Northern Birmingham Mental Health Trust has launched an internal investigation into allegations that two female patients were raped at Highcroft Hospital, a psychiatric hospital, in Erdington. A male patient has been charged with one rape, but no charges were brought in relation to the other rape allegation after the woman refused to press charges.
www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2000/04/.../News-in-Brief.htm
Fear stalks the mixed wards of psychiatric units.
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Fear stalks the mixed wards of psychiatric units.
THEY are desperately trying to rebuild lives shattered shat·ter
v. shat·tered, shat·ter·ing, shat·ters
v.tr.
1. To cause to break or burst suddenly into pieces, as with a violent blow.
2.
a. by mental illness... but the threat of sexual abuse in psychiatric psy·chi·at·ric
adj.
Of or relating to psychiatry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
psychiatric adjective Pertaining to psychiatry, mental disorders units means many women are living in terror.
Taken from the safety of their homes, women patients are left in an environment where unstable and unpredictable men roam unchecked.
These men can be fellow patients or even outsiders who have been allowed to wander in because of poor security.
Staffing levels are often so bad that attacks take place before they can be stopped. And until single-sex wards replace all mixed wards, female patients will be exposed to the risk of abuse.
For the women recovering from mental illness life on a psychiatric unit can be a daily struggle with lack of privacy, constant disturbance DISTURBANCE, torts. A wrong done to an incorporeal hereditament, by hindering or disquieting the owner in the enjoyment of it. Finch. L. 187; 3 Bl. Com. 235; 1 Swift's Dig. 522; Com. Dig. Action upon the case for a disturbance, Pleader, 3 I 6; 1 Serg. & Rawle, 298. and the threat of being attacked. Three female patients were raped at Highcroft Hospital, Erdington, Birmingham, between October, 1997, and August, 1998. In the first incident a man was jailed for raping a female patient after walking through unlocked doors.
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A 42-year-old male patient was charged with raping a 16-year-old girl the following July.
And a third police investigation was launched into an attack on a 43-year-old woman in August. She refused to be examined, and no charges were brought.
Highcroft Hospital treats mentally ill patients in single-sex and mixed wards and charge nurse Pat Warr said: "We take steps on the wards to ensure there is adequate segregation segregation: see apartheid; integration. .
"If we feel someone is particularly vulnerable, or their illness makes them sexually uninhibited uninhibited /un·in·hib·it·ed/ (un?in-hib´i-ted) free from usual constraints; not subject to normal inhibitory mechanisms. , we would not put them in a mixed ward."
At the Reaside secure unit, a 92-bed psychiatric unit for mentally disordered offenders at Rubery Hospital, Birmingham, incidents occur before nurses can stop them, according to according to
prep.
1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.
2. In keeping with: according to instructions.
3. Pat Hetherton, staff secretary for Unison unison, in music, tones identical in pitch produced by two or more parts or voices. In popular usage a vocal composition is said to be sung in unison even though some of the voices are separated from others by the interval of an octave. at South Birmingham Mental Health NHS Trust National Health Service Trusts (NHS Trusts) provide many services of the National Health Service in England and Wales. They are not trusts in the legal sense but are in effect public sector corporations. .
She said: "We do hear of sexual assaults, but unfortunately these women don't always report incidents to us because they think it is the norm."
At a psychiatric unit based in Coventry's Walsgrave Hospital, a member of staff admitted: "Working in a psychiatric hospital psychiatric hospital
n.
A hospital for the care and treatment of patients affected with acute or chronic mental illness. Also called mental hospital. , you do get female patients making allegations against male patients. Sexual dysfunction sexual dysfunction
Inability to experience arousal or achieve sexual satisfaction under ordinary circumstances, as a result of psychological or physiological problems. is common in the mentally ill, and these men and women are basically not responsible for their actions.
Sue Hunt, chief executive of Coventry Healthcare NHS Trust said: "Our current building does not allow for the privacy and dignity of patients required.
"All our wards are in six-bed bays and it is difficult separating males and females.
"We are making alterations to allow more separation, and eventually will be building a new unit where every patient has their own room."
Ian McKivett, regional officer for the public service union Unison believes poor staffing and security increase the threat to women patients in psychiatric units.
He said: "We are still very concerned about the lack of security at Highcroft."
A spokeswoman for North Birmingham Mental Health Trust, which is responsible for Highcroft Hospital, said: "We are committed to providing first class care within a safe environment and have therefore created a 'women only' ward for female patients.
"The trust is also in the process of building new accomodation which will create single-sex rooms for all of their patients."
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Copyright 1999 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved
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