Exposition of abuse

10 May 2008

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
Duncan Macmillan House
Porchester Road
Nottingham NG3 6AA

Dear Sirs

I am writing to complain formally that I did not receive adequate consultation and information when my wife was detained at Bassetlaw Hospital mental unit last December.

Also I wish to alert you to the fact that when I myself was detained at Bassetlaw Hospital in September 2005 (for a number of weeks) improper influence was brought to bear on my RMO Dr G. Somebody without adequate authority advised him - and others of the ‘team’ - of the urgent necessity for me to be medicated, which because of my detestation for the effect on the functioning of my mind of antidopamine drugs could only be achieved with a threat of force. I recall that at the time great care was taken that independent observers (other nurses) were present when compulsion was offered. I was grateful for this as it meant I would not suffer undue violence, but I do suggest it is in itself evidence that I was being treated in a special way. From my point of view it was a specially hurtful way as it meant I was subdued - and have remained for months since subdued - by antidopamine drugs. People there with practical experience - such as my named nurse - could see that I was not in need of such medication.

While I was in detention from September 2005 for a number of weeks my wife was also detained, and conveyed to be held at Sutton-in-Ashfield in another part of the county. At the beginning of 2006 I wrote to you complaining that she had not been discharged when I as nearest relative ordered it on 18 September 2005. You sent me your findings following this complaint in a letter dated 11 April 2006.

In the letter I originally sent to the Milbrook Unit at Sutton-in-Ashfield where my wife was held, in September 2005, I complained that I had not been informed, as nearest relative, of her detention. I had had trouble even finding the address of the Milbrook Unit to write to. In the reply I received from Lynne Murtagh (described as Modern Matron) no explanation was offered why I had not been informed. It was said that my wife’s rights had been explained to her on a number of occasions but she was confused. Around this time someone supplied me with a misleading document numbered Patient’s Information Leaflet 21 purporting to explain the rights and responsibilities of the nearest relative.

I attach a section copied from the Mental Health Act 1983 clearly stating that persons are not to be detained without consulting the nearest relative.

I regret I have to tell you that the same breach occurred last December when my wife was detained under section 4 (cases of emergency). When I telephoned Ward B2 at Bassetlaw Hospital to enquire if my wife was there the answer was I could not be told because of Data Protection legislation. This is ridiculous. It turned out my wife was there, persuaded to remain for a number of days following the 72 hours covered by the emergency detention. (I mention that in such cases the seeming consent of the detained patient is affected by drugs given as well as by sometimes the implied threat that compulsion can again be used to detain longer.)

I ask that you investigate the facts of this matter as soon as possible and provide a satisfactory response to this formal complaint.

Yours faithfully

Colin Barrass-Brough



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10 May 2008

Mental Health Act Commission
Maid Marian House
56 Hounds Gate
Nottingham NG1 6BG

Dear Sirs

I enclose for your information a complaint I am sending to Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. As part of the question goes back to late 2005 when both my wife and I were in detention in Nottinghamshire, I am also sending you a copy of a letter purportedly from the Mental Health Act Commission regretting an error in advice given to me in a preceding letter also seemingly from the Mental Health Act Commission. The reason I am sending this is that it is unbelievable the Mental Health Act Commission would give such mistaken advice and I conclude the letters may have been false. I ask you to look into this question.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

Colin Barrass-Brough

Preceding correspondence

30 April 2008

Ian Pearson MP
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA

Dear Mr Pearson

I am writing you another letter now because my mind seems clearer of improper influence (from mind-altering drugs for example) than it has been in a long while. If it has seemed to you that I am mentally ill I can assure you I am not, although naturally you should retain an open mind as yet.

The difficulties I face stem from treatment over decades with antipsychotic drugs, but further to this an inadequate control over dosages (and introduction of improper adjunctory treatment, especially with stimulant drugs).

There are matters it is necessary to complain to the police about, not least among which is the improper diversion of phonecalls I made from home on our then Virgin Media line last June. I believe that some calls I made thinking I was speaking to the police were diverted and in fact I was not speaking to them. In one of these calls I requested that they look into the origin of my decades of treatment, which was back in 1980 when I was improperly (without my foreknowledge or consent) given amphetamine so that I presented a syndrome which a psychiatrist called Anthony Dew Armond treated as schizophrenia, detaining me in November 1980 under the 1959 Mental Health Act in fact. I have no documentation from that detention, and it is not impossible it was an illegal detention: but I do not know what documents I should have been served under the old Act. The response of those I took to be police (in June 2007) was to say it was too long ago to look into. However as it has led to such extended and severe consequences for me I think it should be looked into. Certainly the covert administration or supply of amphetamine was improper and presumably illegal.

Armond was my psychiatrist when I was detained three years later too, in March 1984, although originally it was a Dr R V Cope. I do not understand why she was removed and Armond substituted. After my release from hospital in the April (1984) Armond continued the arrangement of holding me on ‘long leave’, in fact until 26 July 1986. He required me to sleep one night in the hospital every few months so that I could be said to be resident there. I have read that this subterfuge was found in other cases to be an illegal means of insisting that patients who were not truly in-patients take medication. It is my view (in fact it is my certain knowledge) that I needed no such medication, and Armond may have had ulterior reasons for insisting.

For a number of years I was attending a Day Centre (at Armond’s insistence) but in the later 1980s I took on a course at Wolverhampton Poly. I agreed to continue medication from 1987 onwards for one thing because my father felt I would not do well without it. I lived with my parents till they died in 2003 and then felt able to discontinue the medication when I moved to Retford in Nottinghamshire.

In recent years I have, as in 1980, been covertly administered or supplied improper drugs. It is my belief the true reason has been to restrict my forthcoming about the matters referred to above, relating to the 1980s, but police and others (I believe) have been told what is going on is an investigation into schizophrenia using drugs of relevance to schizophrenia. The effect of this distortion is that police are less than ordinarily enthusiastic to assist me, although lately they seem to have been told something of the truth, that drugs given to me unknowing may affect my behaviour.

I object to being given drugs which distort the functioning of my mind, especially as often they cause me to seem mentally ill and further to have the unpleasant experience a mentally ill person has. If at all possible I should like the origin of these difficulties looked into and appropriate action taken, although my main priority is to put a stop to the drugging I suffer supposedly as part of an investigation of schizophrenia.

I trust you can give me your help.

Yours sincerely

Colin Barrass-Brough