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Original feedback for

Parkview Clinic

★★★★☆

Best Psychiatric Ward I have been on

I have been in three mental health hospitals since November 2020, and I can honestly say Parkview Clinic has been the best one.
The school services at the hospital were good. The teachers were lovely, and you could study with them on the ward or go over to the school building. If you were on constant observation or weren't allowed grounds leave, then you couldnt go over to the school. They supported me with planning my A-Levels, and also pursuing my interest in art and music.
We had a lot of activity groups throughout the week. On a Wednesday, the youth worker would come in and play games with us. On Monday, Quench music came in to make music with us. One of the staff nurses was a zumba instructor, so whenever she could she would do zumba with us. A few times a boxing instructor came to the unit. We also had TVs in the lounges and PlayStations, so we were pretty much never bored.
We always had the opportunity to speak up about issues on the ward. Every week we had a community meeting, where we talked about what was going well and what wasn't. The ward manager always sat in on these, and personally I felt very listened to.
The food wasn't the best really. In terms of nutrition, the menu wasn't very balanced. Most of the time the portion sizes were far too small for a group of growing teens. Parents could bring in snacks for us, and they were kept in a locked cupboard that was only opened twice a day between meals. Staff would kind of monitor what you ate, advising you if they thought you were having too much sugar etc.
Of course, Parkview has its faults, but it really is a good place, as good as a psych ward can be anyway. It could be extremely stressful, due to staff shortages, as well as the alarms etc going off when patients were struggling, but I'm sure all psych hospitals are suffering with these issues. Anyway, that's my two cents on the issue.

Posted by Emma Clover
on October 18, 2022

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