Bethlem Royal Hospital

I was in the mother and baby unit 9 years ago. I hated every second of it. I felt trapped and I had no say in my daily life for the 3 months I was there.in a place like that you soon realise that unless you just do what the staff want you to do, you will be the one who suffers . You'll have no freedom and you'll be in hospital for ages.i didn't find it helpful or therapeutic. In fact all these years later memories of it are still upsetting.

Fundamentally the place has alot of room for improvement. The system is a mess. The treatment of some of the patients is pretty bad. Some of the staff need more training and need to be more organised. Some people feel the place has turned their life around but many feel disappointed. In terms of the actual psychology itself, there is so much more psychology professionals in the world need to learn in order to be able to truly help some of the patients here or anywhere. This is supposedly one of, if not the best hospitals in the world for autism and yet they probably don't even understand 10% of what they need to. On the bright side of things, the place does have quite a nice woodland setting and so plenty of room for fresh air and nature walks which are truly beneficial for almost any health problem. It has quite a few activities and some good facilities like a swimming pool, gym hall and creative facilities including a pottery class. The food isn't too bad and generally the atmosphere is friendly so don't be too afraid. If you've been sectioned, once the team build trust in you due to your good behaviour, you will probably gradually get more and more freedom to leave the ward and then the hospital. Eventually you are even allowed to stay elsewhere overnight.

I stayed at this hospital in 2018 however my previous review has been removed. I had a 7 month admission without a single session of individual or group therapy. Incredibly understaffed, with some nights only having one member of bank/agency staff for 20 patients. Extreme lack of understanding of eating disorders, which left me without emotional or mental support most of the time throughout my whole stay. I saw a dietician twice during my stay, and my consultant three or four times which should have been a priority. There was also a huge lack of communication with the team, myself and my family causing more distress and uncertainty. The ward was also dirty and unhygienic. Overall a very unpleasant and demotivating place to stay when trying to push and stay motivated for recovery.

The whole hospital staff here + doctors here belong sued and jailed for life( or on death row...)Dont let them check your blood pressure (abs")they' re just trying find a way to kill you there....They are a danger to others .They also steal your belongings and money.Only dark skinned people working there and you need to be dark too if you want their help the few white people that work there seem they desperateley need to get euthanized because they are sick and dangerous ."

I don't know about treatment at the hospital but the bowls touring team that came to Eastbourne are a great bunch of people and we had a really enjoyable afternoon

Very few support workers, seem to be client focused. The whole mental health services need more funding, so that real person centred care can be achieved. Currently SLAM is not fit for purpose. Better client and clinician, communication and transparency needed, to help reduce psychological stresses.

Speechless. Things appear to be improving but when I got here a few weeks ago it was, well, ‘Bedlam’. The staff were lethally dangerous and even a couple of the patients thought they’d have a go, too.Can we all be, like, peace-loving hippies yet or not?!?? Xx

NB: This review is for the museum, rather than the NHS hospital.We managed to visit the Bethlem Museum of the Mind last year during their exhibition, Animal Therapy: The Cats of Louis Wain". As huge admirers of Wain's beautiful anthropomorphic illustrations

The teenage ward is very unprofessional and don’t know how to work with children. They provoke you and sit together and laugh about you and then make it seem as if your imagining things when your not . 2 of the most liked girls were tying to bully and attack me but when I reacted I was the one that was sent to the seclusion room whilst they got away with it . When I was locked Inside the room once it took them over 3 hours to bring me my food after dinner time so I was hungry and didn’t eat dinner for a while. They refused to bring me my snacks at snack time even if it’s just 3 biscuits. Their breakfast is horrible it’s pouched eggs that you put in the oven. There was one staff who was really nice to me and would always come and talk to me and give me advice on what I could do against the people not treating me well but then they’d always look at us when we were talking and becsude if this they stopped her from seeing me . Also when they restrain you their very rough for no reason and a lot of them become angry I had one staff pull my hair so far back I thought my neck was gonna snap. The food portion sizes are tiny . They purposely kept putting me with a staff member that they knew I didn’t like . When they came in to clean my room the male staff would always stand right above me to make sure I wouldn’t get up and try anything but it was still very intimidating. Over all these staff members don’t know how to deal with teens at all they all have anger issues and are rude and constantly use your illness against you. And dr Dan is a smug guy who enjoys making young people feel hopeless , he told me that I wouldn’t get anywhere in life and that I’d end up dead or worse if I didn’t change , which isn’t something u should tell a teenager much less someone who’s in mental hospital for obvious reasons . There’s so much I can talk about