One of our kids has been admitted to hospital following a suicide attempt on Tuesday. If we hadn't taken her to the psychologist on Wednesday, she would have probably succeeded.
Mental health provisions in the Nelspruit area are great, much better than they seem to be anywhere else in Mpumalanga. Actually, they are pretty much non-existent anywhere else in MP!
This kid has been subjected to severe physical and emotional abuse in the home. Both of her parents are dead and on top of everything she has been a multiple-rape victim.
On Wednesday, the local hospital admitted her to casualty, because children can not be admitted to the mental health ward. With all the barking and shouting that is going on there I am fairly sure I find this a most appropriate rule. Casualty, however, did not have enough capacity for all the new admissions that day so they used a larger storage room and added some beds to it. Very homey place.
When I called on Thursday morning to find out what was happening, nobody could find the patient. 13! phone calls later and I was still none the wiser as none of the several nurses or doctors picking up the phone actually knew the doctor who had admitted the child nor the child herself. Granted, it was a public holiday but shouldn't you know who the people are you are providing direct care to.
Luckily, I was able to find the kid after driving to the hospital myself and checking out all the rooms in casualty - she was still in storage, pretty much as I had left her.
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