Mixed Wards - A Dangerous Place for Women?

Although I am aware that if I had not been on a mixed ward I would never have met wonderful men such as Louis and Paul, I cannot help feeling that single-sex wards would be a much safer place for mentally ill  women.

I knew a man called Clive who was violent and dangerous and he had worked out that it was easy to coerce drugged-up women into sex and that because he was "mentally ill" and on a "section" he would never be prosecuted for rape.  In any case, he only had to say that they had consented, and perhaps they had, but most of them were not in a fit state to make a choice one way or the other.  He had several slashes all up both of his forearms which still had black, bloody stitches in them.  He also had tattooes, and he was very strong physically.  His line of approach was to sit next to a woman, any woman, and say "I love you" and then follow them around until he found a moment when they were alone, then make his move.

One girl had sex with him when she had just had an AIDS test result that was clear.  She said to me afterwards, "I was so confused I thought he was raping me".  Another girl, who had just been admitted that day, had sex with him when she was supposed to be on "ten minute observations", that is, being looked at every ten minutes, by the nursing staff.

After one of these incidents, Clive would be taken off to the lock-up ward, but a week later he would be back, preying on the women again.

I hardly think that the presence of such men on the ward makes it a safe place for women to recover from their mental distress.

When he approached me with his "I love you"  I just said  "No you don't, fuck off!" and he left me alone.  There was another man on the ward who kept asking me, "Are you on a lot of chlorpromazine?" obviously hoping that if I was I might be fair game.  It did not exactly help me to feel "safe" to be followed around like this, and he happened to have "Anne Marie" tattooed on his neck, which I found very disturbing.  There was also an occasion when a man actually started masterbating in front of me.  A nurse told him to "put it away" and she was obviously used to this behaviour from him, but I was quite shocked.  

One evening a male friend of mine offered to massage my feet, and I let him, but then he turned up with some pillows and a blanket and I had to make a very quick exit!

I would have felt a lot happier on a single-sex ward.  There still could have been somewhere for the sexes to mix, supervised by staff.  Also, I don't think it is always appropriate to look for a life partner in these places, not at a time when you are going through a breakdown, and they are too.  

When I pointed out to my Consultant Psychiatrist what was happening on my ward, he just said "I am aware that there is a lot of bonking going on", but he did not seem to see it as a problem or as anything that he was prepared to do something about.  This shows how they really do not have the welfare of the patients at heart, but they are only concerned that the hospital runs smoothly, and if putting women in with men supposedly keeps the men calmer and less violent, they will continue to do this, regardless of how difficult this makes the lives of the women on the wards.