This blog shares the experience of someone who was in a Priory hospital as a teenager with the patient monitoring system, Care Protect. The surveillance system is used primarily in care homes but also some private mental health hospitals. The CCTV is remotely monitored off site by a private firm who are alerted to abnormal movement, sounds or changes in bedrooms, and can view a live feed of the room and contact the ward to take action.
I first found out about Care Protect on arrival to the hospital, where I immediately informed the consultant and ward manager that I did not consent and was not okay with it. I also told them that it would hugely increase my anxiety. They responded to this by stating that they “do not tolerate threats like that” and that as I was under eighteen at the time, that I had no choice in the matter. Despite being on 1:1 observations at that point, they still refused to cover the camera and informed me that they would have to put me on 2:1 if I didn’t have the cameras on. However, this made zero sense. I was in there for severe suicidal ideation and suicide attempts and a random person watching through the video system would not have stopped those things happening. In fact, my risk increased due to the extreme anxiety it caused, which then resulted in me being placed on arms reach observations, frequently with more than one member of staff.
They told us that this system would “reduce risk to both patients and staff”. This was absolutely not the case. Myself and other patients’ risk worsened because of the anxiety and invasion of privacy of Care Protect. Conveniently, the cameras “weren’t working” when a fellow patient was kicked several times by an agency member of staff, which was witnessed by several other staff and patients, myself included.
There was a short period whilst I was on intermittent observations. For some context, I have multiple physical health conditions so often spent quite some time in the bathroom. If I had been in the bathroom for more than two minutes, Care Protect would phone the ward and inform them, and several staff would rush in. This was a huge invasion on both my privacy and dignity, and to this day, I still feel anxious at times when using the bathroom in my own home due to the trauma caused by the Care Protect system. This also resulted in my physical health worsening, including recurrent, sustained UTIs and frequent A&E trips, as I was too afraid to use the bathroom.
When I was on intermittent observations, I frequently slept on the bathroom floor (with a leaky sink and poor sewage/drainage system) which affected my already unstable joints and lead to me becoming unwell on several occasions. It also meant I got minimal sleep, as the staff would regularly rush in to my room and wake me up. I was also in poor physical condition anyway due to being underweight and would regularly develop sores on my body from sleeping on a hard, wet floor. These sores also became infected due to the incredibly poor cleanliness of the ward.
I am now an adult who is afraid of contacting NHS mental health services, as I know my local acute psychiatric wards use Oxevision. This has had a major impact on my mental health as the lack of support caused by this fear means my depression isn’t managed.
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