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"Treatment and conditions in a ward."

About: Noarlunga Hospital

(as the patient),

I was admitted to hospital following a breakthrough in my mental health condition.

I'm not complaining about being detained in the facility, just about the treatment and what I observed while being in there that I feel I need to share.

Whether this will change anything, who knows?

I was in there for a number of months last year.

Nearly all nursing staff with rare exception were lovingly caring and considerate.

The first psychiatrist I saw - in front of the attending doctor and a student -smirked I believe as he said how he could force injections on me if I didn't comply with taking medication which he negotiated with me - yes negotiated.

I was starting to feel the edges of panic in realising I had few rights in this place (being detained as mentally ill) and he was making that obvious.

Starting to feel like a scene from a horror flick.

I told him to his smirking face that he was controlling and I would opt for Lithium, thinking it would be the least harmful, little did I know, finding out later as they upped and upped the dose until, on well above the recommended, I had a severe allergic reaction so then I couldn't sleep with the pain and had to ask for treatment for reaction and pain to sleep. Where I was fine before I now wasn't.

The other psychiatrist who recommended the dose, finally apologised in saying the dose was too high.

They appear to put new arrivals near the connecting door to the hospital.

This heavy door slams shut loudly and none of the staff cared that it could be waking patients up late at night. I asked to be moved and was, feeling sorry for the next victim in that room.

Then the nursing staff are told to check on patients in the middle of the night - they come in with torches and shine them in your face waking you up when sleep is classed as so important for mental health. What they can't find another method to check? 

A social worker assigned to me, I felt had a habit of saying things to me for attention. I believer her concern was not for my health, but to get a reaction.

When staying in the open facility around the corner, the attending psychiatrist basically told me to mind my own business when I said he should do something towards helping the very sick chain smoking patients in there.

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