DESIGN IN MENTAL HEALTH 2022
The rather ‘drab and beige’ reception at Lynfield Mount.
The signage at the entrance to the Oakburn Ward. Nick Smith pointed out that “they couldn’t even put the centre of the ‘O’ back in”.
arguably not very welcoming-looking, reception, for which he said he had ‘no words’. He told delegates: “It’s not a very pleasant place to walk into. The lady pictured behind the monitor was quite ‘smiley’, I recall, but the rest of them were not exactly welcoming, so that was not a good start. There is also only one way in and one way out.” His next slide showed an area within the hospital, The Helios Centre – ‘a happy place’, where he underwent his dialectical behavioural therapy, receiving what he describes as ‘one of the best therapies I have ever had’, along with occupational therapy. Returning to the general ‘feel and environment’ at Lynfield Mount Hospital, Nick Smith said he could ‘still smell it’. “It’s just terrible,” he said. His next slide showed the corridor from the main reception to the Executive Suite. “Turn left,” he explained, “and you are heading towards the wards. It was like an old people’s home – stodgy, foisty, dusty, woody, dirty, and incredibly beigy, with horrible IKEA paintings, and with the wobbly glass in them you couldn’t actually properly see the pictures, due to reflection from the lighting. You know the sort of thing, though – there’s always a lilac field, or a sailing boat in the distance.”
‘Faded’ pictures Photos and paintings in such settings were – in his experience – ‘aways faded’. He said: I don’t know whether they buy them that way!” Moving to a photo of the inpatient ward he was accommodated in, ‘Oakburn’, he showed the incomplete lettering at the entrance, adding: “They couldn’t even put the centre of the ‘O’ back in.” He next showed what he drily described as ‘the stable door for when the horses were looking at the patients’ – what looked like an observation panel occupying the top half of a door, followed by a slide of the television room, where there had been a violent attack on a service-user by others while he was staying in the inpatient facility. He said: “I have never seen anybody attacked as viciously as that. It was horrendous.” “As you can see,” he continued, showing further slides, “down a long, dark, dingy corridor was the entrance to the ward,
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with a cross-shaped overlay. I’m not religious, but I almost felt like I was in the centre of that cross.” Here he explained that, being ‘very creative’, he had written a poem about his experience. He said: “I didn’t get a good sense of being welcome in the hospital. I felt out of place – like a burden, and wasn’t very inspired.” The art room at the hospital – he
explained – had air-drying clay, ‘and as many rolls of tissue paper as you could want’. He wondered, though, why users of it couldn’t have paint. He said: “Staff told us there was a risk that we would spray all the walls with it, so they had to lock it away. I told them we wouldn’t do this, but they simply said: ‘Well, you can’t have it.’ Why though?”
Poem read out The former service-user explained that he expresses himself through his artwork and poetry. Here he read his poem, ‘The Cross’, which went as follows:
My demons escaped, I’ve been brought to the cross.
20 years of illness to cease?
Till now, three minds have jostled as boss Maybe now I can get some peace? In the old institutions religion was used To cure the violent, mental, and erratic! But where was God when I was being abused?!
Cross shapes are really pathetic! The questions are foreign, so the answers unknown.
I don’t understand how to explain. The acceptance of life, from my nest has flown.
Its absence the root of my pain. Into an artist’s palette, my head has evolved Long after he’s finished his works. His original colours are yet to be solved! Inside, I’m sure the answer lurks. So here I begin at the end of my tether Everywhere I turn, walls of beige. With my last ounce of strength, I’ll battle the weather
This old asylum’s fuelling my rage. The furniture is stodgy with arms of teak. My car’s gone from Monopoly! On all the walls I see bits of Blu Tak! On little details, I always focus. Am I dying or is this a panic attack?!
Like Bill & Ted’s journey, it’s bogus!! My sleeping quarters aren’t enough The bed in the middle of the room! I need it in the corner but my luck was tough.
The bolts seem to block the broom? This is a breakdown I think that’s true? Surely I can’t get lower than this? Or have I actually, just broken through? To the trees outside I blow a kiss. So can I rebuild my Lego tower? Replacing the pieces I hate? Like He-Man I hope I have the power! To start again and to clean my slate. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy People need to help stay home. Unfortunately though, there are so many Through the mental health system they roam.
I get more sense from the patients in here The staff don’t seem to give a toss! I’ll work on myself and I will face my fear With the people, sectioned here in the cross.
‘Uninspiring and dull’ The speaker continued: “The inpatient environment at Lynfield Mount really was really uninspiring and boring; just dull.” Nick Smith explained that while six staff would come on shift, three would then ‘disappear’. He said: “I love playing Monopoly, but I have to be the car; no one else but me gets to have it, but here at Lynfield Mount, somebody had ‘nicked’ the car. I felt that if the place couldn’t even provide patients with a full Monopoly set, how would they help with the complex stuff?” He continued: “Being in a place like
that, it’s as much about the small details – such as the Blu Tak and things like that.” Here he showed an art slide, inscribed with the words, ‘Hello my name is…’ but written in a variety of fonts and styles. He said: “It’s really powerful, human, and eclectic; not sterile; it’s kind of evolving, and that’s what we want really. I’m really excited about being involved (in the new hospital’s redevelopment).” Here, Cath Lake took over the
microphone, telling delegates: “Nick very eloquently describes how he felt in different situations in different parts of the
AUGUST 2022 | THE NETWORK
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