I’m sorry I don’t really have much advice but do understand some of what you are going through. My dad went in to an older persons mental health ward in a psychiatric hospital twice although we managed to get him in voluntarily without being sectioned and then he had a DOLs as we knew within a short period of time he would not want to stay.
His behaviour at home was unmanageable as he was erratic and could be aggressive towards my mum, and often very agitated, but other times he was lovely.
The first time he was admitted he had a lovely consultant who helped him out by changing his medication. As he had come from home and we wanted him back my mum and I visited daily timing our visits opposite each other to give him company and a distraction. Dad always behaved for me so they let us take him out in the grounds every afternoon, but not my mum on her own.
Although the staff were nice enough, some of them were a bit clueless about dementia and it was an awful place to be. The tv room was narrow and grim with either the news or ‘ films for men’ channel. My dad had poor awareness and got upset at the news so I used to walk him up and down the corridor and try to exercise him. I tried all sorts of games, kicking a ball around the corridor and runing up and down and throwing a beanbag, which he couldn’t see to catch but could feel it easily. Sometimes some of the other patients got involved as there was a severe lack of interaction with the staff and despite a timetable on the wall there was no activities or occupational therapy. I also used to put music on and dance with dad, which he enjoyed. I took sandpaper in and we sanded down bits of wood and the garden benches. Staff often commented on seeing the things we did but never did them with dad or any of the other patients though.
After 8 weeks we got dad home and mum managed with my support for a year but when it all got too much we couldn’t get dad to accept going in to a home and he ended up on the same psychiatric ward. It had changed for the better but was still pretty grim. Some of the nurses were wonderful but they did have a challenging time with some of the residents but the activities and interactions with patients had improved.
The manager of the ward held meetings with the relatives asking what they could do to improve things and i came up with suggestions, but when I wasn’t there asked the staff to put on dad’s iPod so he could sit and listen to music rather than not watch the tv.
I think some of the problem was that half the patents had dementia with challenging behaviour and the other half had other mental health issues such as depression and all needed different treatment and not to be confined together.
Dad’s ward had 8 patients and 6 staff, so I don’t feel they were badly staffed but sometimes they really did have their hands full with different behaviour.
The ward manager was amazing, but so busy and I think if you want to make any changes that is where you start. I found the consultant on dad’s second visit to be arrogant and only interested in treating dad heavy handed with medication and then shipping him out to a nursing home as soon as possible. He really seemed to have no time or interest in what the relatives had to say.
As for the personal care, I did feel that somewhat lacking and often ended up doing that myself when I was there, although they did shower dad every morning, which is more than he got when he went to a care home, but then no one bothered to remind him to go to The toilet when we weren’t there so he would always be incontinent when we visited.
Sorry, I seem to have hijacked your post and gone on and on - funny how 2 years after all this I still remember it all so well .
I would recommend you talk to the ward manager and any staff that will listen and give them your feedback ( in the nicest way possible, of course) . Sorry again, and best wishes to you and your dad x