Hillview: Hospital exposed over mental health care for women

A teenage girl who was left "traumatised" at a private mental hospital says she is relieved it will no longer be treating young women.

The former patient said she still has nightmares about her time at Hillview Hospital in Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent.

In July, former operator Regis Healthcare denied all allegations and said it was one of the UK's most "successful services".

The Welsh government said it had spent an extra £50m on supporting services.

Hillview Hospital is an independent hospital registered to provide mental health services to women and girls aged between 13 and 18.

The teenager, who we cannot identify, was detained at the hospital under Section 3 of the Mental Health Act. At the time, Regis Healthcare were the hospital's operators.

Two BBC Wales investigations exposed excessive use of restraints and poor practice.

New operators Elysium Healthcare, which took over in September, said it now wanted to provide a new adult mental health service at the centre.

The teenager said she would be restrained by three to five members of staff without any attempts to calm her down first.

In one week, she was restrained 17 times and seven of those were for two hours or more.

In the latest inspection report, the eleventh since 2018, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) said the hospital was still a service of concern.

Elysium Healthcare said it had started the process of moving the current group of young patients out of the hospital so they can attend services closer to home and aim to complete the process by March.

The teenager said it is "good news" that it will no longer be a child and adolescent mental health unit.

"It's about time. I still have nightmares that I'm back there so I don't have closure," she said.

"It's good because no other young women will go through what I did, but the damage to me has already been done.

"I had trauma and it felt like they were 're-doing' the trauma I'd been through. They didn't listen to me, my voice was taken away from me.

"If I'd received help then my problems would have been fixed but I'm worse having been there - I picked up bad behaviours, like self-harming and getting an eating disorder."

In July, Regis Healthcare said it "refuted" all the allegations but was unable to comment on specific cases due to client confidentiality and being involved in a legal dispute.

It said it welcomed visits from HIW and NHS and recognised the importance of receiving guidance on areas it was doing "really well" in areas like rapport between staff and patients as well as training.

In a statement it said it is willing to take action when given constructive feedback and that an improvement plan which provided the inspectorate with "sufficient assurance" is being made to ensure patient safety.

The hospital had been commended and awarded the highest level of the quality standards rating system following a NHS Wales quality assurance audit, it added.

Current owners Elysium Healthcare said: "Hillview remains a much-needed mental health hospital for Wales and we will move to provide a new service for adults from Wales.

"The new provision will be agreed in consultation with NHS Wales and its key stakeholders. We have started these discussions and look forward to sharing plans and proposals in due course."

Plaid Cymru MS Sioned Williams, a member of the Children, Young People and Education Committee, said that she was concerned about the lack of capacity in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) from early intervention onwards and said it was "one of the most urgent issues we need to address in Wales".

"We know that mental health problems among young women are increasing.

"There is an epidemic of mental health problems. We've heard evidence of this scarring people's lives. We need more steps aimed at early intervention and also we need to make sure this type of accommodation is available locally and that it is the right type of accommodation," she said.

The Welsh government said that protecting young people's mental health was an "absolute priority" and that it continued to work with partners to ensure there was a wide range of effective support.

"We continue to invest in a whole system approach to supporting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing.

"The Welsh Health Specialist Services Committee will publish a five to 10 year strategy setting out sustainable long term improvements to specialist mental health services in the coming months."

Children and young people's manager at Mind Cymru, Nia Evans, said: "Young people need assurance that they have a fully supportive mental health system available to them whenever they need it, and no matter the issue."

"Whilst it may feel like the closure of this setting places issues of the quality of safe and effective care in the past, it catapults the long-standing concerns around inpatient provision and community settings for CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) patients for immediate attention."

Children's commissioner for Wales, Rocio Cifuentes said it was key children and young people could access the support they need without any delays. She added that specialist support should be given in "safe, therapeutic environments".

"In our latest annual report, we made formal recommendations to Welsh government on these two areas and in their response, the government accepted those recommendations in principle, highlighting monies allocated to develop regional provision across Wales and a new five-year strategy to improve specialist mental health services," Ms Cifuentes said.

"The new strategy, due out next month, needs to urgently address how gaps in provision will be solved."