Employees in the Chippenham Hospital ER yelled, bullied and threatened me into signing into this place. If I did not, they insisted, they would consult the judge in charge of admissions and he would both admit me and make sure I "never got out." As soon as I signed, they took away my phone and put me into their third-floor locked ward full of women who, like me, were there because their husbands were trying to punish them or prove they were crazy for custody and divorce case purposes. With no phone and no phone numbers, it is impossible to call anyone who cares about you and they know it. If you have insurance, they will keep you for as long as possible in order to suck it dry. The staff is atrocious and mean and constantly threatened to report patients to doctors as "non-complaint" which, they sneered, would ensure that we would "never get out." They were unresponsive to medical issues and, in my case, insisted they had given me prescribed pain meds when, in fact, they did not. I was there for two days before I ever saw a doctor and, when I did, in a public area, he told me I wasn't ready to leave because I was "tearful." I was "tearful" because I didn't belong there!
There is a formal administrative process through which you can request release. But the so-called "committee" to whom you must present your case consists of exactly one, middle-aged white guy who told me he would not release me because the very fact of my admission indicated that "something must be wrong." Demanding to see the judge would get me nowhere, he informed me. And if I insisted, said judge would guarantee that I would never get out. So there I was, imprisoned, separated from my child, betrayed by my husband, drugged, mistreated. bullied, threatened and getting no help or treatment. When I finally managed to get out and find a divorce lawyer, she told me that two of her clients had committed suicide following stays at Tucker. It has been years since this happened, and I still have PTSD. read more