Afeefa Ali is a campaigner for Mind (Image: Afeefa Ali/ Mind)
A teenager’s experiences in mental health units left her feeling more traumatised when she was discharged than when she went in. And now 19-year-old Afeefa Ali is campaigning to try to ensure that others are treated better than she was. Ms Ali spent a lot of her teenage years between the ages of 13 and 17 in child and adolescent mental health units to treat depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
For most of these admissions, she was detained under the Mental Health Act. Now she is speaking out about her experiences to make politicians make changes to the law.
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Afeefa Ali’s powerful piece about the use of a restraint beanbag was included in the Mind exhibition (Image: Afeefa Ali/ Mind)
The Londoner said: “The unit I had the most admissions to was, on the whole, actually positive.
“I mean, the standards we have for mental health care in the UK are so low. So anything that’s half decent, you’re like, that was amazing.
“But the third hospital I was in highlighted how the systems are quite broken. I encountered staff members where I just thought ‘What are you doing here? Why are you working here? You don’t care about mental health.
“There was a real lack of compassion that came from a lot of staff members in all of my hospital stays. That’s something that was just really prevalent. I think that’s the standard because we’re so desperate for staff; we just let these people get jobs because that’s the best they can do, really.
“There was this strange lack of compassion and respect for me as a genuine human being.”
The Mind exhibition took place at the Houses of Parliament (Image: Getty)
She said: “I remember being told that by the psychiatrist [during one admission] that I was manic and I had a mania, which was like, in fact, entirely not true, because mania is a symptom of bipolar. I don’t have bipolar, never been diagnosed, never been discussed.
“And so that was drilled into my head that I was this manic patient. And that encouraged this idea that I’m more dangerous to myself. And it felt like I was being kind of treated as this dangerous animal that could just, you know, was so out of control and needed this crazy containment, when in fact, I was just an unwell 16-year-old.”
One thing that Ms Ali is keen for politicians to change in the Mental Health Act is the fact that mental health patients can effectively be sent miles away from home for treatment.
She said: “I’d randomly be told that tomorrow, you’re going to Manchester, pack your bags.
“And then I wasn’t taken to Manchester. So it was kind of this thing of let’s just ping pong her around the country and get rid of her as fast as possible, because we don’t want her blood on our hands, sort of thing, rather than holding me and caring for me.
“Thankfully I was never actually sent that far. But it was always, there was always kind of threats of it. Even the fear that came kind of, like to me and my family when there were conversations about being sent to Leeds and Manchester, it was like, that fear was enough.”
The healthcare assistant is working with Mind, the mental health charity, to bring about changes in the law.
As part of this a picture of her room from one of the mental health units she was treated in made up part of the exhibition at the Houses of Parliament.
She said: “The mental health system is pretty dire, and the state of it is pretty dire.
“[So] it’s encouraging to see the Mental Health Act being focused on, especially because of the poor experiences of people in mental health care, often those detained under the Act and those who have been stripped of their voice by the Act.
“I acknowledge that there’s so much that needs to be changed, and Mind acknowledges that too.
“It’s important to start with the highest piece of legislation possible. And with the hope that by changing that, the effects will sort of trickle down.
“Obviously, you have patients that aren’t detained under the Act, but there are 54,000 people who were detained under that last year, so it’s great to start with that.”
Ms Ali says she is now fully recovered from every illness that she had before, including the PTSD that she developed during her time detained under the Mental Health Act.
She does a lot of work in the mental healthcare field and is also training hard to run this year’s London Marathon.
Minesh Patel, Associate Director of Policy & Campaigns at Mind, said: “Afeefa’s horrific experiences, which began when she was just 13 years old, show the long-lasting impact of traumatic stays in hospital.
“People in mental health crisis deserve at the very least, safe environments and effective care, but all too often even these basic needs aren’t met, let alone through compassionate and therapeutic treatment.
“No-one should ever feel dehumanised or humiliated when in hospital for their mental health, and that’s why it’s so important the UK government delivers a new Mental Health Act to strengthen peoples’ rights when they are at their most unwell.
“Afeefa’s powerful submission to Mind’s parliamentary exhibition and her accompanying speech, highlight the strength of speaking out, and we won’t stop fighting to raise the standard of mental health hospitals.”
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If you need a response immediately, it’s best to call them on the phone. You can reach them by calling 116 123, by emailing [email protected] or by visiting www.samaritans.org.
