I was discharged 5 months ago now and I admit I have barely left the house.
I am now 65 years old and this is the first time I have not been in the care of mental health services since I was 12.
I was told they no longer have CPNs but I now know this to be just another lie. I feel I have been told so many lies that I am actually better off without them in my life. I am certainly no worse off.
20 years ago I had a couple of great nurses, Pam and Mel who really got me and what I needed but since then it has been a rapid downhill slope.
“A police force is being prosecuted over the death of a mentally ill man who died after being restrained with a belt around his face.
Thomas Orchard died seven days after his arrest in October 2012. A pathologist found he suffered fatal brain damage caused by cardiac arrest and being unable to breathe.
The 32-year-old church caretaker had been reported to police for bizarre and disorientated behaviour in Exeter city centre.
He appeared to attempt to bite an officer as he was taken into a custody suite.
Staff handcuffed Mr Orchard, who would have celebrated his 38th birthday this week, held him down, strapped his legs together and wrapped a large webbing belt around his face.
He was carried face-down into a cell and searched, while struggling and appealing for officers to “let go” and “get off”.
Eventually he was freed from the restraints and left lying motionless for 12 minutes, before officers returned and found he was in cardiac arrest and not breathing.
He was pronounced dead on 10 October 2012 after being transferred to hospital.
A custody sergeant and two civilian detention officers were cleared of manslaughter by gross negligence following a retrial in March 2017. Separate disciplinary proceedings are ongoing.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has now charged the Office of the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police with a criminal offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
The act gives employers the legal duty to ensure people are not “exposed to risks to their health or safety”.
Mr Orchard’s family said they were “dismayed” that prosecutors had not pursued charges over corporate manslaughter after five-and-a-half years of battling for justice.
“His was a needless death caused – directly – by lack of care and negligence from the very people who should have been protecting him,” they said in a statement.
“As a family we can be nothing but dismayed by the decision from the CPS not to prosecute for corporate manslaughter; it is hard to believe after all we have witnessed. However, we are pleased that Devon and Cornwall Police will now need to account for their actions in relation to their approach to health and safety in connection with Thomas’s death.”
Relatives campaigned for a wholesale change in police attitudes and behaviour towards people suffering from mental health problems.”
During my recent stay in trellisk hospital ,Cornwall, I was verbally and physically abused by medical nursing assistants. I was unable to move from my bed due to a urine infection caused, admit to my own self neglect.. Having been given something to force me to pee the assistant at 9pm said:-“You made your shit now lie in it”.
At 9am the following morning the day staff found be soaking wet through the pillows and mattress to the extent they required a change of bed and me so cold my teeth would not stop chattering. I was petrified and refused to name the staff through fear.
If you have suffered similar please comment!
I did complain later but was told no-oone fitting the description worked on the ward despite my husband saying he actually spoke to them!
borderline personality disorder 