Survey uncovers 'woeful conditions' in mental health wards

Treatments in mental health wards are being blighted by "woeful conditions" such as harassment and abuse, insufficient staffing levels and intense boredom on untherapeutic wards, according to a leading mental health charity.

Mind, the leading mental health charity in England and Wales, published its new research today, 'Ward Watch', which they claim unearthed a climate of fear on many wards, with patients exposed to harassment, abuse and untherapeutic hospital conditions, exacerbated by overworked staff, often from agencies, who can sometimes treat patients with a lack of dignity and respect.

According to the department of health, every year 37,996 people in England and Wales spend time in hospital with mental health problems.

The Ward Watch study surveyed current and recent mental health inpatients about their experiences of hospital and found that almost a quarter of respondents have been currently or recently accommodated in mixed-sex accommodation.

Over a quarter (27%) of people surveyed said they rarely felt safe while in hospital – and this figure increased to 46% for non-White British respondents.

Almost a quarter of respondents reported being physically or verbally threatened during their stay in hospital with 20% reporting physical assault, 7% of all patients reported being harassed or assaulted by staff.

Only one in five people felt that they were treated with respect and dignity by hospital staff.

The charity highlighted patient experiences of mixed-sex wards are particularly worrisome. Two years on from the government's targets for eliminating mixed-sex wards and less than a year after it claimed that 99% of NHS Trusts had met targets, Ward Watch claimed to have found mixed-sex accommodation was still very much a reality for 23% of inpatients.

Responding to the report findings, Richard Brook, Chief Executive of Mind, said: "Vulnerable people are being let down by the mental health services that they come to rely on, at the time they need them most. The government seems incapable of eliminating mixed-sex wards: in doing so it is failing to provide patients with the most basic levels of privacy and safety."

(gmcg/mb)