Teen psychiatric patients felt 'belittled and bullied' - report

A report into Scotland's biggest children's psychiatric hospital has found "significant concerns" about the treatment of patients still existed months after a documentary exposed a culture of cruelty among nursing staff.

BBC Disclosure's Kids on The Psychiatric Ward, which aired in February last year, spoke to 28 former patients of Skye House in Glasgow, who told how some nurses called them "pathetic" and "disgusting" - and even mocked their suicide attempts.

An unannounced inspection six months later found similar issues, with some vulnerable under-18s saying they felt "belittled" and "bullied" and their families saying some staff lacked "empathy" and "compassion".

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) said a significant number of improvements had been made since the inspection, including hiring more staff and reducing the number of available beds for more tailored support, but it accepted more needed to be done.

Skye House is a 24-bed psychiatric hospital, which sits in the grounds of Glasgow's Stobhill hospital.

It accepts children aged 12 to 17 who are usually at crisis point with a range of mental health illnesses including eating disorders, depression and psychosis.

The young people interviewed by the BBC, who were admitted between 2017 and 2024, said the nurses quickly resorted to force, including physical restraint and dragging patients down corridors, leaving them bruised and traumatised.

Others reported the over-use of medication while some said they were punished for being unwell, including being made to clean up their own blood from self-harm incidents.

After the Disclosure programme was aired it emerged that no inspections had been caried out by the NHS safety watchdog.

The Mental Welfare Commission (MWC) had visited the unit seven times since 2016, however it did not have any enforcement powers.

The regulator Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) was only asked to start inspections by the Scottish government after the Disclosure investigation.

As a result, HIS and the MWC carried out an unannounced visit in August.

A report following that visit, published on Thursday, found some improvements in care but highlighted significant concerns about staffing and the treatment of some children.

One patient reported being told she was "pathetic" and "selfish" for needing to be fed using a nasogastric tube.

Another said that if she self-harmed, some nurses would not clean blood from her face before walking through the ward area to the treatment room.

The findings of the report included a "significant issue" with staffing levels at the facility, with some staff reporting feeling "burnt out" as a result of the pressure they were working under.

The report found patients and families were positive about most members of staff but said they had concerns about the attitudes of others.

It found nursing staff were regularly working additional hours, and that there was a reliance on temporary "bank" staff or staff from adult wards, who it was said "did not understand how to interact with teenagers".

The report also raised concerns about the way the use of restraint by staff was being recorded, including under-reporting the number of times a child was restrained.

Young people described restraints from untrained agency staff as "rough" but found all recorded instances were "proportionate to the level of risk being managed".

One of the young people in the Disclosure documentary, Abby, spent two-and-a-half years at Skye House and told the BBC that she had felt bullied by staff.

Abby, now 21, said she was "disheartened" to hear there were still issues with bullying.

"It does deeply concern me to know that that is still happening and that some of the most vulnerable children in there aren't getting the care they deserve," she said.

Abby felt that better care came from permanent staff compared to temporary workers, especially when showing signs of being distressed.

She was restrained multiple times and felt it was very important for it to be recorded accurately to provide a true picture about the treatment of patients.

The BBC began investigating Skye House after one young person, Anna, reported her treatment at the unit in 2023.

Anna, now 19, said: "The report confirms that my experience wasn't a one-off.

"I'm glad I voiced my concern as I fear it would have continued if I hadn't.

"I still struggle with the trauma from Skye House but the news that change is happening gives me some closure."

Claire Lamza, the executive director (nursing) at the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, said inspectors did hear from some of the young people and parents that some staff couldn't do enough for them.

However, she said staffing issues were connected to many of the concerns raised.

"The lack of staffing meant that there weren't enough to be able to support young people when they were in distress," Lamza added.

"The staff that were coming in didn't necessarily have the training and the skills and the competencies to be able to meet the needs of these young people."

Derrick Pearce, lead director for specialist children's services at NHSGGC, said significant improvement work had been undertaken at the hospital, including an increase in staffing.

Pearce said: "This inspection took place at the mid-point of the improvement plans to tackle the challenges facing the service, and the report highlights a number of improvements already in place, including strengthened leadership, additional oversight and changes in how care is delivered within the unit.

"However, we absolutely accept more needs to be done to improve service provision."

NHS GGC has commissioned an external review of the service by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the findings will be reported in March.