‘The ward seemed like a correctional facility’: How my girl was crushed by a health service designed to support her
It grew clear to me in that crucial moment that the mental health unit where my child was admitted had all the trappings of a jail.
Ruth had been deeply trusting. So had we. That all changed the day she was transferred from our community hospital to the psychiatric unit at the mental health center in the county.
During our departure, she walked peacefully to the hospital vehicle with me and the therapeutic support, who embraced her firmly before waving goodbye.
The moment the vehicle door gave access at the new location, the clinical facility appeared formidable. We were met by staff who guided us up stairs through series of locked doors, with each door closing firmly behind us as the staff member waited for secure engagement before unlocking the next.
This was a secured facility, without sunlight, my eyes hurting immediately from the artificial illumination overhead. We were guided to an inner room, with multiple panes. The goldfish bowl, they called it.
The Devastating Separation
Ruth’s hand grasped my fingers, head down as they told me it was time for me to go. “But I haven’t settled her into her room or greeted the team yet,” was met with: “Parents must leave on the ward.”
When I asked again, they finally agreed a short look at her room but insisted that I must leave immediately after, as per facility policy.
I still wake at night, heart racing as I relive those steps through the common room, to Ruth’s allocated room. A solitary cot, a plastic side table. Windows that couldn’t be opened.
The voices became distant as they explained there would be a new person every hour through the day and night who would “observe Ruth”. I placed her bag on the floor. Ruth sat, fearful, on the bed and then I was led away.
Abruptly, I was sealed outside the secured doors, clutching a document that stated I could visit my daughter for just one hour, only twice per week.
What have I let them do?
A Devastating Outcome
{Our daughter, our girl, died on February 14th, 2022 at evening on the paediatric intensive care unit at the medical facility in the city. She was transferred urgently from Huntercombe hospital, an government-contracted but privately run child and adolescent mental health unit, where she had been not prevented from fatal self-injury two days earlier.|Our child passed away on the 14th of February, 2022 at 6:29 PM in the {pediatric intensive care unit|
