fight4change,

I am deeply sorry to hear of your continued anguish following your recent experience in the Royal Perth Hospital Emergency Department.

As you mentioned, we have formally investigated your experience via our complaints process and provided you with an outcome letter. I am informed that during this investigation, senior members of our staff discussed your experience with you at length and we acknowledged that there were things we could have done better. These include, not contacting your referring Psychiatrist, the delay in giving you your regular medications and not communicating effectively with you regarding the clinical reasoning for revoking the Form 1A. Our staff are highly trained and only revoked the Form 1A because they believed the need to involuntarily detain you had subsided. This was following clinical assessment by one of our Psychiatric Liaison Nurses (PLN) which was then discussed with an authorised Medical Practitioner.

I extend my heartfelt apologies, that you left feeling unsafe and for your recollections in the way that staff had spoken to you. As an organisation, we remain committed to learning from your feedback and addressing the process issues that you have helped us identify. Thank you for the opportunity to review your story and I wish you all the very best on your healthcare journey.

Kind regards

Ben Noteboom

Executive Director

Royal Perth Bentley Group

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Update posted by Fight4change (the patient)

Thank you Ben.

I understand my complaint was investigated. However during this investigation I feel I was lied to on numerous occasions and forced to prove that I was indeed not assessed by a psychiatrist. And that is the entire point that I believe you are missing here- I was not assessed by a psychiatrist. A mental health nurse, whilst I’m sure well trained, is not trained to the level of a psychiatrist to carry out a sufficient mental health and risk assessment to determine my mental state and risk level. Despite the fact I had in fact on numerous occasions asked to see a psychiatrist. Acknowledging your mistakes that night/day but then also seemingly making excuses for them and justifying them, I feel, is not apologising nor taking responsibility for the seriousness of what happened and what I feel could have happened as a result of what I see as your hospital and staff's negligence.

The thing is I believe you did not follow the mental health act which states a patient on form 1a must be assessed by a psychiatrist. How would a medical practitioner that was liaised with to revoke my forms possibly know what level of distress or suicidal risk I was still at if they hadn’t even seen me or had a conversation with me? The mental health nurse spoke to me for less than 5 minutes, and them came back in less than 5 minutes with the forms revoked. Those times do not allow for very in depth discussions regarding one’s state of mind and risk, do they? Considering I had tried to abscond twice that morning. Why would one try to abscond a hospital when they had been forcefully taken there because they wanted to take their life? And yet you still deemed it clinically unnecessary for me to be assessed by a psychiatrist as the form 1a requires?

These are the questions I feel you have yet to answer. So yes I still experience a lot of anguish over this. Because being treated like your life doesn’t matter, like the system couldn’t care less if you leave and kill yourself has long lasting anguish Ben. And deep loss of trust in a system that should be there to provide care for all in times of crisis.

If patients have to follow the mental health act when formed, in my opinion, then staff should also have to follow it.

Best wishes

Fight4change

Response from Ben Noteboom, Executive Director, Royal Perth Bentley Group 2 months ago
Ben Noteboom
Executive Director,
Royal Perth Bentley Group

Submitted on 9/02/2024 at 7:13 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 12/02/2024 at 10:19 AM

picture of Ben Noteboom

Dear Fight4change,

I understand your concerns with the care provided. Royal Perth Bentley Group is committed to helping our patients and consumers and value your feedback as this is crucial to improve our services. We are unable to provide details about your confidential clinical information on a public platform. I am aware you have contacted the Health and Disability Services Complaints Office (HaDSCO) and we will await to hear from them.

Again, my sincere apologies for your experience.

Kind regards

Ben Noteboom

Executive Director

Royal Perth Bentley Group

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