‘It just felt like they’d given up on me’: 30 new patients of Huntercombe Group tell their stories of what life is like at mental health units
Thirty new patients have contacted Sky News following our investigation into the treatment of teenagers in mental health units run by a single provider.
They include a 16-year-old boy whose mother told us her son’s self-harming increased.
Rachel Vickers said of her son Tyson: “He looked like he’d been in a car crash”, and Tyson Vickers added: “It just felt like they’d given up on me.”
In October, Sky News revealed serious allegations of failures in care from more than twenty former patients at units run by The Huntercombe Group, now part of Active Care Group.
Content warning: this article contains references to self-harm
Since then, we’ve been contacted by dozens more former patients independently of one another.
They’ve made further claims over concerns such as the overuse of restraint and inadequate supervision, allegedly leaving patients at increased risk of self-harm.
In response to our joint investigation with the Independent, the Department for Health has described the further allegations of mistreatment as “deeply concerning”.
Sixteen-year-old Tyson Vickers is one of a raft of new patients who’ve come forward in response to our initial investigation.
Sixteen-year-old Tyson Vickers is one of a raft of new patients who’ve come forward in response to our initial investigation
He spent two months in the Maidenhead unit from the beginning of March this year – he says during his time there he felt “like a lost cause in the mental health system”.
Tyson told us he went into the unit because “I couldn’t keep myself safe”. But he says he didn’t receive the specialist intervention he was expecting.
His mother Rachel said: “I could see that he was getting a lot worse. We were seeing much more self-harm – erratic behaviour that was leading to him needing to be restrained, which we hadn’t had to do at home. It was dawning on me that he wasn’t being looked after.
“He had cuts on his arms. He was bandaged up on both arms. He had a huge black eye. I mean, he looked like he’d been in a car crash.”
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Tyson is autistic and transgender. It’s not easy talking about his time at the unit. He said he would ask staff to “refer to me as a male and by the name Tyson with “him” pronouns.
“But sometimes they’d just mess up, and you could tell they didn’t actually respect it”.
Tyson says he gets “flashbacks” from his experiences. He says “just thinking about everything I went through there” makes him tearful when discussing it.
Tyson says: “I was struggling a lot. It just felt like they’d given up on me. I’m not going to get better. I just felt like I couldn’t be helped in any way. I was just sort of like a lost cause in the mental health system.”
Blood on the walls of one of the bedrooms at a facility run by The Huntercombe Group
“I was told by one staff member I would never get out, that I was just going to be stuck there forever and I couldn’t get help.”
Our original investigation revealed allegations stretching back more than a decade.
There were recurring themes such as the overuse of restraint and lack of staffing and observation to keep patients safe.
The 30 new patients who’ve come forward were inpatients at the units from 2003 – the majority were admitted from 2018.
They all got in touch with us independently of one another.
A patient who wants to remain anonymous, and who was in the Maidenhead unit between 2018 and 2019, told us she is now unable to live independently, which she believes is due to the trauma from her experiences.
This is how she describes her life now after her time at the unit: “I have pretty much daily seizures, walking difficulties, tics and more.
“My mum is my full-time carer as I cannot be on my own due to this. I cannot live independently.”
Another patient, who also wants to remain anonymous, and was admitted to the Maidenhead unit in 2020, shared photographs of injuries to her legs and knuckles which she says were sustained during restraints.
Another patient, who wants to remain anonymous, and was admitted to the Maidenhead unit in 2020
Another patient, who wants to remain anonymous, and was admitted to the Maidenhead unit in 2020, shared photographs of injuries to her legs and knuckles which she says were sustained during restraints
She said: “Sometimes when they were trying to get me in holds, they would swing me round really hard and I would fall into the wall so I would get bruised knuckles.
“Every single day I was getting bruises all over my body.”
Another patient shared pictures she says are of blood on the walls of her room. She told us she was left alone “for hours” to self-harm.
In 2019 Mae, who is 21 now, was an inpatient at Huntercombe’s Stafford unit.
She said: “I wouldn’t be asked to walk to the clinic for a feed, I would just be picked up and dragged there”.
In 2019 Mae, who is 21 now, was an inpatient at Huntercombe’s Stafford unit
Mae describes feeling like an “animal” in the unit and claims she was “dragged around, locked out of my room, bruised, constantly shouted at and verbally abused.
She said: “I had no autonomy or say in my own care or my own body.”
Ami was in the Maidenhead unit between April 2020 and December 2021.
Now aged 18 she says she wasn’t allowed out of her room for six weeks after an episode of self-harm.
She said when her underwear was taken off so she could be put into anti-ligature clothing, there was a male member of staff in the room.
She said: “I was embarrassed and felt assaulted. It really went past all my boundaries.”
Ami’s mother Rebecca Hinton told us: “We felt helpless, alone, like our voices just fell into a dark well, scared, desperate.”
Separate to our investigation, we’ve learned the first steps have been taken by solicitor Mark McGhee towards legal action against The Huntercombe Group. He’s currently representing nine former patients.
His cases include the family of a young former patient who claims they were raped by a member of staff at the Maidenhead unit.
Thames Valley Police has confirmed they are investigating the allegation.
Ami was in the Maidenhead unit between April 2020 and December 2021. Now aged 18 she says she wasn’t allowed out of her room for six weeks after an episode of self-harm
Mr McGhee said: “This is systemic failure and it’s gross systemic neglect. This hospital was responsible for some of the most vulnerable individuals within our society
“All of these individuals have been profoundly affected in terms of the abuse that they’ve sustained. And it is going to affect the rest of their lives.”
Active Care Group took over Huntercombe in December 2021.
A spokesperson for Active Care Group said: “We are very sad and concerned to hear about these patient experiences and allegations of poor care, a handful of which relate to time in our care…our policies and clinical interventions are in line with national guidelines and best practice; the care of our patients is our top priority.”
“All complaints are investigated and those meeting thresholds for CQC (Care Quality Commission) and safeguarding are reported as required. We are also pleased to receive positive feedback from many young people and their families.”
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The previous owners Elli Investments Group said: “We are saddened by these allegations and regret that these hospitals and specialist care services, which were owned and independently managed by The Huntercombe Group, failed to meet the expected standards for high-quality care.”
NHS England said it’s deeply concerned by these “shocking allegations”.
A spokesperson said: “Consequently these two units, which are run by Active Care Group, have been visited several times by senior commissioners in recent weeks – these visits have included speaking to all current patients, and we will continue to monitor and take appropriate action where necessary.
“The NHS has repeatedly made it clear in recent meetings to the executives of Active Care Group that all services must provide safe, high-quality care and deliver on the commitments in their contracts.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The further allegations of mistreatment that have been raised are deeply concerning. Our first priority is to ensure anyone receiving treatment in a mental health facility receives safe, high-quality care, and is looked after with dignity and respect.
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“We take these reports very seriously and are working with NHS England and CQC to ensure all mental health inpatient settings are providing the standard of care we expect.”
Chris Dzikiti, Director of Mental Health at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said: “It is unacceptable for any young person who needs mental health support to receive anything less than the highest standards of care.
“We are grateful to each and every person who has taken the time to share their, or their loved ones, experience of the care they have received.
“We have a range of powers we can use if we find people are not receiving safe care and will take every action possible to protect people where necessary.”
There is a lot at stake this week for Sophie Blake, a 52-year-old mother to a young adult, who was diagnosed with stage four cancer in May 2023.
As MPs vote on whether to change the law to allow assisted dying, Sophie tells Sky News of the day her life changed.
“One night I woke up and as I turned I felt a sensation of something in my breast actually move, and it was deep,” she says, speaking from her home in Brighton.
“Something fluidy, a very odd sensation. I woke up and made a doctor’s appointment.”
Sophie underwent an ultrasound followed by a biopsy before she was taken to a room in the clinic and offered water.
“They said, ‘a hundred percent, we believe you have breast cancer’.”
But it was the phone call with her mother that made it feel real.
“My mum had been waiting at home. She phoned me and said ‘How is it darling?’ and I said ‘I’ve got breast cancer,’ and it was just that moment of having to say it out loud for the first time and that’s when that part of my life suddenly changed.”
Sophie says terminal cancers can leave patients dreading the thought of suffering at the end of their lives.
“What I don’t want to be is in pain,” she says. “If I am facing an earlier death than I wanted then I want to be able to take control at the end.”
Assisted dying, she believes, gives her control: “It’s an insurance policy to have that there.”
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On Friday, the government is set to debate the issue before voting on it. Sophie hopes they’ll back the proposal.
“It should be my choice to be able to have a compassionate death,” she says.
There has been much debate about the bill since details about how it would work were published earlier this month.
On Friday, former prime minister Gordon Brown became the latest senior political figure to share his opinion on the matter, coming out as against the legalisation of assisted dying, based on his experience of his own daughter’s death.
Disability rights advocate Lucy Webster warns that for people like Sophie to have that choice, others could face pressure to die.
Lucy Webster
“All around the world, if you look at places where the bill has been introduced, they’ve been broadened and broadened and broadened,” she tells Sky News.
Lucy is referring to countries like Canada and Netherlands, where eligibility for assisted deaths have widened since laws allowing it were first passed.
Lucy, who is a wheelchair user and requires a lot of care, says society still sees disabled people as burdens which places them at particular risk.
“I don’t know a single disabled person who has not at some point had a stranger come up to us and say, ‘if I were you, I’d kill myself’,” she says.
The assisted dying bill, she says, reinforces the view that disabled lives aren’t worth living.
“I’ve definitely had doctors and healthcare professionals assume that my quality of life is inherently worse than other people’s. That’s a horrible assumption to be faced with when [for example] you’ve just gone to get antibiotics for a chest infection. There are some really deep-seated medical views on disability that are wrong.”
Under the plans, a person would need to be terminally ill and in the final six months of their life, and would have to take the fatal drugs themselves.
Among the safeguards are that two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and that a High Court judge must give their approval. But the bill does not make clear if that is a rubber-stamping exercise or if judges will have to investigate cases including risks of coercion.
Julian Hughes, honorary professor at Bristol Medical School, says there’s a very big question about whether courts have the room to take on such a task.
Julian Hughes
“At the moment in the family division I understand there are 19 judges and they supply 19,000 hours of court hearing in a year, but you’d have to have an extra 34,000,” he explains.
“We shouldn’t fool ourselves and think that there wouldn’t be some families who would be interested in getting the inheritance rather than spending the inheritance on care for their elderly family members. We could quickly become a society in which suicide becomes normalised.”
Young people will lose their benefits if they refuse to take up work and training opportunities, a minister has said ahead of announcing measures to cut the welfare bill.
Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that “conditions” will be attached to new skills opportunities the government intends to create.
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With a record number of young people currently unemployed, Labour promised in its manifesto a “youth guarantee” for 18-21 year olds to have access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work.
“If people repeatedly refuse to take up the training work responsibilities, there will be sanctions on their benefits,” Ms Kendall said.
“The reason why we believe this so strongly is that we believe in our responsibility to provide those new opportunities which is what we will do. We will transform those opportunities, but young people will be required to take them up.”
The Labour government has said it will stick to a commitment under the former Tory administration to reduce the welfare bill by £3bn over five years.
Ms Kendall said her party will bring in its “own reforms” to achieve that target, though did not elaborate further.
The Conservatives had planned to change work capability rules to tighten eligibility, so around 400,000 more people signed off sick long-term would be assessed as needing to prepare for work by 2028/29 to deliver the savings.
Asked whether these people would ultimately be denied their current benefits under Labour’s plans, Ms Kendall told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I’m saying we will bring forward our own reforms. You wouldn’t expect me to announce this on your programme.
“But my objective is that disabled people should have the same chances and rights to work as everybody else.”
The latest official forecasts published by the government show the number of people claiming incapacity benefits is expected to climb from around 2.5 million in 2019 to 4.2 million in 2029.
Last year there were just over three million claimants.
Ms Kendall will launch proposals on Tuesday designed to “get Britain working” amid concerns about the soaring unemployment rate.
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The white paper is expected to include the placement of work coaches in mental health clinics and a “youth guarantee” aimed at ensuring those aged 18-21 are working or studying.
Ministers are also looking at a subsidised jobs scheme, Sky News revealed last week.
The UK remains the only G7 country that has higher levels of economic inactivity now than before the pandemic.
Ms Kendall said the reasons are “complex” and include the fact that the UK is an older and sicker nation.
Asked whether she believes “normal feelings” are being “over-medicalised”, she said that while some people may be “self-diagnosing” themselves with mental health issues it is a “genuine problem”.
“There’s not one simple thing. You know, the last government said people were too bluesy to work.
“I mean, I don’t know who they were speaking to. There is a genuine problem with mental health in this country.”
Ms Kendall’s language was softer than Sir Keir Starmer, who this weekend promised a crackdown on “criminals” who “game the system” .
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he said: “Make no mistake, we will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society.”
A man is fighting for his life after a stabbing on Westminster Bridge, police have said.
Officers were called to the scene at around 10.45am on Sunday to reports of a fight and found a man with a stab injury. He was taken to hospital in critical condition.
Westminster Bridge is closed with investigations ongoing.
Three people have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and another has been arrested on suspicion of affray.
Two of those arrested were taken to hospital with minor facial injuries, the Met Police said.
It is understood the incident is not being treated as terror-related.
The road remains closed, with the police investigation ongoing.
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