43 years of failings in mental health care
I STARTED my nursing career at the very start of the 1960s. Initially I trained to become a Registered Mental Nurse at one of the largest mental hospitals in the country, after which I trained and became a State Registered Nurse (now Registered General Nurse) and finally became a health visitor and fieldwork teacher.
In 1974 there were two massive national reorganisations, those of local government and the health service. It is my opinion that both were disastrous in many respects.
In respect of mental health provision, the health service reorganisation in 1974 started to see the closure of the large mental hospitals and the resettlement into what has been described as ‘The Community’ (even though large mental hospitals were already part of ‘The Community’).
The idea was that local authorities would provide accommodation for those previous long-term residents of the large mental hospitals and the general hospitals would add psychiatric units to their facilities if they had none already, or upgrade their existing facilities for the treatment of the acutely mentally ill.
Those aims are to be applauded but they were either never provided for properly, never properly funded or never provided at all.
Forty-three years later, here we are – mental health provision or the lack of it, especially for children and young people headline news. It is more than disgraceful, more than a national scandal
Allied to all of this is the changes in nurse training resulting in fewer nurses, not only in psychiatric nursing, but across the board. The continuous low pay and the constant changing of the pay scales resulting in downgrading of status whilst expecting the same commitment and often, the taking on of extra responsibility.
It all boils down to a lack of money. If the country wants more nurses, indeed, people in its professions, it must find the financial resources. It must properly fund its training, its students in the professions. Then have proper staffing levels and proper, decent pay structures.
It disgusts me that nurses go on duty, work long hours and do not get proper breaks, even for meals. At least that is what I am told. Michael Wyatt, Manchester