Family members of people treated in Harrogate’s Briary Unit say they are deeply concerned about the impact of closing the town’s only mental health inpatient facilities.
With inpatients now set to be sent to York, and other support moved into the community, people who have seen their closest relatives go through very distressing episodes of mental illness want to help others understand why having the hospital nearby can ease the pressure on them.
Rachael, who asked us not to use her full name, said she worried about the additional stress placed on families by the closure of the mental health treatment centre after her daughter was treated in Middlesbrough over Christmas.
Her daughter, who turns 25 in May, has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act four times in the last six years. Now diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she was last admitted to the Briary Wing in December.
“I had gone to see her at home,” said Rachael.
“She was behaving very worryingly – I was so horrified. She had been so stridently adamant that she didn’t want to go to hospital again. I felt completely paralysed.”
It was a Saturday night, making it harder for Rachael to access the usual support services. Fortunately, her daughter eventually called the police.
Rachael said the two officers who arrived had never seen anyone going through a psychotic episode before and were shocked by the reality of it, but stayed with them until an ambulance arrived. Her daughter was admitted to the Briary Unit, but transferred to Middlesbrough where she was treated for the next three weeks.
“Partly they said it was to put her in more intensive care where they have got a higher staff ratio, but really I think there were no beds in the Briary,” said Rachael. “I never saw a consultant in all the visits I made. They said she might get transferred back but it never happened.”
‘Triple unfamiliarity’
Now the Briary Wing has been closed, patients from the Harrogate district requiring inpatient treatment will go to the new Foss Park Hospital in York. Tees, Esk and Wear Valley (TEWV) NHS Trust, which provides mental health services in the Harrogate district, says it will also step up community-based care to prevent people needing to stay in hospital and to cut down the length of time they are there.
The new Foss Park Hospital in York
Rachael believes the extra travel to York – or further afield if beds are in high demand – will add unnecessary stress to very difficult situations for patients and families.
“I was very lucky that it so happened the weather was amazingly calm. Doing that in the middle of the winter when you are stressed out and want to find your way around, it’s not great – being plunged into triple unfamiliarity.”
For Jane, a combination of difficulties with travel and the current coronavirus limitations mean that she is unable to see her husband, who is currently being treated at Foss Park Hospital. Although it is a new hospital with modern facilities, Jane said the whole situation would be made much easier if he were still in Harrogate:
“I don’t drive, so even if I was allowed to visit him, I couldn’t get there. We’ve been together for 10 years and we haven’t left each other’s side. Not being able to visit is making him worse.”
Structure and routine
Jane’s husband was sectioned for the first time last week, after six months of struggling with his mental health following difficulties with bullying at work. The coronavirus lockdown caused further strain, leaving him without the structure and routine that helps him to manage.
After several days of treatment, he is now preparing to come back home and Jane is keen that he has enough support in place to stop him deteriorating again. He had been receiving outpatient treatment at the Briary Unit over the last six months, but it was when that support was removed that he became severely unwell. Jane added:
“We really do need the Briary Unit. It’s so badly needed in Harrogate. Mental health is becoming more of a problem here.”
For Rachael, the reducing level of care available is a constant worry too. Her daughter is inconsistent with taking medication and attending psychiatry appointments, so Rachael feels another episode of psychosis is inevitable – especially as she does not believe her daughter has yet accepted her diagnosis.
Now, Rachael can only wait and see whether – or when – her daughter begins to show the warning signs again:
“There’s nothing done. When you are afraid someone’s working themselves up into mania, there’s nothing to be done. You are sitting on the sidelines almost going mad yourself, waiting for it to become a crisis.
“It’s incredibly distressing. Somebody who’s so talented and you try your best and it’s not enough. I can’t live her life for her.”
