Lomond Ward Stratheden NHS Fife floorplans, received October 2012

From Bob McLean, General Manager, Stratheden Hospital, NHS Mental Health Services in Email, layout dated 2006:

Note:

• two 6 bed wards, female in 2012, overlooked by 1 bed wards down long corridor, in 2002 when I was in there, the end room occupied by male patient, same in 2012
• Sisters Office and Doctors Office
• Mother & Child Rooms [can't imagine taking a baby into a mixed gender psychiatric ward, right next door to male 6 bed ward]
  
• Quiet Room which was Smoking Room in 2002 then by 2012 had become the Staff Room
• top left ECT Rooms next to OT rooms - shock treatment then off to work 
• Group Therapy Room, not sure what went on in there, can't remember anything going on in 2002
  

I've moved to Dundee!

It's happened after 9yrs, I've made the move to Dundee, on my own, my son is in
our Springfield house, tenancy transfer, Fife Council.  It all happened quickly after such a long time of looking for a move here, since February 2012 after the "unreasonable treatment" of my son in Stratheden Hospital, Cupar, Fife.  All the years of caring, campaigning, whistleblowing, and being bullied for speaking out about systematic psychiatric abuse.  

My son is now in close contact with his Dad who lives in Cupar, after nearly 10yrs of not speaking, and I am glad that they are reunited, supporting one another.  That's one good thing to come out of so many negative experiences in recent months and years.  I did get an apology from NHS Fife regarding the aggressive treatment I encountered on 15 February at Cupar Corn Exchange when going for my first Covid19 vaccination, attempts made to prevent me going in, which led to my son getting very stressed, requiring inpatient psychiatric care. It's been a tough time for both of us.  

The flit was on Monday 10 May after being offered the flat a week before and fortunately I had Royal Mail shares, given to me by my ex-husband, father of my 3 sons, which I cashed in and this has funded the move, carpeting the flat, buying furniture, white goods, household items.  I only took from our Springfield house my Mum's (Granny's) sideboard and chest of drawers, Dad's desk, bookshelves, old dining table for craftwork and a few other bits and pieces, leaving couches and kitchen goods for my son.  I'm continuing to unpack boxes and have lots of stuff still to move from the house I lived in for over 23 years.  

The challenge has been to keep up energy levels and at times I've felt very exhausted.  I'm writing this post in the early hours, having woken before 3am, sleeping on a mattress, no bed base as the wooden struts had broken after around 16yrs, only finding this out on the day of the flit.  Can't afford to buy a new bed and already I've spent nearly £2K on the move [scary to think how easily it went ...], buying all the basics for my new home [eg new fitted carpets, blinds for windows, kitchen goods].  Being on a State Pension with guaranteed Pension Credit means I qualify for Housing Benefit which is a positive and I should save money on petrol.  Just glad to have a car and some savings, otherwise not sure how I'd have managed the move.  There's no profit in MH human rights abuse whistleblowing as an unwaged Carer. 

My sons, two of them in Dundee, have helped me flit, in various ways, from hiring the furniture removal firm to fitting blinds, connecting up Virgin Media and my PC.  I'm now living on my own, having lived with others for most of my life.  In fact I think the only other time I lived by myself was in the summer of 1970 at Pomarium Flats, Perth, aged nearly 18, when my Mother was in Murray Royal mental Hospital, my Granny had just died, my younger sisters, 9 and 4, fostered on a farm at Comrie, Crieff.  

My youngest son Daniel and I have shared a house for all of his 36 years, so this will be his first council house tenancy and I wish him well.  He is now being supported by Fife Council Housing Services, a CPN and Psychiatrist, as well as his Dad.  And he will be better off financially not living with me, able to claim the Severe Disability Premium.  

It seems ironic that a disabled person is better off financially and receives more support when not living with their Carer Mother.  In our case it was the raising of complaints in 2012 against NHS Fife and Fife Council Social Work Services which led to us being abandoned by MH Services.  I've spoken out long and loud about this and I hope that my mental health activism and campaigning will have improved things for other Carers, Mothers and their families who use MH services in Fife.  Hollyview Ward, Stratheden Hospital, is one positive outcome of our speaking out activism, a new build IPCU funded by Scottish Government award of £4.4m.

Here are some photos of the flit from Springfield to Dundee on 10 May 2021:

living room, Springfield

pine doors, dividing wall £600 in 1998, Cupar joiners

bedroom, Dundee flat

kitchen, Dundee

 

 And here are some more recent flat photos:

on couch last night, chillin ...

washing hung out first time on Thursday

 

sock knitting

Daniel wiring in PC on Wednesday

 

Infinity (UK Magazine) magazine 35 'Fantastic Voyage' 'Space 1999' 'Star Trek Animated' Review

"I need a move to Dundee ASAP"

sent this Email just now to Fife Council Housing Officer, Cupar:

"Completed tenancy transfer forms handed in yesterday to Cupar Council Offices, St Catherine St.

 

I need a move to Dundee ASAP. Please let me know what house checks need to be done, as in what happened last year.

 

It will be safer for my son and I when I move out. He is now being supported by his Dad Ted Muirhead who lives in Cupar, in a Fife Council pensioner house. Attempts were made by NHS Fife staff on 15 February to stop me getting the Covid19 vaccination in Cupar Corn Exchange which led to my son having another mental health crisis. That's unacceptable, he deserves a much less stressful life and so do I.

 

My son wants to live in this house, we have good neighbours now, he has lived here for over 23yrs and I will be leaving most of the furniture and white goods here so that he has as little upheaval as possible. I will be setting up home myself, doing the flit myself, buying new white goods as cheaply as possible for my Dundee flat. I will be taking a 1 or 2 bed flat, mainstream, amenity or sheltered, whatever is quickest to get a move out of Fife. My son will get more support and more money after I move out, he will be entitled to the Severe Disability Allowance and I will be giving up the Carer Premium, so I will be on less money, just a basic State Pension and Pension Credit.

 

So when I leave Fife after 31 years I will be much poorer financially and in every way than when I and my family moved here in 1990 to support my sister who lived in Cupar, had an abusive alcoholic husband, a Perth man, expecting her first baby. She moved in with us about a year later, got a divorce, met someone else eventually, got married in 1999, had a daughter in 2000, and now lives in Dysart, in a new house with her husband who comes from that village. I divorced my husband in 2019 after being separated from him since 2011 when we put him out of the house after his bad behaviour. I am glad that my son is now reunited with his Dad and the Muirhead family. 

 

Chrys Muirhead"

 

copied to MP, MSP and John Mills, Head of Housing at Fife Council; forwarded to Dundee City Council Lettings Manager and Councillors.

 

---------------------

 

yesterday in Dundee going to gym then swim at Dundee Uni

"I need to move out of Fife on my own so that it's safer for both of us"

Email sent yesterday to Dundee City Council Housing Options/Lettings Manager:

Strapline - 'Dundee City Council Housing Application update'

"Dear Mr Shaw

I am writing to update you on my housing application with Dundee City Council, as from today.

I am now applying for a one or two bed flat, mainstream, amenity or sheltered, whatever is available.  A bedsit would be too small as I have many craft items and books, gathered over the years.  I need to be out of Fife ASAP and before the summer, and hope that I may be offered something as a priority.  I'm transferring tenancy of this Fife Council Springfield house to my son Daniel who has lived here with me for over 23yrs since he was 13yrs old.  We moved in here on Easter Monday 1998.  I've got the forms from Fife Council Housing Officer and they will be completed, handed in tomorrow.  Then the house will be my son's and I will be homeless.

I will phone in tomorrow to the Lettings Office, Dundee City Council, to update my details and express interest in any Housing Available Now properties with 1 or 2 bedrooms. 

I've been looking for a move to Dundee City Council housing for nine years, originally and until recently, with my son.  But nothing transpired and we have not been offered anything.  Therefore I need to move out of Fife on my own so that it's safer for both of us. 

Here is the reason as to why I need to move out of Fife ASAP:

*On 15 February this year I went for my Covid19 vaccination at the Corn Exchange Cupar and was bullied by an NHS Fife young male worker at the door who tried to prevent me from getting the vaccine.  This was unexpected and very concerning, even criminal.  I managed to get around the trolley he put in my way to block me, and entered main hall before he could have another go at bullying me.  I didn't know who he was until later seeing his photo in The Courier, frontpage and inside piece, naming him, alongside other workers in front of Corn Exchange. My son's vaccine appointment was a month later, same NHS Fife guy at door, very stressful for my son and he experienced a mental health crisis, requiring hospital inpatient treatment, he's now discharged, back here at home.  I've officially complained about this incident at Cupar Covid19 vaccination centre, to NHS Fife and I got apologies the other day in a letter, however that's not enough to reassure me that the same thing won't happen again.  I don't know why this young man was aggressive towards me, I'd never met him before, although he seemed to know me, and we hadn't handed our appointment letters over at the door. 

*I cannot have my son stressed out about his Mother getting bullied by NHS Fife staff. This is out of order and unacceptable.  I've had too much of this since 2012.  It has to stop.

*I am a writer, blogger, social networker and I will not be silenced by NHS Fife for speaking out about my family's experiences in their psychiatric hospitals and MH services. I have to be free to tell my story and to have an opinion.  I plan to write books, self published, my Dad Willie Patterson was a science fiction writer with the Daily Express in London, 1956-69, Jeff Hawke comic strip, and writing is in my blood, it's hereditary.

Here is why my son Daniel will be better off in this house after I move:

*We have good neighbours here, both sides, across the road, many of whom we have known for years.

*My son has renewed contact with his Father Ted Muirhead in Cupar and will be supported by him, is now spending time each day with his Dad who is well known locally, was a Postie for years until his retirement, before that was Dairyman at Elmwood College Farm. 

*My son has a CPN now, also psychiatrist, and will receive housing support after I move, so he will be much better off than in 2012 when we got no community MH support due to my raising complaints about NHS Fife and Fife Council Social Work Services. I won Ombudsman case against NHS Fife in September 2014 and a written apology for "unreasonable treatment" of my in Stratheden Hospital which was actually human rights abuse - physical, mental, sexual.

*I can continue to support my son from a distance, he can visit me in Dundee where his two older brothers live, also his nephew and niece.

*Daniel is now 36 and needs his own space, accommodation, to have a social life, a career and to eventually earn money.  That should have happened in Dundee, long before now, it didn't so now it has to.

I hope that this information is helpful and explains my situation and why it's necessary for me to move out of Fife to Dundee ASAP.  I have a basic State Pension and no other monies apart from Pension Credit, and Carers Premium which I shall lose after moving to Dundee, meaning Daniel will benefit by receiving Severe Disability Allowance.  I am not disabled although I do have various health conditions, self managed, including bladder prolapse, 6in titanium plate right fibula caused by psychiatric treatment in 2002/4, which results in various muscle strains and ligament issues, requiring exercise, stretching, lifting weights, swimming etc.  I'm in good mental health although I have a Schizoaffective Disorder label from 2002 which was put upon me to cover coercive psychiatric drugging.  I am on no medication whatsoever at 68yrs old, and consider myself very fit for my age.  I have some small savings which will enable me to buy white goods for a flat, and will take minimum furniture from this house, leaving most of it with Daniel, apart from my bed, some bookshelves and my granny's old sideboard and pine chest of drawers, an old table for my craftwork and sewing machine. 

Copying in my MSP and MP, also Dundee City Councillors who have engaged with me in the past about my housing application.

Yours sincerely .."

Copied to my MSP Willie Rennie, MP Wendy Chamberlain, Dundee City Councillors John Alexander and Lynne Short

yesterday in Cupar, my face says it all

Friday in Dundee

complaint @NHSFife #Covid19 vaccination centre Cupar Corn Exchange 15Feb21

Email complaint sent to Patient Relations, NHS Fife 12 April 2021:

 

 

"I am writing to complain about Sean Colgan, NHS Fife, who tried to prevent me getting the Covid19 Pfizer vaccine in the Corn Exchange, Cupar, Fife, on 15 February 2021 at 5.10pm.  He said to me that I wasn't getting the vaccine and told me to go away.

I didn't know who the young man was and why he was aggressive, in my face, he pushed a trolley in my way to block my entrance into the main hall where they were taking our appointment letters.  He was at the front door and told us all to go into the vestibule.  His badge had no name on it.  I only found out later who he was, seeing his photo on the frontpage of The Courier then his name in an inside page, beside another photo.  He did not ask us for our appointment letters, none of us, a group of about 8 of us from Tarvit Terrace, Springfield, I knew some of the folk there.  But Colgan wouldn't have known our names and I didn't know his.  So why did he behave in this way towards me? 

Is that Sean Colgan related to Sean and Katherine Colgan, nurses at Stratheden Hospital, Feb/Mar 2012?  Sean Colgan, Nursing Assistant in Lomond Ward, his wife a Staff Nurse in the IPCU/Ward 4, one of 5 Nurses who intimidated me, 4Feb12, when I tried to see my son's broken hand and bruising, lied to me, saying my son didn't want to see me.  Yes he did, however he was covered in urine, having been jagged twice with Midazolam and in a state of semi-consciousness.  I don't know if that young man, Sean Colgan, is related to this nursing couple who used to live at Cuparmuir.  Same name, might be coincidental.

See attached Courier article photos I took in Tesco Cupar later that evening, 15 February, when going in there for food shopping, article written by Michael Alexander who lives in Cupar, comes from St Andrews originally, so he told me.

I tried to raise a complaint after I got the vaccination, with Nurses in charge, but they wouldn't listen to me, kept saying that the young man with bun on head was a nice person.  They never said his name and I didn't know why he had tried to stop me getting the vaccine.  He threatened to call the police on me and I told him to do so, to phone 999, for my own safety and wellbeing.  For my protection.  For at the point I didn't know who he was and what he had against me.  I still don't know.

I was glad to see the Police who took my details in full view of a queue waiting to go in for the vaccine.  Colgan told people that I was the reason there was a delay.  That was a lie.  We were told on entering that there had been an IT glitch earlier that day, hence the delay.

Colgan was there again at the front door when my son Daniel got his Astra Zeneca vaccine on 19 March, very stressful for my son, he ended up in Ravenscraig Ward, Whyteman's Brae, NHS Fife, the next day.  He was fearful I think that Sean Colgan would try to stop him getting his vaccine.  My son Daniel is prone to lung collapse.  He was very anxious about not being vaccinated the same time as me.  That delay, plus the aggression I experienced from Sean Colgan NHS Fife, led to my son having another mental health crisis.  My son is still in Ravenscraig Ward. 

I hold NHS Fife responsible for my son's breakdown.  I have supported my son singlehandedly since Nurses abused him, mentally, physically and sexually, in the locked seclusion room of Stratheden Hospital February 2012, winning Ombudsman case against NHS Fife and an official apology for their "unreasonable treatment" of my son.  I don't appreciate NHS Fife staff trying to prevent my son and I from being vaccinated against Covid19.  That was a serious failure of duty of care, again, by NHS Fife staff.

Chrys Muirhead (Mrs)"

[to Patient, copied to MSP, Wendy, Michael, jason, Nicola.Sturgeon.msp, Jeane.Freeman.msp, mwc.enquiries, editor, enquiries]

 

Link to Express article Sunday 5Oct14

 

concerns about Dr McQuitty, Ravenscraig Ward, Whytemans Brae Hospital, Kirkcaldy

Email sent to NHS Fife Patient Relations, copied in to my MSP Willie Rennie and MP Wendy Chamberlain:

Strapline: concerns about Dr McQuitty, Ravenscraig Ward, Whytemans Brae Hospital, Kirkcaldy

"Hello

I am writing to raise concerns about my son's treatment in Ravencraig Ward, Whyteman's Brae, Kirkcaldy, in particular about his locum Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Luke McQuitty.

I am concerned that Dr McQuitty does not have the required experience to competently make judgements about my son Daniel's mental ill health and is suggesting he be discharged when my son isn't well enough.   Dr McQuitty should be discussing my son's discharge with me as I'm his Carer and my son lives in my house.  He should not be telling my son he can come home if I do not think my son is well enough to be home.  That is raising false expectations and causing discord between my son and I.  It's unprofessional and unhelpful.

My son has a bipolar disorder diagnosis as well as a lung condition which meant he was socially isolating for most of the lockdown year of the pandemic, and this resulted in his mental health deteriorating.  I did take him home from Ravenscraig Ward last week when he said he wanted home, a doctor discharged him, but he wasn't well, got agitated and angry, so much that I had to call the Police out, as I was fearful.  He was experiencing flashbacks from his previous inpatient stay in Stratheden Hospital where he was unreasonably treated in the locked seclusion room of the old IPCU, February 2012, for which I won an apology from NHS Fife after raising a complaint with the Ombudsman.  So my son Daniel was in a rage due to this and I asked the police to take my son to his brother in Dundee, to see if he could get hospital treatment in Carseview, out of Fife, where he had such a negative experience in 2012: 

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/518869/Patient-locked-in-cell-with-no-toilet-food-or-water

However Carseview was full up and it also required the Consultants' agreement for my son Daniel to be treated out of Fife and this did not happen, he was returned to Ravenscraig and Dr McQuitty.  I believe that my son would be better treated in a psychiatric ward out of Fife after his very negative experience in 2012 when he was locked in a dark seclusion room with a broken hand untreated, for hours on end and had to defecate on the floor, then was punished for it.

It is not good for my son's mental wellbeing to be stressed in Ravenscraig Ward and I keep hearing him swearing to me on the phone, and when I visited him last week.  He was very agitated and aggressive.  This is not like him and I am concerned that his treatment in Ravenscraig Ward is making him worse not better.  I cannot agree to my son coming home in such a heightened, agitated state, it's not safe for him to be discharged when so unwell.  And it's not safe for me either. 

I hope that my concerns will be listened to, and addressed,

Yours sincerely, Chrys