Complaints

Rebecca

The nurse came to my house, she wanted to see me on my own. I told her that I had thoughts of killing myself. That was the first time I'd ever spoken about it, and she turned around and said that I was stupid. The TV was on and she sat watching Jeremy Kyle and then left. I kind of felt alone because who else can I speak to about how I'm feeling if a nurse out of all people has called me stupid.

I don't think she realised how big an impact it had. It was playing in my mind. The day after, I was speaking to my friend at like 2 o'clock in the morning because I was just so angry and frustrated.  I did end up calling into CAMHS, child and adolescent mental health services, to complain. I actually asked to speak to the manager. She said that she would call me back, but that never happened. I didn't know what I could do.

My youth worker put me in touch with a woman called Sharon Cope from Healthwatch. She was amazing, we discussed what had happened and she helped me to write a letter of complaint to CAMHS. I didn't know anything about the complaints process, I didn't know there was a complaints process!

We agreed in the end to have a meeting with someone from the Foundation Trust, the manager of CAMHS, my health watch advocate and me. We discussed what had happened, and we found some actions to move forwards. After that meeting they did do what they said they were going to do. They'd spoken to the nurse about what she'd said and asked to find me a new worker because I needed some support.

It's important for young people to complain because it helps nurses and doctors understand how they can improve what they are actually providing for young people. I lost complete faith in CAMHS after what had happened, so I got my faith back after the complaints process. 

If I knew my rights back when the nurse said what she did, things would have been different. What's important is that I can share my story to help other people know that, look, I've had an impact in my local service and you can too.