St Aubyn Centre

St Aubyn Centre Feedback

1. Bottom of the pit

   I fear for the safety of my child at this centre. He seems to be going downhill rapidly since coming here. The place seems in complete mayhem. Do anything to avoid St Aubyn.

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2. Horrific

   This hospital is an awful place. Some of the staff are lovely and try their best but the whole system needs changing. I was subjected to horrific treatment here. They would let me go on leave or self discharge despite being an informal patient, and when i told them i was self discharging they would threaten me with being section (which should not legally be used as a threat). I was eventually sectioned for asking to leave. I was restrained multiple times for no good reason, for example for having a snack outside of the allotted snack times. They also did not use proper therapeutic restraint procedures and didn’t attempt verbal de-escalation at all before resorting to violent restraints that often left me with bruises. At times they would not allow me to have visits with my family. They also locked patients in the air locks when they were ‘acting up’ and would ignore their screaming for hours. I was once locked in an air lock, not allowed to speak to anyone, for 6 days. During this time staff would come in and shout at me for crying too loudly. One staff member also pushed me up against a wall once and shouted in my face (for asking for a snack). They would frequently forget to do observations and falsify them on the obs sheet. There were many times I walked in on other patients self harming or attempting and had to deal with it myself, despite being a child. They would also falsify patient notes to fit their narrative, for example massively exaggerating incidents before a tribunal or managers hearing. Overall this is a terrible place. Maybe it has improved since my experiences but I would advise to do everything in your power to prevent yourself or your child from being sent here.

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3. Institutional abuse

   Awful. I suffered institutional abuse in there.

   • EPUT Patient Experience Team (Director of Patient Experience) replied on 25 July 24

     Thank you for providing your feedback on the St Aubyn Centre. Please accept our apologies for any distress this has caused you. We are keen to discuss this with you. Please contact our Patient Advise & Liaison Service (PALS) by emailing them directly at [email protected] or by Telephone on 0800 0857935 if you would like to discuss the matter. Thank you.

4. A great place

   I was on Longview Ward and the staff were excellent. The Clinical Lead is a legend!

   • EPUT Patient Experience Team (Director of Patient Experience) replied on 30 May 24

     Dear Reviewer
     Thank you so much for taking the time to give your feedback. I am so pleased to hear that the staff and the clinical lead were excellent. I will share your feedback with the team. Thank you again for your positive feedback. We really do appreciate it.
     The Patient Experience Team

5. Do not include parents in decision making

   Since my child was a patient here, we were not even given any details regarding who we should contact in relation to her care. We did not hear from any staff about her care plan, we were not even made aware of any decisions being made. Be aware if you are a parent of a child attending this facility that you will have no idea what they are doing and they will work to their own accordance regardless of your wishes.

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6. Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit

   I was in the unit around the same time as the person in the other review, and I can confirm what they said about patients helping patients. Staff were not comforting, even the nice ones they just don’t know how to handle it.

   I was there for a few months. A few of the staff were genuinely really nice people, but most of them were either a******s, ignorant or both. I was literally told once by a f*****g regular as well, (btw if you didn’t know, the St Aubyns Center is where suicidal people go) to just “be happy; tomorrow is another day, another chance!”.

   Plus its really easy to self harm without being noticed, I was able to smuggle sharp materials into my room. Even after searches, they still couldn’t find everything because they cant conduct a proper search. There are other ways of self harming which I’ve literally done in plain sight many times and nothing has happened so either 1). They couldn’t give a single f**k or 2). They are extremely dumb.

   In my experience the people with the most power (e.g. heads of ward and above) and the least power (night staff pretty much) are the nicest. And also being made to feel bad to ask for (drum roll please) water because the only way is to ask staff for some, is really fun.

   If anyone who is going there is reading this; don’t worry, you will be fine, all psych wards are like this if not worse. My advice is gain confidence within the staff members, gain good rapport with as many staff as possible (easiest way to do so is to play card games with them and teach them).

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7. Awful

   In this facility, I was repeated restrained without legitimate reason, for often well over an hour, sometimes two. Too often, patients were the ones supporting other patients, having to use the door alarms to alert staff to serious incidents. Whilst all being under 18 years old, we would frequently be the ones removing ligatures from other patients. The trauma myself and others have suffered in this place is disgusting- a supposed ‘safe place’, where nothing and no one is safe.

   • Sharon Westfield de Cortez () replied on 14 October 22

     Thank you for sharing your experience with us. We have passed it on to both the relevant organisation and the wider health and care system scrutiny boards within Essex.

     We recognise the traumatic and distressing nature of what you have written. If you would like to speak to someone to help access support or information, please do get in touch with our team on 0300 500 1895 or [email protected]