Every day is the same, am up early and home late. My journey to work each day consists of standing on a crowded underground train for the duration of getting to work and you are lucky if you get a seat.
My thoughts often turn to my daughter during the day wondering what she is doing and I assume she is stuck in most of the time from what she told me. It is pointless ringing her early in the morning – in fact it is pointless ringing at all because it is as though something is desperately wrong at the Cambian Group. It is as though they do not want you to be in contact. It is out of character that Elizabeth does not ring or get in touch with anyone from the family. She is completely isolated and surrounded by the team of “professionals”. These professionals have many others to look after and my daughter is just a number to them. If I need to speak to my daughter I have to go through the office and wait for a long time sometimes I have given up because the staff go to find her and all the time I am holding on and ringing from a mobile phone. Despite repeated requests noone seems to care less. There is much secrecy and the team do not seem willing to have me along at the next meeting and perhaps they are trying to replace me again but this time they could be using my daughter as a tool to say that she does not want me there. I know for a fact that Elizabeth wants me to visit her but I am getting more and more concerned that this team at Cambian working closely with Enfield Mental Health and maybe SLAM are perhaps trying to isolate my daughter from me and it would suit them no end if they replaced me as Nearest Relative. I have been concerned at some of the things that Elizabeth has been saying lately which is out of character and I know for a fact that somecan can be brainwashed on these drugs and judging by the files which I have they can write what they like about you and slate you as a person which they have done in my case and the prime reason is they do not like to be challenged. This is the NHS for you and of course social services are just the same. They ignore NICE guidelines – they do not care about familiies and have not got a clue how to communicate. All they do is to play on the issues of “confidentiality” to cover their backs. For instance they allowed a unsuitable guest to visit my daughter at the Maudsley and I got to find out about it by chance. This person threatened to kill my next door neighbours and yet they banned me. They tried to make out my visits were upsetting to the patients when all I could hear was the patients complaining of their human rights not being listened to. They ignored all the books and cds and treated me like dirt.
Mr Gus Heafield Chief Executive has a mammoth task to put things right there and I would suggest he starts from scratch. I would suggest he includes the very people the staff look down on like myself as carer and a patient who has bombarded them with complaints but in fact could be very useful in terms of inclusion and addressing discrimination against the disabled which is something that is rife under the NHS especially in the case of mental health patients who are just left on the scrap heap but in fact are highly intelligent or artistic and should be given the help and encouragement to do something but there is not the support and patients are left on these powerful drugs that often leaves them incapable of doing much however someone can quickly lose confidence if they do not get the help and encouragement instead of drug pushing in order to get back on their feet. I know that mental health patients have a lot to offer and some are highly capable and could be very useful if included in the running of the wards and liaising with patients and professionals. They should be included not excluded.
The next thing for me to do is exercise my rights as Nearest Relative. I believe they have to call a manager’s meeting – however they are not willing to fit in with the date I said I would be coming down to tie in with my younger daughter. The meeting is up in the air and in the hands of my solicitors but I was most concerned on speaking to my daughter that they have tried to exclude me in such a way involving my daughter and again the plan may be to replace me as the nearest relative which they seem desperate to do.
I now have no idea what will happen if that meeting does not go ahead.
I definitely feel like everything is affecting my health and feel a strain to my heart. I have had a couple of occasions where I felt like I was having a heart attack but put this down to stress.
I get to hear any news third party as no-one bothers to tell me but I have no regrets on being outspoken. People are afraid to be outspoken for fear of this sort of exclusion happening when the team come between family and the vulnerable person – once surrounded by the team that person can easily be manipulated and pressurised into saying certain things and obeying their rules. If someone does not obey their rules they produce more drugs or even worse ECT. I hope they did not do this to Elizabeth whilst at the Maudsley. They drug a patient up to their necks and then make out they have capacity and get them to sign papers when in fact there are times when Elizabeth has not had capacity judging from her conversation to me on the phone.
I cannot believe that the UK is such an uncaring country but living in London the pace of life is very fast – there is no time for people and if they are bringing her home because they do not want to pay any more for Cambian at local level then this is something else. I heard of another meeting arranged on the 21st and this is the one my daughter told me about.
Once again what is the point in having NICE guidelines. The professionals quite often ignore NICE guidelines and if there is nothing to enforce such guidelines it is just a waste of time.