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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <a
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href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63045298">bbc.com</a>
<h1 class="reader-title">'Toxic culture' of abuse at mental
health hospital revealed by BBC secret filming</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Panorama team and Joseph
Lee</div>
<div class="meta-data">
<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">11-14 minutes</div>
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<header>
<p><span><strong>By Panorama team and Joseph Lee</strong><br>
BBC News</span></p>
</header>
<div data-component="video-block">
<figure><figcaption><span class="visually-hidden">Media
caption, </span>
<p>BBC Panorama goes undercover to film
humiliation, verbal abuse and bullying at a
psychiatric unit.</p>
</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p><b>Humiliated, abused and isolated for weeks -
patients were put at risk due to a "toxic culture"
at one of the UK's biggest mental health
hospitals, BBC Panorama can reveal.</b></p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>An undercover reporter at the Edenfield Centre
filmed staff using restraint inappropriately and
patients enduring long seclusions in small, bare
rooms.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Staff swore at patients and were seen slapping or
pinching them on occasion.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Hospital bosses said they have taken immediate
action to protect patients.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation
Trust, which runs the medium secure unit, said it
was taking the allegations "very seriously".</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>A number of staff members have been suspended, and
the trust said it was working with Greater
Manchester Police, the independent healthcare
regulator the Care Quality Commission, and NHS
England "to ensure the safety of these services".</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Greater Manchester Police said it has opened a
criminal investigation. </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>The BBC's undercover reporter, Alan Haslam, spent
three months as a support worker inside the
Edenfield Centre in Prestwich, near Manchester. </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>With capacity for more than 150 patients, it is
intended to care for people held under the Mental
Health Act who are at serious risk of harming
themselves or others, including some patients from
the criminal justice system.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Whistleblowers had made allegations about poor
staff behaviour and patient safety at the hospital.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Wearing a hidden camera, the reporter saw:</p>
</div>
<div data-component="unordered-list-block">
<ul role="list">
<li>Staff swearing at patients, taunting and mocking
them in vulnerable situations - such as when they
were undressing - and joking about their self-harm</li>
<li>Patients being unnecessarily restrained -
according to experts who reviewed the footage - as
well as being slapped or pinched by staff on some
occasions</li>
<li>Some female staff acting in a sexualised way
towards male patients</li>
<li>10 patients being held in small seclusion rooms
- designed for short-term isolation to prevent
immediate harm - for days, weeks or even months,
with only brief breaks</li>
<li>Patient observations, a crucial safety measure,
being regularly missed and records falsified</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Dr Cleo Van Velsen, a consultant psychiatrist, said
the BBC's footage showed a "toxic culture" among
staff of "corruption, perversion, aggression,
hostility, lack of boundaries", which was
undermining patient recovery.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Prof John Baker, an expert in mental health nursing
at the University of Leeds, said: "It doesn't feel
safe. You're quite clearly seeing toxic staff.
There's an awful lot of hostility towards patients
across all of the wards, which is really
concerning."</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p><i><b>Warning: This story contains repeated use of
highly offensive language</b></i></p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Claire - not her real name - has a history of
self-harm and was filmed being humiliated by a
female support worker for needing help with going to
the toilet.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>The staff member complained to her face about
"having to look at your arsehole where biohazard
fucking waste comes out".</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>In a sign that boundaries between patients and
staff had broken down, on another occasion Claire
sat on the lap of the same support worker, who said:
"If you fart I will actually kill you." The support
worker then pulled aside the patient's clothing and
repeatedly slapped her bare skin.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>A senior nurse was among those who watched, laughed
and jeered as Claire was slapped. Most of the time
nurses are in charge of the wards.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>One nurse was filmed refusing to check on a crying
patient named Olivia, who self-harms and has
repeatedly tried to kill herself. The BBC is only
identifying patients where they and their families
have given consent.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Staff members laughed and joked that Olivia was
"only crying" and "if she slit her throat you'd know
it" because "she'd tell everybody about it".</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>When talking to patients about their bodies, staff
used demeaning language, often passing it off as a
joke. But patients told the undercover reporter they
felt bullied and dehumanised.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="image-block">
<figure><figcaption><span class="visually-hidden">Image
caption, </span>
<p>Experts criticised the use of restraint on
patients such as Harley, who gave her consent to
be identified</p>
</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Olivia said staff had called her a "fat cunt",
before claiming they had been joking. The
22-year-old's mother said Olivia had in the past
stopped eating and drinking because she believed she
was overweight. "It's not funny, it's not a joke,"
Olivia said. </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Another time, when Claire was due for a weekly
injection, she hid her head under a blanket. Support
workers and the senior nurse with them did not try
to persuade her to comply, but instead were filmed
dragging her by the wrist from a chair and into a
room down the corridor.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>One of the support workers mocked Claire again as
staff held her down on a bed and exposed her body
for the needle, saying "as if we'd choose to see
your arse" and calling her a "cheeky bitch" as she
protested.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>After giving the injection, the staff locked Claire
in the room, telling her they would keep her there
for an hour as they laughed at her through the glass
in the door - before letting her out a few moments
later.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Dr Van Velsen said the members of staff acted "like
a gang, not a group of health care professionals".
"It's against any policy I've ever seen about
restraint in doing this," she said. </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>The code of practice for mental health workers says
restraint and other "restrictive interventions"
should only be used to take control of dangerous
situations and stop anyone being hurt - not for
punishment.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>A BBC Panorama undercover investigation has found
evidence that a secure NHS psychiatric hospital is
failing to protect some of its vulnerable patients.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>But the BBC filmed one patient being restrained
after hospital managers said she had been shouting
and verbally abusive.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Harley, a 23-year-old autistic woman who was at
Edenfield due to self-harm, was sitting on the floor
when at least eight members of staff picked her up
and dragged her away, screaming. </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Harley was being restrained to take her back into
seclusion, where she had already spent more than two
weeks. </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>At one point a nurse was filmed saying staff wanted
her kept in seclusion because they "need a break
from her". </p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Reviewing footage of the incident, Dr Van Velsen
said: "You cannot deprive somebody of their
liberties because staff are fed up of her."</p>
</div>
<div data-component="image-block">
<figure><figcaption><span class="visually-hidden">Image
caption, </span>
<p>Some patients were held in tiny, empty
seclusion rooms for weeks at a time</p>
</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Patients are only supposed to be confined to one
room and isolated from others for short periods when
there is an "immediate necessity" because they are
likely to harm other people. It should not be used
as a punishment or threat, or because of staff
shortages, guidelines say.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Staff told the BBC's undercover reporter that Alice
(not her real name), a patient who had attacked
staff, had been in seclusion for more than a year.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Guidelines for psychiatric hospitals say they can
keep patients segregated for long periods to protect
others on the wards. But the hospital must have the
approval of a team of experts, consult the patient's
family where possible and give the patient
additional space, including access to an outside
area.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Edenfield's seclusion rooms are small, with a bed,
shower and toilet, all of which can be observed by
staff from an adjoining room. Some have mould,
peeling paint, a smell of sewage and windows that
don't open.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>During one 30-minute break from seclusion, Alice
asked for her blanket and teddy bears, comforts
which she had been allowed before her isolation
began. A support worker refused, saying: "You're
lucky you've not got a straw fucking bed in there.
I'd give you a straw bed like cows have to sleep
on."</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>On another occasion, staff were filmed trying to
give Alice her anti-psychotic medication Clozapine
twice, because of an apparent breakdown in
communication.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Asked what would happen if she had too much of the
drug, a nurse said: "She'd probably just die."</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>While the majority of patients filmed being
mistreated by staff were women who had been
sectioned and had self-harmed, some patients held in
Edenfield have been convicted of violent crimes.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Experts said staff showed a worrying lack of
boundaries even with these patients.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>One patient, a man serving a life sentence for
murder, was filmed writhing on the floor and on a
bed as a female support worker grappled with him and
tickled him.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Afterwards, she said: "You get away with murder
here, don't we? Can you imagine if I got caught by
bosses?"</p>
</div>
<div data-component="image-block">
<figure><figcaption><span class="visually-hidden">Image
caption, </span>
<p>The secure unit is intended to care for people
at risk of harming themselves and others</p>
</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>A different female support worker was filmed
dancing up against another male patient.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"As well as making herself vulnerable she's also
increasing the vulnerability of the patients," Dr
Van Velsen said. "The one thing you should not do
with patients is have a kind of sexualised
relationship with them."</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Vulnerable female patients were also seen being
mistreated by male staff. A male support worker
taunted a woman with a history of self-harm as she
undressed, saying he would turn his back because "I
don't want to be mentally scarred again".</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>The support worker was also filmed pinching her
twice, the second time while bending her arm
backwards.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"It's an assault," said Dr Van Velsen when she
viewed the footage.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Among the staff's most important duties are patient
observations, or "obs". These are checks to ensure
patients are safe, made every 15 minutes - or more
frequently for patients at higher risk.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Records of the observations affect decisions about
care and can show that patients were being properly
looked after, in the event that they hurt themselves
or anyone else.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Observations were frequently missed or carried out
poorly. A nurse was filmed telling a support worker
to falsify the records. "Here, sign some of these
things, say you've done them," he said.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>He also asked the reporter to join in the
falsification. "Want to pretend you were doing obs?"
he asked.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="image-block">
<figure><figcaption><span class="visually-hidden">Image
caption, </span>
<p>The BBC's Alan Haslam spent three months
working as a healthcare support worker at
Edenfield</p>
</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Hospital employees complained of understaffing and
burnout. Sometimes support workers were left on
their own, with no nurse on the ward.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>There was a shortage of nurses for adult secure
wards on 58 occasions during one five-week period,
according to records from the trust which runs
Edenfield, seen by Panorama.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Prof Baker said there should never be a shift
without a registered nurse on the ward, but added
that recruitment problems in mental health care were
"no excuse for the abuse we've been seeing in the
footage".</p>
</div>
<h2 tabindex="-1" id="Information-and-support"><span
role="text">Information and support</span></h2>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>If you are experiencing issues with mental health
or self-harm, <a
href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1NGvFrTqWChr03LrYlw2Hkk/information-and-support-mental-health-self-harm">details
of help and support are available here.</a></p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Seven members of staff were seen sleeping on shift
by the BBC's undercover reporter. One nurse went to
sleep outside in the sun for about an hour while on
duty, in full view of other staff and patients.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>The BBC has reported the findings of its undercover
investigation to hospital management and the Care
Quality Commission.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation Trust
said senior doctors have undertaken clinical reviews
of the patients affected and it had also
commissioned an independent clinical review of
services at the Edenfield Centre.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>"We owe it to our patients, their families and
carers, the public and our staff that these
allegations are fully investigated to ensure we
provide the best care, every day, for all the
communities we serve," the trust said.</p>
</div>
<div data-component="text-block">
<p>The Care Quality Commission, which had previously
rated the Edenfield centre as "good", says that
rating is "currently suspended" and it is "reviewing
the information" provided by Panorama.</p>
</div>
<section data-component="links-block">
<h2>More on this story</h2>
</section>
</article>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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