The Whiteleaf Centre

I am one of the few that has a positive review !Judge not who we are ,or how we are perceive by others .The Health Team does care .Will find whats is right .It’s Just does not happy over night !Thank you Crisis Team for your help thus far.I feel the tide is turning in my recovery.

The psychiatrist on Ruby ward (Ayotunde Shodunke) is a big borderline personality disorder hater. If you don’t have a psychotic illness don’t expect to be treated well or with any respect. You’ll be treated like nothing. You will be made out to feel dramatic, stupid, attention seeking for feeling what you feel. If you ask for help you will not get any of it. The ward manager Christine Roche is also a very unpleasant woman. As are Dorothy, Vicentia, David, Sheppard etc. (main people I can think of at the moment) they will talk down to you, threaten you or completely ignore you when you are begging for some sort of human decency or an ounce of compassion. If you want any type of kindness or care this place is the complete opposite. It’a disgusting and these (especially the ones listed) staff should not be working in mental health or should do a bit of research on personality disorders. I do not wish having bpd on anyone but I so wish they would see what it’s like in our shoes. This place seriously needs to be looked into and shut down. Many people have been failed by them and some have died. This is due to staffs ignorance and incompetency. DONT WORK IN MENTAL HEALTH IF YOU HAVE ZERO COMPASSION.P.s. to the doctors that clearly have no understanding of bpd - you do know it’s mainly caused by trauma? and all you guys do is cause us even more of it with the mistreatment and abuse.

The worst place. Racism here was unbelievable. A patient threw bananas at another patient repeatedly, whilst the staff just looked and did nothing to stop her. Completely uninterested in people getting better and helping, it's just a holding place and the staff are clockwatchjnt all day. Awful place.

Disgusting people who actually don't believe in mental problems but just tell you to stop being sad and be happy! I actually feel like killing myself and everybody in there and it will be their own fault, please don't go here it will make you a million times worse! Look after yourself and see a GP. Do NOT waste your time here. Hopefully the government will give our hard earned money to a proper helpful facility instead of wasting peoples time and increasing mental health problems. AVOID

In terms of the psych ward care, I can say for a fact that this is the best psych ward that I ever went to. They completely listen to me about my mental health and my concerns and they took me seriously and treated me as though I was an adult and they respected me, the facility itself was very clean and bright and airy and the staff all seemed very friendly and easily approachable, including some of the management staff who were lovely and extremely accommodating. When I didn’t like the food that was being served due to my autism, the staff were also able to figure out smaller things that had been going on in my life that Other staff in the past would have completely ignored honestly it was just a really good experience and really helped me on my recovery.The community mental health team on the other hand are not so much a positive service. In my experience. The people within the community mental health team did not treat me with any kind of respect. They treated me as if I was a child and as if I did not know what was going on inside my own head, or as if I was making it up for attention, they overmedicated me and then took away all medication at once, and they did not listen to me. When I told them that I had been experiencing psychosis. It took moving across the country for people to finally start listening to me about my mental health concerns.

They tell you that your have mental health problems so that they can put it on your records and make sure that you can not access any medical heath care with real medical problems. They will make out your crazy so if your really have illness with anything els they will make sure it will be impossible for anyone to believe you are really are sick then they blame everything on mental health so you get left for dead with real problems... This place is dangerous if you go see them they will mess up your whole life so please go els where somewhere people understand that you can have outher illness on top of mental health problems because theses people are going to Ruin your life forever. Please don't go there you are going to regret it for the rest of your life.. This place has nothing but evil intentions..Lack of understanding and care that you can have mental health and a real life illness with anything els. Horrible place.

When I was sectioned in the white leaf centre it was the most restful psych stay I’d ever had. The staff were lovely and the living conditions were always clean. I was often offered snacks as I was forgetful around food and I often felt safe in my room. They took my concerns seriously and helped me get back on track with my recovery. For the psych wards I would give 5*s.The CMHT were not as helpful with the aftercare. They often dismissed my concerns and ended up discharging me whilst I was in a manic episode and had reported hearing voices again. After this I moved to the north of England and continued treatment there. Honestly compared to the north east services, the CMHT at the white leaf centre is a godsend. They’re terrible at their jobs, but they’re so much better than the other services I’ve tried in the country so I’ll give them that! For the CMHT Id give 3*s.In total Id say it averages out at 4*s. But I think you need time away to realise how helpful they’ve truly been, especially in comparisons to what it could be

This weekend I was detained under the section 136 mental health act, so I had a room which I stayed in for 24 hours. The staff looked after me very well! Martin the support worker was excellent with me and Shaki the support worker was brilliant aswell! But Martin was my favourite staff member when I spent time there and the rest of the nurses were brilliant. As soon as I told them I had autism they were understanding about it and kept me safe when there.What I didn't like about it was that I've never been to a psychiatric hospital before so this was a big shock for me!! I didn't like waiting for the assessment team to come, I was bored and I was obviously isolated! But after being assessed I was told I could go home with support so this place has saved my life!!

I was an absolute nightmare when i came here because of my psychosis and the staff and patients handled me well. It was a pleasure to stay there.

If you are a relative of someone who is in Whiteleaf or due to go there please try not too worry too much. I was in that position and after reading the reviews beforehand I was certainly worried but I have to say that my experience was that the people there do care very much and will do all they can to help. It's a hard journey for everyone concerned of course but you can definitely come out the other side much better. Good luck to all of you.