Decision report 201200840

Summary

Miss C was detained in hospital under mental health legislation for nine days, and was assessed by a mental health team in the community after she was discharged. Miss C complained that while in the hospital, she was very bored, and had nothing to do. She said that she started to smoke just to pass the time. She also complained that the board failed to offer or provide the help that she needed after she was discharged, including accommodation away from her family home.

We upheld Miss C's complaint about her stay in hospital. Our investigation found that, while there was evidence that the hospital provided a programme of ward activities for patients, there was no evidence that Miss C was invited to participate, or that she was invited but declined to participate. Nor was there evidence that she had any planned one-to-one sessions with staff as she should have. In relation to the help provided after her discharge, we found that medical staff acted reasonably and in accordance with her wishes. We did not uphold this complaint, as we were not persuaded that there was an unreasonable lack of help.

Recommendations

We recommended that the board:

• ensure that staff encourage patients to participate in available ward activities, to record in a patient's records when this has occurred and whether the patient accepted or declined the invitation to participate; and
• ensure that staff are made aware of the need to provide patients with access to planned one-to-one sessions with staff, for the frequency and duration of these sessions to be negotiated and agreed and for this information to be clearly recorded in the patient’s careplan.