Hi, I’m Poppie! I’m 19 and I’ve struggled with my mental health since I was 13. I was first admitted to hospital in 2019. Fast forward four hospitals spread over two admissions and you reach my fifth hospital, the Breightmet Centre for Autism. I was sectioned at Breightmet Centre for Autism for approximately eleven months from 24/11/21 until 17/10/22. Throughout that time, I was mistreated, neglected and abused. I’m unfortunately one of many who have fell victim to the hands at those in charge of Breightmet, ASC Healthcare.

When I first arrived at Breightmet, I was hopeful. A fresh start at a specialist autism unit. What could go wrong? How wrong I was. 

The first day they didn’t follow my ng care plan put in place by my previous hospital. I was up all night unable to urinate from lack of fluids. I was told a doctor would see me the next day, but this never happened. The following nights I was restrained naked or just in my underwear after trying to ligature with my clothes by male staff with little to no effort made to cover me up. This left me more distressed and humiliated. It felt like a punishment for struggling. Staff restraining me would repeatedly laugh at me and talk in their native language (Breightmet Centre for Autism has a very large Nigerian population so communication between staff that wasn’t in English was easy for them). Days later I was told, whilst in restraint, might I add, that my voice was sexy by a male staff member who had just walked in the room. Highly inappropriate, yet the staff restraining me said nothing and when it was reported, the staff said they didn’t know his name, highly unlikely for a hospital with just 18 beds split across four wards, meaning it could not be formally investigated. Again the following night, staff laughed at me and spoke in their own language. When they did speak English, whilst I was headbanging, they told me I wouldn’t last two minutes on a Nigerian wall. How they thought this was okay to say is beyond me. The following two days I was left without an ng feed which they covered up as I was only meant to be left for 24 hours without nutrition. The night after this, I was again left with no clothes after attempting to ligature. This would become a frequent pattern during my time at Breightmet. They again tried to cover up by saying I lied. Three days later, after more nights of being laughed at and restrained without clothes, I was again left naked and was later accused of lying about this. To finish off my first nine (just nine) days, I had my comfort items, in my case three stuffed rabbits and a shark, taken off me for no reason. I use them to regulate my emotions and they help calm me down when I’m distressed. Taking them off me did so much harm. Later I found out it was because I was supposedly trying to rip off the eyes to swallow them, something I would never do to my beloved teddies. 

After this, more problems emerged. Only one nurse in the hospital was ng trained. She worked seven days in a fortnight, leaving me without an ng feed on the days she didn’t work, except for a few days she came in on her days off.  When the nurses were eventually ng trained, there were still more problems. One time they left me for seven days without fluids or nutrition, leading to a two night hospital stay. It wasn’t until nine days had passed that I was ng fed. They threatened me with a transfer to an eating disorder ward, despite them denying I had any problems with my eating. This turned out to be just a threat.

The ward had rules that would change whenever it was convenient to them, highly unsuitable for the vulnerable autistic adults left in their care, who struggle with change. For example, some days I wasn’t allowed to exercise at all and would be immediately restrained if I tried to, then the next night I could exercise as much as I wanted, until after two and a half hours they decided to change it back to no exercise (may I add it was the support workers not the nurses or doctors that decided this). The following day I collapsed. from seven days of no fluids or nutrition and the excessive exercise. Another example is how when I was first admitted, I would be restrained immediately if I headbanged, yet later on in my admission I was left to do it as I was supposedly attention seeking (which even if I was there is nothing wrong with as we all need attention and deserve help), when in reality I was really struggling.

Restraints were frequent and would usually result in bruises from incorrect holding and aggressive staff.

The hospital has a severe problem with communication. My mum was promised weekly phone calls to update her which never happened and my brother was promised weekly emails which, you guessed it, never happened. The problem wasn’t only between my family and the hospital, but also between the hospital and myself. I was rarely told about medication changes and I wasn’t told when my section 3 was renewed. This made things difficult for me as there were unexpected changes all the time.

Issues with staffing were frequent, with the hospital heavily relying on bank and mainly agency staff. I remember one morning they only had seven staff members. There were only two working alarms at the time I left and only a few properly working keys. This was for the whole hospital. They had to decide which wards were most likely to need an alarm and which would be able to respond, although there was rarely ever response when an alarm was pulled.

I had to pretend to get better just so I could escape the place. I started having nightmares about there which haven’t stopped. As I wasn’t truly better, I spiralled rapidly in the community and now I’m under a section 3 in general hospital. This could have been avoided if I was in a caring and supportive environment. I don’t think I’ll ever heal from the trauma Breightmet Centre for Autism has caused me. I truly hope that the hospital gets shut down as soon as possible as vulnerable patients are getting abused daily. I will do everything I can to make this happen.

Breightmet has been rated inadequate by CQC and has been threatened with multiple notices of closure, which they have unfortunately managed to avoid. Following Dispatches: Our Autism Scandal, where Amy bravely shares her story of abuse at Breightmet, we must do everything we can to protect autistic individuals stuck there with no hope of getting out without your help. 

You can help by signing this petition to get the abusive hell that is Breightmet Centre for Autism shut down for good.