Are you a member yet? Membership is open to all and is the first step towards accreditation.
Issued 29 September 2022
We at the BABCP were horrified to see the treatment of vulnerable people at the Edenfield Centre in the BBC Panorama documentary broadcast on Wednesday 28 September 2022. We wish to acknowledge the distress and harm caused to patients and families who may have been affected by the unsafe care they have received at the hospital. It is also important to acknowledge the potential distress caused to viewers watching the documentary which may have brought up their own experiences or fears of receiving unsafe care. We hope support will be offered to all those affected, including staff who have worked diligently in the Edenfield Centre. The wider context of a historical lack of funding in mental health services to enable organisations to train, resource and manage services which can provide compassionate and respectful care must also be acknowledged. Well managed and resourced services can help to create psychological safety and retention of good staff. This does not excuse management who are accountable for providing safe, effective and compassionate care and leadership, and we are pleased the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have reviewed their rating of Edenfield, and encourage them to continue to assist the unit in the improvement of standards. We also want to remind mental health workers that they have a duty of care to make themselves aware of their service’s complaints policies and raise awareness of any harmful or unethical practices. Staff must always be and feel supported to highlight any areas of concern in relation to their patients. Organisations should provide clear mechanisms to enable this to happen. We would like to remind BABCP members of our Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics. For anyone wanting to make a complaint about the practice of BABCP members, please find more information here.