Sadly, after 3 years on
the VIK panel, I am going to be leaving for pastures new. My reasons
for this stem from what I felt was an extremely inappropriate way to
speak to a young, vulnerable adult; and the subsequent complaints
procedure and response that has left me emotionally raw, and in a
state I feel could have been avoided. I am sick of feeling upset all
the time about it to be honest, and would feel much better no longer
a part of the organisation.
Firstly I would like to
state that in no way to I wish to undermine all the work Youngminds,
VIK, staff and volunteers have done to campaign for equality, justice
and education to the public and statutory bodies for us young people,
who are dealing or have dealt with mental health problems in their
everyday lives. I did have a little rant on Twitter, but I wanted to
provide some context in the hope that people understand I'm not
merely into some kind of “slagging match” for some flippant
reason, but that it was a result of distress from the manner of Bill
Badham and subsequent failures in the complaints procedure that has
left me feeling like my voice, and distress, had not been taken
seriously.
Without going into too
much detail (although I'm willing to provide more detail if people
would like it), my initial complaint was in regards to the manner of
Bill when I was stuck in London following the VIK day in November. I
wish to stress that I am not calling into question the efforts that
were made to provide me help in the situation, but rather the way in
which this was done. I do not believe, at a time I was already
immensely distressed as a result of cancelled trains and closed tube
stations in London leading to me missing my train back home, it was at
all appropriate to be constantly reminded that “now yet more funds
will need to be used” in order to solve the situation. I also don't
believe it was appropriate to get angry about my difficulties in
trying to contact a member of staff (mostly as a result of the
battery of my mobile phone being unreliable at the time), or getting
cross because I could not get more information out of the information
desk (bearing in mind anxiety when dealing with other people
historically can be a huge problem for me). As a result of the three
conversations I had with him on a payphone in King's Cross station, I
was left in tears when I had finally managed to get in contact with
my parents. I had already resigned myself to having to stay in the
station overnight (which didn't bother me so much), but the very
least I would have expected was a supportive ear in a time of need,
as opposed to sarcastic and demeaning comments such as “I can't
exactly magic a plane to you”. In the end things managed to get
sorted through my uncle who lives nearby.
As a result of the
severe worsening of my mental condition following these events, I
decided to write a complaint talking about the events in detail,
including timestamped phone calls/text messages where these were
retrievable, from leaving the VIK event to the alternative transport
arrangements with my uncle. I wasn't out for anyone's scalp, my
intention was to ensure things could be put into place to reduce the
likelihood of transport arrangements going wrong again, and so that
some kind of review on how staff deal with their emotions towards
volunteers This included the suggestion some kind of peer support as
part of the management structure; the point being it isn't a problem
to feel angry, but it would be more appropriate to express this anger
among supportive colleagues and definitely inappropriate to express
this towards volunteers or those that use the services of Youngminds.
I also went to great lengths to point out my own mistakes that I
could learn from.
I was quite shocked
therefore to the response I had received from this complaint;
learning points on transport arrangements and where cancellations should come into play for risk assessments were certainly taken into
account. But the most glaring omission, from my point of view, was
any reference to staff conduct or any kind of apology for what was
said, either by Bill or Youngminds. The response was concluded by an
“apology” for how I felt. In the words of James Dale's book “The
Obvious”, this can be defined as a non-apology with the
translation: “I didn't do anything wrong, but you seem to think I
did, so to make you feel better, I'll apologise but I won't mean it.”
I didn't get any response from a follow-up e-mail asking whether we
should record all of our conversations with staff to insure against
these kinds of situations in the future.
A month and a half went
by, with nothing other than a letter reiterating the response I had
received by e-mail. And it wasn't until a few days ago I started
becoming incredibly bothered by the whole situation again. A friend
had pointed out to me that, considering Youngminds is a mental health
charity, they were quite shocked no kind of follow-up letter, e-mail
or phone call had been made. Even if they disagreed with upholding
the complaint, not even a “hi, are you ok?”, or some kind of
supportive actions, were made. Especially considering this is an
organisation that advises other organisations on participation and
children/young peoples/service user involvement, it seems
mind-boggling that no kind of assistance to see if I felt my voice
had been heard, and how I feel the complaints procedure went (Which
can be distressing for the best of people, let alone those that may
be vulnerable or in a bad way). This for me was the final straw.
I cannot be part of an
organisation that, for whatever reason, is unable to put its own
advice on participation into practice. As I said, Youngminds has done
a hell of a lot of good; the commissioning process in Hampshire, the
VIK manifesto and input into government strategy on mental health
services for young people are all VIK and Youngminds projects I have
been proud to take part in. And, despite my negative experience with
Bill, he has created such change in the passion and enthusiasm within
the group. And this is why I felt so betrayed by the experiences of
the last few months.
For all the good work
that charities do, I don't believe this should shield them from any
kind of criticism. No organisation or person can do no wrong, and I
believe this idea can be hugely damaging. That is the way of
benevolent dictatorships, and eventual crumble from not learning from
mistakes. All it would have taken, from the conversation with Bill in
November to my inbox in the last few days, was a sorry. Even the NHS,
within the first few lines of a complaint's response, will genuinely
apologise in the first few sentences (and not just for “how you
felt”). For whatever reason this wasn't possible from Youngminds,
probably as this would have been an acknowledgement that something had
gone wrong; which of course isn't possible in these days of damage
limitation and NHS contracts. It became, as I have seen many times
with other people detained by the NHS, or police force, or other
business, yet another tale of a well-known staff member versus a
known unknown (and possibly insane) “service user”. And, as I
have spoken out against organisations that have this attitude, I
cannot volunteer for an organisation that falls into the same trap.
At the end of the day
it's your choice whether you believe or disbelieve my experiences
from that night. I'd hope that I have never built up a reputation of
making things up to spite people, or to be subversive. You could also
choose to criticise me for not bringing this up at the next VIK
meeting- although I feel extremely unsafe in placing the trust of my
wellbeing in this organisation right now, in case things again went
wrong. You could also say I didn't exhaust the entire complaints
procedure (there is one more level of complaint I could have made)-
however I didn't see the point in this complaint again being
investigated internally, but only by people a bit higher up.
To be honest I have to
say, after posting this, I am not going to worry myself over it
anymore. This has eaten up the last 2 months of my life with an
extremely low mood, ruined my holiday and ruined my christmas. I have
other things in my life I need to focus on and make a difference in.
In hope
Gary Watts
P.S. Could you please
remove me from all correspondence from Youngminds, unless it is
directly related to my complaint.
