Barts House saved my sanity

Published on 5th July 2007 in Letters

Sir - I am writing to express my deeply felt dismay and disappointment at the consideration of closing Bartholomew House as a residential unit and depriving Goole of this facility for mental health care. I am a former patient of this hospital and have recently recovered from a severe bout of depression which necessitated two periods of residential stay at Bartholomew House, one in 2006 and another in 2007.

One of the main reasons I have recovered so well from my mental illness was due to the professional and dedicated staff who nursed me through my darkest moments when I was most vulnerable. I also attribute my recovery thus far to the very special and healing atmosphere that Phil, the manager and his staff create at Barts. It was my only experience of residential mental health care (and hopefully my last), but I have been reliably informed by others with more knowledge that other mental health hospitals do not afford the privacy, support or secure atmosphere that Barts' staff offer to their patients, i.e. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Another reason that I came through my illness so well was that my husband was able to visit me every day, usually after work. He works in Leeds and we live just outside Goole. If I had been hospitalised in Hull he would have been unable to visit me as frequently which would have had a detrimental effect on my recovery and our relationship. This is not my view alone but also that of my husband. Additionally I had some great friends and family who visited me at the hospital and offered me support in my time of need. Again, this would have been much harder or impossible if I had been hospitalised in Hull, which is 25 miles from my home.

One factor in my illness that is very relevant here is that I was not able to cope in my home environment and needed to be taken away from its stresses and responsibilities in order to regain my mental equilibrium. In fact, I needed residential care on two separate occasions, as one period of treatment did not work for me. I gather this is quite common when treating mental illness and reinforces the need for local residential mental health facilities.

The case for a local mental health facility in Goole is particularly pressing as many of the people who live in this area are on low incomes and do not have access to their own transport. It is all very well for the Trust to say that they will transport patients to and from Hull, but what about their relatives and friends who wish to visit individual patients?

I have heard, but have not had it verified, that Goole has a higher proportion of disabled people that is the norm countrywide. I work with disabled adults locally myself, so speak with some authority on this subject. I'm not sure how many of this group have mental health problems that require residential care but I think it would be fair to assume that Goole's need for its own residential mental health hospital is greater than many other places and by consolidating the care into one big unit in Hull rather than two separate ones in Hull and Goole the Trust is cutting back the care it offers to an already under funded area of NHS care in an area, i.e. Goole, whose needs are greater than the norm.

I think this is also reflected in the media coverage that the proposed changes have elicited in Goole. What with proposals to redevelop two residential streets and a higher council tax than others in the area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, for example, people in the Goole area are rightly expressing their perception that they are overlooked and undervalued in this area because of Goole's location on the extreme edge of East Yorkshire, both geographically and politically. If Bartholomew House were to be downgraded from residential to day care facilities this would only add fuel to the fire.

I hope the Trust is taking all views into account when arriving at its decision on future provisions of mental health services. Please remember the Trust exists and is paid for by its users, i.e. the patients and staff (all taxpayers) and any decisions taken should be made with this is mind and not because of short-term objectives or political or local rivalries.

Concerned

(Former patient of Bartholomew House, Goole)