Cygnet Reviews

The worst part is to be with someone in such distress and loss of control it is necessary to use restraint. Restraining is horrible and distressing for the staff involved as well as the service user. The down sides are numerous and a lack of funding in mental health services is making the job unbearable and having a negative impact on the mental health of staff. Hours are long, breaks are often missed so can be working 12+ hours straight. Breaks are not paid and it is hard and often impossible to be compensated for missed breaks. Staffing is minimum making the wards dangerous and level of care low. Verbal and/or physical assaults on staff is a daily occurrence. Higher management do not seem to care for ward staff wellbeing. The company seemingly puts profits above care. Service users do not get the quality of care they deserve. Hard working staff are not rewarded. Ward staff moral is very low and staff turnover is high. The wards are in need of major maintenance with cracks in plaster and holes in walls as well as mice found in service users bedrooms. If a friend or family member had to be a mental health in patient I would not want them at a Cygnet hospital. There is a horrible bullying culture between staff and hard work is not rewarded. Generally hard working staff who care about the service users and speak up when something is wrong are treated with malice by the management and pushed out of the company.

If your face doesn't fit then your job is made ten times harder, staff don't work as a team and your left to feel vulnerable and unsafe on wards in a high risk environment. Staff bullying is rife from co workers down to ward managers listening to and spreading rumours. New staff members are not well supported and given very basic information on the ward situation and are expected to understand everything you are told without any questions, induction on the ward seems to be an inconvenience to the seniors and very unprofessional behaviour from them. You are expected to assist with holds without any experience of viewing such a situation in the first place which is traumatising and creates work place anxiety along with the bullying.This place seems to be run mostly by young unexperienced staff members. The job advertisement I applied for didn't mention it was a secure unit and on the first day of in house training it was actually explained that if they put that on the advertisement people wouldn't apply, I was under the impression that as a support worker you could help these people in an holistic manner and better there mental health, instead your taught MAPA skills to withhold and restrain once the patient is becoming a danger to themselves or others, a majority of the time staff trigger a response from a patient and then the situation is recorded as an incident on the the patients records. The bullying made me dread going to work, lead me to severe anxiety and depression , eventually I left as I couldn't see a way of resolving any situations arising whilst being repeatedly questioned by higher staff in an unprofessional capacity as to why I had been feeling the way i had and made to feel uncomfortable about the situation almost asthough I was lieing. Anything said in those chats were spread back around staff and eventually every ward knew your personal business. I wouldn't ever work for cygnet again even if I couldn't secure another job,I'd rather be without than be treated like that.