A different kind of art therapy

An art therapist who was up to no good with a patient at a psychiatric hospital, has been suspended for 18 months after a meeting of the Health Professions Council. Trinity Marriott, who also went under the name of Trinity Gidney, had a sexual relationship with a patient while working at a hospital in Kewstoke, Avon. The hospital is described as low secure, as well as providing PICU (psychiatric intensive care unit) services.

On its website, the hospital states, "We are proud of the service we provide and invite you to have a look at our most recent inspection from the Healthcare Commission which can now be found on the Care Quality Commission website." I suspect Ms Marriott/Gidney's 'service' isn't listed in the inspection, that it isn't part of the 'intensive care' services, and that it's not a 'service' the hospital is 'proud of'.

The Health Profession Council may have done her a favour. Ms Marriott/Gidney now has the opportunity to concentrate more on her art.

Nurse 'stole from patients to fund casino trip'

A mental health nurse has been up before her bosses after it was alleged she went out on the razz using money that belonged to patients. The Northampton Chronicle and Echo reported on the hearing that took place in London where it was heard that Elizabeth Fayers apparently went out gambling, using money that belonged to patients from Skiddaw Walk Unit, an Adult Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Unit in Northampton.

If this is true, it's hard to understand what was going through the nurse's mind. I guess if you're up the creek without a paddle, it doesn't matter who you use and abuse. If it's true, I don't think Ms Fayers will be looking after any more patients in the near future.

All paid for by me and you

A story in the London Informer revealed how a care worker in the mental health system was committing sexual offences against a person supposedly being cared for at the Hammersmith and Fulham Mental Health Unit, based in the Charing Cross Hospital in London.

Matthew Jones, 29, admitted to a two-year campaign of sexual assault on a female patient. It's as if those working in the mental health system think they can get away with various shenanigans by saying the victim isn't well, delusional, making up stories, and needs more drugs to shut them up, or should that be "...needs more drugs to help them through their very difficult illness?"

The organisation responsible for the Unit is the West London Mental Health Trust, the same Trust that looks after and governs Broadmoor Hospital. I guess you could say it hasn't been a good time for the Trust recently. There's been the news about Peter Bryan the cannibal and the failings of the Trust, then there was a purported story about a nurse getting up to no good with a patient, and now this.

All paid for by me and you.

This doesn't sound like intensive care to me

Those who are mentally unstable and who might feel like they want to end it all, need a bit of TLC and some good old common sense from friends and associates to come through what is probably a quagmire of emotions.

What they don't need are tools with which they can fulfil their deathwish. So it was a bit surprising to read on psychminded.co.uk about a nurse who handed a holdall strap to a patient who was being held at a psychiatric intensive care unit in Dundee, Scotland.

The patient Michael Dodds took his own life using the strap. What was the point then in sectioning him in the first place? If psychiatric intensive care units are supposed to give psychiatric intensive care, then I believe there's something seriously wrong with either the description of the facility or the personnel who run it.

Children at risk before they're born

Shrinks from Yale University have issued new professional guidelines on antidepressants and pregnancy. On the uk.reuters.com website, it was stated as follows, "There are both pros and cons to using antidepressants during pregnancy, the report states. The drugs can effectively treat mom's depression, which has been linked to problems in the newborn. However, there is also evidence tying them to birth defects and reduced birth weight."

That's such a difficult statement to reconcile. Is it right to put an unborn child's health at risk by using antidepressants? Moms having a tough time of it have been taking antidepressants during pregnancy. Moms don't have it easy, but to take a drug that can cause birth defects just aint right.

Psychiatric nurse 'filmed up women's skirts'

The Western Morning News in the west country, has reported on a psychiatric nurse who went around town filming up women's skirts.

It seems there are loads of these types of stories that come out of the psychiatric swing doors, or should that be locked doors? Sure, my admiration for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has a bearing on my view, and reflects in what I write about psychiatric nurses. Funny thing is, while Cuckoo's Nest was a movie based on Ken Kesey's brilliant book, it turns out there really are psychiatric nurses like Nurse Ratched and nurses who get into all sorts of dubious stuff, like looking up women's skirts, sexually assaulting patients, rape, and flashing.

Confession time. I knew someone who had an experience in a mental hospital and I didn't believe them. They were having problems, had gone in there for help and ended up getting treated in a way that doesn't belong anywhere near a hospital. I thought the 'experience' I was told about was a bit of made-up stuff that was part of the 'illness'. Turned out the experience was real.

It's a fine line that's walked between believing something someone says and chucking it out just because the person's a bit 'out-to-lunch.'

Please don't dismiss what a patient says. Hence the blog.

If your nose doesn't fit, does it mean you're stupid or nuts?

Facial symmetry is the latest hot air to come out of psychologist's mouths. The BBC Online web site states, "Men with symmetrical faces are less likely to lose their memory and intelligence in later life, according to researchers." It begs the question: how d'you know that then? These psychologists who come up with this stuff must take us for mugs, pun very much intended.

This scientific mapping of the face looks something like the dot-to-dot pictures we used to get in comics as a kid. Frankly, I think this story belongs in a comic too.

How about measuring testicular symmetry in elderly gentlemen to determine the mental welfare of the individual? If testicular symmetry were found to be consistent and that said anatomical structures were indeed in the same horizontal plane, where the perpendicular aspect or each structure was equidistant from the centre of the phallus, what could we determine?

For fear of offending anyone, I will, in answering this highly important question, execute a long standing literary symbol to hide any rudeness or possible embarrassment. So, regarding mental welfare and testicular symmetry, I think it would be fair tosay we're dealing with aload of old b*****ks. Rather like the idea of facial symmetry linked to mental welfare.