Liz Brown’s Story

Liz Brown was very slight of build and could not have
been 5 foot tall. Her face resembled that of Fuchsia Groan,
the heroine of Mervyn Peake’s ‘Gormenghast’. As a
teenager Liz had been treated at the Priory Ticehurst
House in Sussex, in the adolescent unit. As an adult, Liz
was a patient at Orchard House Psychiatric Unit at Joyce
Green Hospital, Dartford, and at Little Brook Hospital.
Though I was introduced to Liz by the staff at advance
housing who noticed that we had a common interest in art
I did not become her friend though I noticed that she had
her own compartment in the fridge, and that she would
sometimes sketch in the garden. Liz accepted a move to
the more independent MIND housing project where she
one of the flats in the house where I was staying. MIND
was once mainly run by and for the middle aged and
elderly long term mentally ill men and women who at the
time made up the majority of national health psychiatric
patients. These patients, usually suffering from depression
following divorce or bereavement, often exasperated by
keeping up the working class or middle class pretence,
were legitimate patients who required only basic
supervision and posed a minimal or no threat to safety of
health workers. The 1990’s care in the community
programme put the emphasis on short term financial
savings. Everyone knows that the old hospitals have
closed down but few understand the disruption caused by
the closure of the day facilities, the day hospitals.
Occupational therapy departments at the day hospitals
rehabilitated and restored confidence to many patients
who attended who were then able to return to work or find
new employment. As a result of these closures local
Social Services were forced to dump patients who needed
a higher level of support than a mental health charity
could provide on MIND’S doorstep. So instead of having
to cope with large majority of sad depressed but
unchallenging patients, MIND are now expected to cope
with patients with more serious psychiatric conditions,
conditions that often require in-patient or day patient
treatment that stopped with the closure of the old
asylums.. To make matters worse, to coincide with the
care in the community programme Kent County Council
saw fit to close the group homes, shared houses that had
accommodated the long term mentally ill living in the
community. As if this situation was not bad enough, the
Swanley social service mental health team were
advertising for more social workers and besides being
understaffed, were and still are overworked.
The previous occupant of Liz‘s flat, Mathew, had been
transferred to Broadmoor following his conviction for
stabbing a local GP in 2000. This incident was reported in
the national press, on the front page of some newspapers.
At his trial a year later Mathew was reported to have said
that ‘they had been winding him up’. I wondered if the
staff knew something as one of them had told me that
Mathew was upset about a month before the incident.
Around that time another of the Mind housing officers,
Alison went drinking at a pub in Gaol Lane, then driven
her Citroen Deux Chevaux to the local woods and hung
herself. A third housing officer, Georgia, she could not
believe the attitude of some of the staff at Mind Dartford
before she left. Shortly after Mathew been sent to
Broadmoor, John, head of MIND, Dartford left to start
another job. Dartford MIND employed Sally, who had
only worked with the mentally ill for a year. Prior to that
and for ten years previous she had worked with criminals.
Previously she had run a probation hostel. The character
attributes of a probation hostel manager are different from
those needed by the manager of a local branch of MIND.
Those responsible for employing the new manager may
have thought that the Mathew incident would happen
again which goes to show how out of touch they were. In
those days Mind visited every month to collect rent. In
March 2000 residents received a memo saying that there
was a need to carry out monthly maintenance checks and
that in future these would be carried out at the same time
as the rent collection. By the MIND housing officers, Jill
and Dave. The memo went on to say, ‘Access will be
needed so if you are unable to be there Dave or myself
will have to use our keys to enter your flat.’ A practice
that MIND continue to this day. Should residents really
have to trust MIND staff to enter their flat and potentially
look through their property and possessions? Jill once
ordered a minibus for an outing saying that it was for
‘slow learners’. She did not know the difference between
patients with learning difficulties and the long term
mentally ill. The Fundamentalist Christian staff, Jill and
Dave left the housing staff. Sally replaced them with
Natalie and Deirdre who were given a job with no specific
agenda because the government kept changing the mental
health service never presenting a clear plan. The
government seemed more concerned with reassuring the
public and transferring responsibility to the charities. As
a result the staff were obliged to invent their own work
plan.
By February 2005 MIND Housing team, housing officers
Deirdre and Natalie sent a memo saying that ‘on
Wednesday 9th of March starting at 10 a.m. Deirdre will
be coming to check the water temperature in all the flats.
This test will be carried out each month in future. The
purpose of the test is to ensure that there is no risk of
legionella infection and is a Hyde requirement. If you
have to go out Deirdre will use her key to let herself in.’
So, instead of collecting the monthly rent at the door,
Deirdre apparently had asserted the right to enter the flat.
But they carried on throughout the year, even when she
was severely ill from chronic anorexia.
Deirdre and Natalie told me that they did not know how
to cope with Liz’s anorexia. My ex-partner Barbara had
sent me two books she had found on the subject after I had
mentioned Liz to her. I gave these books to Deirdre and
Natalie. This was an example of the charities being
expected to do the job of professional health workers, the
same problem that Liz was identifying in her review of
my exhibition, in not so many words.
When I telephoned the housing association they had no
knowledge of such a requirement. These inspections were
erratically timed and often at a few days’ notice. Once in
the flat they wanted to talk to the tenants, making personal
remarks
Liz hated these intrusions. Anyone who is involved in
creative work knows that privacy is often essential to the
process. Artists usually want to show only finished work
if at all. The visits were disruptive, but the staff argued
that no-one turned up to their house meetings, and that left
on their own patients would not only deteriorate but they
would neglect the property as happened with a previous
tenant who after refusing to admit visitors for a year was
found to have covered the entire floor surface of his flat
with rubbish and litter, enough to fill twenty bin liners.
Sally sent out a memo to the residents of the MIND
housing project. ‘Whilst we have no intention of intruding
into your lives I must remind you that you have chosen to
live in supported housing and as such there is an
expectation that we should work together to enable the
appropriate support, which will enable you to live more
fulfilled and independent lives.’ The letter goes on to
complain that residents are not attending meetings or
joining in social activities. But MIND asked me if I
wanted to live in their housing project, and besides there
is no mention of any such agreement when you move in
and certainly nothing in writing in the residents rent
agreement to say that you have to join in with any
activities.
Liz also told me that she was unhappy with the lack of
support she was receiving. ‘Do you feel isolated/’ I asked
her. ‘You’re not joking she replied.’
Liz wrote a review of my exhibition at Hall Place for the
MIND housing project newsletter published by Dartford
and Gravesham MIND at the end of 2003. It was very
rustic exhibition of my pictures, some were colour
photocopies in frames from charity shops, but it was given
favourable comments in the visitors’ book mainly from
parties of schoolchildren visiting Hall Place as part of a
school visits to the historical building, so it was a good
opportunity to raise awareness. In her review Liz
describes my pictures and what they say to her. ‘A later
picture portrays the outside world which shows it to be a
bad place. His figures are crazy, frantic, causing chaos and
destruction. His caption mentions the help (i.e. the care in
the community) opposite a well-known suicide spot. If
you are someone who feels that what help there is, is
insubstantial, it can be a frightening if not debilitating
thought. Causing frustration and anger, not just with
yourself, but with that ‘supposed’ help.’ The caption
referred to the patients who jumped off the car park in
Orpington opposite the Bromley MIND day centre near
Orpington War Memorial. I found it ironic that the
patients had died opposite the day centre, a converted
detached house, especially as patients could have walked
into the house and ask for help. The care park has since
been demolished and replaced by a Tesco superstore. Liz
concluded her review by saying that care in the
community patients’ were easy targets for exploitation by
those not deemed as mentally ill.’ and concluded by
asking if care in the community was really enough.
In the change from the more supportive atmosphere of the
communal care home, Liz was allowed more freedom,
and though she was able to continue with her creative
interests she was also free to not eat and become more
anorexic. It was clear from the start that MIND were not
able to cope with the situation, soon Liz was obviously
underweight but when, soon after she had moved in, she
attended a Summer Fayre run by the local MIND office.
No-one seemed to notice let alone care, and for the first
time I had to notify the social services myself, a pattern
that was to repeat itself many times. Subsequently when I
did ask MIND for help they actually refused to notify the
social services merely adding ’what can we do?’ leaving
Liz’s fate in my hands.
Liz’s decision not to eat may have been provoked by the
very intrusions that MIND say were their way of
monitoring patients. But when Deirdre visited me she
made catty remarks. Yet, unknown to Deirdre I had been
a second hand dealer and had been acquiring stock from
charity shops to sell on. Though I claimed benefit I also
did voluntary work and had worked part time for the
Clubhouse, for the allowed earnings of twenty pounds a
week, which worked out at below the minimal wage. I had
been advised to accept benefit by doctor Shan instead of
suing the health service regarding an incident at Joyce
Green. In fact staff there had asked my parents not to sue.
I had since joined Centrepieces and had arranged with the
social services to sell work under the same arrangement. I
was also allowed to offset any sales against the cost of
materials which I did, keeping receipts. This amounted to
many ours of voluntary work because under the permitted
earnings rules I am allowed to work as many hours as I
want as long as I don’t earn over twenty pounds a week.
But though I could cope with Deirdre and Natalie, I
wonder what effect similar remarks would have had on
Liz. You can hardly guilt trip someone out of anorexia. In
fact the intrusions and any undermining comments could
have triggered her anorexia. What’s more people may
know this and deliberately upset her in the hope of
triggering her illness.

Living in the same house as Liz for the last years of her
life I decided to keep my distance early on, only talking to
her when I ran into her by chance when I was leaving or
returning to the building. If I noticed that she was sick or
that the lights had not been on in her flat for a couple of
days I notified the social services and often she received
help as a result. I told her I was doing this and she had no
problem with this. I soon found that if I was persistent the
social services would visit her and put her back in touch
with the appropriate health workers, specifically the Red
House eating disorders unit at Maidstone who would take
her in as an in-patient or day patient. Friends and Family
untrained charity workers, seemed no more able to cope
with the anorexic patient than perform heart surgery.
Though I could help by notifying the social services when
Liz seemed ill, I did not know how to treat her illness. I
was wary of mentioning anorexia in case I interfered with
the professional help she was receiving when she became
a day patient attending the Maidstone, or when she
returned to Swanley after being an in-patient. Liz was
devious, her illness made her so and she had learnt how to
fool anyone close to her long ago. This meant that even if
she allowed regular visitors they would be met by a highly
rehearsed and practised act involving clothing skilfully
worn and adjusted to conceal weight loss and a manner
and conversation so polite and a disposition so sweet that
she could delude almost anyone, but coming from a
background of psychiatric care where her act would have
been immediately seen as transparent, and not seeing her
on a daily basis I was usually lucky enough to notice when
Liz was drastically underweight.

The Supporting People initiative was part of the

nationwide response to the disasters that the Care in the
Community initiative had brought. In part the idea was to
make care agencies accountable for their actions and was
a safeguard against unscrupulous landlords who ran
hostels for the mentally ill for profit, exploiting the
patients. But the council now wanted evidence of staff
patient participation, requiring MIND to create projects to
support their claim for finance. In the spring of 2005
MIND housing staff had been full of enthusiasm for a new
resident Andrew Upstill aka Andrew MacPherson. As
soon as he arrived I heard him say ’Liz and David they
look so ill, I don’t care if they die.’ He ingratiated himself
with MIND by building a garden structure with the fancy
decking seen on improve your garden television
programmes. Though at least half the residents including
Liz were against these improvements MIND insisted that
the modification of the garden go ahead and then said that
they would be putting in new flower beds around the
structure. I warned the staff that the garden would become
unmanageable with no other residents apart from me
interested in gardening, and only a weekly visit from a
part time gardener, but Deirdre insisted. A landscape
gardener was invited to visit and give an estimate. I had
net curtains that allowed me to see out but stopped those
outside looking in. Deirdre told the gardener that one of
the residents was a ‘poof’. Deirdre decided to give the job
to Andrew. I was told by a MIND staff member that
Andrew’s father had money. His father would give him a
large sum of money if he got a job. I don’t know if the
work in the garden counted towards this deal. He needed
a home for his children while he waited for a court
decision regarding their custody. If he could not put them
up for the three days a week that he was allowed the court
might not be so favourable toward him in their judgment.
Having donated his time and effort into ’improving’ the
garden, he then set about moving his children, two girls of
junior school age, into his flat on a part time basis. He
charmed Deirdre and Natalie into allowing his children to
use one of his rooms as a bedroom and installed bunk
beds. Natalie and Deirdre visited Andrew regularly,
giving this clearly quite capable patient support that might
have been better directed elsewhere.
You can imagine the noise and disruption this fellow
caused, with his children and garden project, in a house
meant for the mentally ill. Andrew was desperate for
partial custody rights for his children, and allegedly for
his father’s money. The desperation caused stress the
stress in turn manifested in his behaviour. Andrew
became for a while the life and soul of the party,
encouraging female residents to drink, offering Liz
alcohol all the time knowing that these residents were on
medication and that alcohol is contra-indicated. The
garden project was not just an example of favouritism
toward Andrew by Deirdre and Natalie. The garden
structure would, while the flower beds were weeded and
full of new plants, provide a fine example of a staff led
project when the staff renewed their application for the
Supporting People grant they needed to claim a hundred
pounds a week for looking after the residents.
Andrew did not need much support. He could look
after his children, feed them put them to bed then get them
ready for school the next morning for a couple of days a
week and still have time to party. Though he seemed like
a responsible father he was not able to show the same
qualities to all the residents. The garden project was a
straight transaction between staff and Andrew. In return
for working in the garden he and his children were given
lodgings. The staff encouraged and supported Andrew
while Liz was left to deteriorate. Liz declined Andrews’s
offers of alcohol and friendship. She had her own friends.
Liz’s self-harm scars on her arms had faded to white,
indicating that she had been through that phase. I was
shocked when Tom the caretaker told me that Liz had self-
harmed recently, but not surprised. Something or
someone was triggering Liz‘s negative behaviour. Tom
asked Andrew not to leave sharp tools lying around the
common room. However Andrew continued to do so, and
turned up to a house meeting sharpening a chisel. Seeing
that Andrew had been allowed to move his children into
the house, Liz’s upstairs neighbour Linda Sheppard
moved her boyfriend John in. Both these actions against
the rules set out in the tenancy agreement. Andrew held a
garden dinner party to which only certain residents were
invited. With loud music, wine and beer they sat in the
structure until past midnight leaving bottles and glasses to
be cleared up the next day and a bunch of house keys be
returned from a garden table to the fellow’s door the
following morning.
With reluctance MIND eventually moved Andrew on
though they have astonishingly elected him to their board
of governors. He left behind him boxes of craft materials
in the basement, open boxes containing modelling knives,
scalpels, surgical blades and razor blades for all to see, as
a leaving gift. I was left with the unpleasant task of
disposing of these items as they were obviously a potential
trigger to a self-harmer like Liz. One cut in funding had a
particular devastating effect on Liz and at the end of the
summer term 2005 she was told that her art course was to
close down. I believe that this would also cause Liz to
reduce her intake of food.
 The situation in the MIND flat Liz above didn’t
improve either. The Linda’s boyfriend regularly shouted
abuse at another female resident who dared to answer him
back, and he used to watch the television into the early
hours volume turned up contemptuous of the other
residents adding to the mounting stress Liz was enduring.
Not one to complain Liz took it out on herself establishing
a diet regime which caused her illness to escalate until her
immune system was compromised. MIND staff were
aware of tensions in the house but did little except
organize the gardening project. The only other action they
took was to continue with their monthly health and safety
checks. In her sleep deprived state and subject to these
disruptions it is no wonder her anorexia became life
threatening. With unsuitable residents adding to her
distress, Liz was too tired to face the day and continue
with her artwork. Thus demoralized she responded the
only way she knew how, by reducing her food intake
which in the environment of an institution would have
been enough to attract the attention of qualified staff. Not
so in the community, where Liz was isolated, living on her
own. She was visited by MIND staff but managed to hide
the fact that she was dangerously underweight. I was
furious at MIND and Andrew for the disruption they
caused with their garden project. I put my anger into my
artwork, I had a chance to show work at the yearly
exhibition at Hall Place with the user led art group
Centrepieces, based in Crayford. There was enough
negativity in the MIND house to trigger Liz’s anorexia.
Liz told me that she felt isolated in the community. And
what a community it is for the mentally ill to exist in. With
society progressively more violent, more intolerant and
more crowded the psychiatric patient is also expected to
tolerate prejudice, sometimes under the influence of
unwanted and unnecessary ‘medication’.
Liz’s options were constantly being reduced. Leaving
the house to visit the shops or the park was an ordeal for
Liz. Though local residents have free healthcare and the
benefit system to fall back on, they have been no different
to the rest of the country in adopting the fashionable
uptight and selfish attitude of the 21st century. Sadly the
attitude of the community toward the care in the
community patient has been deplorable. There has been
absolutely no attempt whatsoever by successive
governments of any party to educate the community as to
what to expect from the care in the community
programme. On the 18th of August 2005 social workers,
accompanied by a psychiatrist rang my doorbell at 11 am.
They said that they were seriously concerned about Liz
and could they have access to the inside door to her flat.
After checking their identity card, though I recognised
them as mental health workers, I let them in but they were
unable to enter the flat as they did not have a key. I advised
them to contact MIND office as I knew MIND had a pass
key, and left them to discuss the matter in privacy. About
an hour later MIND housing officers knocked at the door
saying they had some bad news and I asked them if Liz
was dead and they said she was and then I asked them if
she had taken her own life and they said they couldn't say
too much so I asked them if it was an overdose and they
said pills were present but they did not know if it was
overdose, accidental or deliberate. The Police were
investigating and had said there was no evidence of foul
play
 A few days later I was asked to help assess the situation
in Liz's flat, by a MIND housing officer who said that she
was too upset to enter the flat on her own; I discovered
Liz's diaries, approximately ten journals, note books. I felt
these journals, with the extensive collection of
photographs were an important record of her life, even
more relevant than her artwork. To me I felt that it meant
that her life had not been such a waste after all. I managed
to read a couple of entries in the diaries before I noticed
the atmosphere in the room becoming uncomfortable. One
of these read ’Am I pretty? ... cry myself to sleep for hours
at night’, another merely described a day out. At the very
least a professional health worker would be able to study
this record and perhaps understand the nature of her
illness an illness that is becoming more prevalent amongst
young people.
Any differences were put to one side as Liz’s property
was cleared from her flat. In hospital a psychiatric patient
has few possessions. When discharged into the
community often a patient will try to compensate by
hoarding. Liz had spent the money she saved on food on
art materials (which found their way to the user led art
group), books, and distressingly, a wardrobe, draws and
cupboards full of clothes from the catalogues which she
used to hide her illness. All these along with her artwork
and related resources had to be taken away and in the end
the couple who had were clearing her flat asked in despair
if they could leave a few of her remaining possessions in
the flat as they found the task too distressing. I was
worried for her artwork as so often such work is
disrespected. I was informed by MIND that Anne Marie
took Liz’s artwork. Liz had feared that father would throw
her work away. I feel Liz had more to offer with her
artwork but perhaps she made her point by choosing not
to use her talent to convey her illness, but to be apart from
it.
I asked to move into Liz’s flat as the noise from the
upstairs flat was annoying, and so that Becky could have
a downstairs flat that she needed being unsteady on her
feet. The staff agreed. Moving into Liz’s old flat I found
the possessions that her executors had left behind. There
were some plants on the windowsill, some very cheap
jewellery in a little wooden box, a silver ring a silver
cross, some cassettes, some glass decorations, and in a
draw in the kitchen and on her bedside cabinet, some
boiled sweets. I had rescued some odds and ends from the
dustbin, I have always tidied up the bins after the residents
who have not always been well enough to put their
rubbish out properly. I found her anorexia videos,
programmes about the illness that she had recorded from
the television. I found a door key but would not enter the
flat. I should have rescued her diaries but did not.
However I did find a couple of photograph booth pictures
of Liz and a notebook that had hardly been used. I made a
note of the following table I saw in this notebook.

Sunday 10th July 10266 steps 3.16km 116 kcal steps:

kcal 88

Mon 11th approx. 4500 steps (only entry for this

day).

Tues 12th 12846 steps 3.98km 129 kcal steps: kcal

99
Wed 13th 11483 steps: 3.56km 108 kcal steps:
kcal 106

Thurs 14th 7680 steps: 2.38km 83 kcal steps:

kcal 93

Fri 15th 4348 steps: 1.35km 51 kcal steps;

kcal 86

The Footstep per Kilometre ratio is consistent where

the Footstep per Kcal ratio, that I have added, is not.
Though the record is only for five days, the date shows it
to be one month before her death. If she continued a
regime of minimal food intake and exercise to work off
the little amounts it is possible and probable that there
were days when she ate nothing at all. The table shows
Liz’s calorific intake decrease by fifty per cent to 51 kcal
by Friday the 15th of July. Just over a month later she was
found dead, indicating that she may have stopped eating
completely and starved to death.
All around her flat were little tins, other containers, and
packets of boiled sweets, each sweet having a calorific
value of 19. Although none of the entries in the table are
multiples of 19 perhaps the other calories were tea. Black
tea is well known amongst anorexics to be 1 calorie. So
perhaps after pigging out on a whole six boiled sweets she
decided to cut back on the tea and just have two cups that
day, making sure she burnt off the evil calories by walking
a distance of 3.16 km a distance she arrived at by counting
her 10266 footsteps that day. Whatever the calorie intake,
the entry says little for those paid to care for her if she was
able to carry out such a regime and the attendant passing
back and forth of blame and responsibility says even less.

Staff at the Red House regretted that compulsory

admission was not the current policy, even though they
were aware that Liz’s immune system was damaged by
years of anorexia. Liz Brown had a body mass index of
17.5. Compared to the slightly lower Body Mass Indices
flaunted by super models, some claiming as low as
sixteen, and those under eighteen banned from fashion
shows in Milan, Liz’s condition might not appear so
extreme but this 17.5 is more than likely the weight she
left the Red House with. She would regularly drop below
this reading but would stay away from staff when she was
not eating. As she was less than five foot the 17.5 puts her
well weight or target weight at under six stone to begin
with. Staff at the Red House probably did not know that
Liz had, before and up until the time of her death, had to
share facilities with another resident who, after falling
down the stairs, was treated for MRSA infection at St
Mary’s Hospital Sidcup and had only just returned to the
MIND house. MIND staff, any of whom could have
carried the disease back to the house after visiting, gave
no instruction regarding this matter and to this day there
are no washing or toilet facilities for specifically for staff,
visitors, or maintenance workers on the premises. For Liz
this was a cause for concern for she had an immune
system damaged by years of anorexia and taking
medication on a very empty stomach. It is also likely that
the staff at the Red House were unaware of a mark the size
of a half crown on Liz’s forehead that looked like either a
bruise or an infection.
 Liz Brown’s Post Mortem was inconclusive. A blood
test was taken but appears to have not contained enough
toxins to provide a definite verdict of suicide. Liz’s body
was found, apparently appearing restful, on the floor. If
this is true, and there is no reason to believe that it is not,
then it indicates that Liz died as a result of her illness.
Always in hindsight there are events that could have been
taken as warning signs or cries for help but were at the
time ignored or misread. Why did I not see and report her
again deteriorating health. In the weeks before she died
Liz actively avoided me. I noticed her creeping by my
window; through the net curtains I saw her walk by she
walked by with an apple, perhaps she was trying to
convince me she was eating. But I felt harassed by the
housing staff and some of the visitors to Becky’s flat who
were disruptive and verbally abusive. And some of the
staff at the local ASDA, the nearest shop were also
verbally abusive. Besides that I had run into a problem
with Centrepieces. If I had been harassed and had not felt
the need to replace the work perhaps I would have noticed
Liz being ill. I can’t blame Centrepieces as they had no
control over Hall Place’s recent decision to ban work by
another artist that really was not that controversial. And I
can see that work that addresses adult concerns may not
be suitable for school parties, though the pictures were
drawn to provoke a dialogue and they were concerns that
affect school children, and they were nothing that children
do not see on television. I only wish that someone had said
something instead of forcing me to play hunt the paintings
which I discovered accidently when I was asked to put
something in a locked storeroom.
Sadly again, Liz was able to hoard property that she did
not want to be parted from and this increasing and
unforeseen problem that has become part of care in the
community may have been a factor in her illness. Liz was
about to be readmitted to hospital under section but had
been informed of this decision by a health worker, who
probably thought that he or she was giving Liz a little time
to pack a few things for her stay.
There is no doubt in my mind that Liz was an
accomplished artist. I have seen work by her dating back
to 1989 and over the years Liz attended her classes and
gained qualifications. Liz learnt skills in art that ranged
from realistic life drawing, and this in itself is significant
as it contradicts the popular conception of the artist who
suffers from mental illness as being clumsy and childlike
in their art. Liz was not. In fact it was not uncommon to
see an artist who was exceptional talented at realistic
depiction in the old hospital art rooms as opposed to the
bizarre and neo-surreal artwork that the public are
expected to accept as representative of the art of the
mentally ill. Liz also showed a proficiency in a wide range
of crafts that used to take place in the Occupational
Therapy department, before it was phased out with the
care in the community programme. The Occupational
Therapy department was part of the Psychiatric Day
Hospital and their closure has been particularly damaging
to the patients living in the community. Here the day
patient could pursue a wide range of crafts from the often
ridiculed basket weaving to knitting and making stuffed
toys to weaving cookery woodwork metal work printing
and of course the art room was part of the occupational
therapy department. Liz excelled at cake decoration and
at tapestry. She was a keen photographer and sketched
from her photography. She kept an extensive image bank
of magazine and newspaper cuttings. Today Liz’s work
would be described as that of an Outsider artist, but sadly
this term has yet to be accepted in this country like it has
in America, France, Ireland or Russia. Though she would
set up a stall at craft fairs she never made the money that
her work deserved.
Though there is provision for force feeding under
section 63 of the Mental health Act, in practice this, along
with the constant one to one nursing often required, seems
to out of the realm of the Little Brook staff. Though Liz’s
doctor at the Red House eating disorders unit at Maidstone
regrets the situation, the unit does not take compulsory
patients as the expense and potential for disruption forbids
it. It seems that the days of the nurse patiently sitting at
her station outside the side room for weeks or months until
the anorexic patient reaches a target weight is a thing of
the past. In the old days when the old psychiatric hospitals
took the burden of the chronically ill, the incurable, and
the elderly from the psychiatric units the anorexic patient
would rewarded by a walk to the day room, where they
could start to socialise again. If the treatment continued to
be successful this would be followed by shopping trips,
occupational therapy and eventually a trip home followed
by increasing leave.
 Liz was to have been readmitted to Little Brook
Hospital. This psychiatric unit is situated next to the old
Stone House Hospital gradually replacing the old asylum,
but with a vastly diminished allocation of in-patient beds
and day-patient facilities. At that time Little Brook had
recently found fame as the hospital that was treating
Andreas Grassl, better known as the 'Piano Man', who was
found on the beach at the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, by police,
on 7th April 2005. Andreas would not talk when
questioned, and carried no identification. He was taken to
Little Brook and, still mute, he was kept on the locked
ward for a month before being transferred to an open
ward. Though he steadfastly refused to talk, he did
however draw a picture of a piano, an image he drew
repeatedly. He was taken to a piano in the hospital chapel
where, according to staff, he played ’meandering
melancholy airs’, for two hours. This was no mere reverie.
Soon his performances, now timed at up to 4 hours, were
identified as a selection of excerpts from Swan Lake, the
Lennon and McCartney songbook, and the work of the
Italian composer Ludivico Einoudi. He was given the use
of an upright piano which was kept on the ward. When not
playing he was seen to draw more pianos and write music,
keeping a folder of sheet music that he carried with him.
The newspapers ran his story. Mental Health workers
betrayed the rule of patient confidence by talking to the
press about the 'Piano Man' who refused to speak.
At first the papers were sympathetic, speculating as to
his identity and inviting the public to submit information
and theories. The August edition of the Fortean Times, a
magazine devoted to the paranormal contained a two page
article about Grassl. ’Who is the Piano Man?‘ the article’s
headline asked. Ironically two days after social services
workers found Liz's dead body at the MIND house in
Swanley, the 'Piano Man' broke his silence and was almost
immediately discharged freeing his bed for another
patient. The irony is more profound because the previous
year a patient suffering from the same illness as Liz,
Anorexia Nervosa was refused admittance to Little Brook
despite the fact that doctors had given her only five days
to live. Almost as soon as he spoke opinion turned against
him. A ’member of staff’ claimed that far from being the
virtuoso musician that both his social worker and ward
manager had claimed he could barely play a note, and
often tapped one key continuously. The Piano Man broke
his silence on the 19th August, by the 23rd he was not
only without talent but had ’confessed to being gay’
though it is fair to say that any patient who does not run
with the pack in the Dartford area is called gay by the
staff. Though the same paper that outed Andreas Grassl
printed an article the following day in which his father
denied the allegation, adding that he if anyone would have
noticed such a thing, another daily had reassessed and
downgraded his talent. No longer a probable concert
pianist or ballet company ‘repetiteur‘, the Piano Man’s
lawyer, Jurgen Linhart, told the press that ‘Andreas ‘had
learned to play a keyboard by himself.’ Though he denied
that the Piano Man had any special talent, Mr Linhart
added ’But it is simply wrong to suggest that he just
tapped one key all the time. Josef Grassl, the Piano man’s
father confirmed that Andreas Grassl was a talented
musician who, besides playing a simple keyboard
alongside his younger sister, also entertained relatives on
an accordion. Perhaps it is simply wrong to call the Piano
Man gay and perhaps it is wrong and a little insulting to
call someone who has been mute for four and a half
months a fraud but that is what Dr Stoat MP for Dartford
and government spokesman for health did in the national
and local press. By September the first, according to the
Dartford Times, Dr Stoat was saying that the Piano Man
should ’be placed under a European arrest warrant and
brought back here to face charges. He’s guilty of wasting
police and NHS time.’ Dr Stoat was apparently reacting
to a report in a national paper that claimed that Andreas
Grassl was a fame hungry young man who wanted to
appear on German television. The paper claimed that Mr
Grassl was a fame hungry young man who wanted to
appear on German television. His silence had been a
publicity stunt. He had written to celebrities asking for
advice on how to become famous. The Piano Man was an
impostor patient who stood to make the estimated cost of
his treatment by selling his story to the papers, more if he
wrote a book about his experiences. The article went on
to say that the Piano man was now back with his family
in Prosdorf, Bavaria. The family home was surrounded by
reporters who were tracking his every move. Two years
later, the Piano Man has yet to sell his story or publish a
book. It is likely that the press no longer surround the
Grassl residence.
Surprisingly Dr Stoat did not accuse the Piano Man of
blocking the very bed that Liz Brown needed to stay alive
though the fact that he started to speak just two days after
she was found dead on the floor in her flatlet suggests that
someone may have informed him of this fact in an attempt
to make him talk. He certainly understood English well
enough. The fact that he ‘knew what was going on all the
time’, would have been enough to enrage the spiteful
gossips that try to control the staff that work for the
Dartford and Gravesham mental health service. Certainly
one member of staff saw fit to discredit Andrass Grassl in
the daily papers of Tuesday 23rd August 2005. Whether
this was an individual or collective act I do not know.
Certainly Dr Stoat appeared to pick up on the suspicion
cast on Andreas Grassl , whether he was egged on by the
press or was directly in touch with Little Brook staff does
not matter much. It is hard to dislike Dr Stoat. When he
has been asked to speak on the news he presents a
reassuring character.
Though Andrew had left by early summer, the upstairs
neighbours were still playing up. Then new resident who
proved too ill for supported housing began taking up
MIND resources. She fell down the stairs contracted
MRSA while in hospital and was moved to another house
where mind staff doted on her despite the fact she had an
able bodied and supportive family which Liz did not. She
moved back shortly before Liz died, playing the same
record over and over again until a ground floor flat
became available, which it did when Liz died. Just
because no-one noticed her illness entering another acute
stage for what must have been at least some weeks may
imply neglect but who could say that if that neglect was
wilful? After Liz died the staff expressed a wish to destroy
her diaries. I thought this was insensitive and suspicious.
Perhaps Liz documented the abuse she had to endure. I
was told that her friend Ann-Marie had taken her diaries,
along with her artwork, by a social worker. The fact that
the drain to the bath in Liz’s old flat has been blocked with
what looks suspiciously like ashes may be just a
coincidence. But Natalie and Deirdre’s comments on
entering her Liz’s flat just added to my misgiving. Natalie
looked at the wall storage unit, full of Liz’s art and craft
materials books diaries photographs image bank and art
and craft work, and said ‘Call that work?’. The Deirdre
made some comment about Liz having ‘had her fun’.
Deirdre described patient’s benefit as ‘owt for nowt‘.
Then there have been the everyday undermining
comments, the drop in the voice when mentioning an
achievement. If they were able to make such callous
remarks, they were probably capable of starting rumours.
I have had to suffer verbal abuse since I moved to Swanley
over fifteen years ago. Soon after I moved in one of the
residents, Linda, shouted in the hall, ‘I don’t want that
poof living here’. At ASDA’s the women at the cigarette
counter would point me out as a ‘poof’ to each other and
to customers. Soon the men who collect the trolleys were
in on the act as were some of the women at the tills. For
years I have had to suffer the taunts from not only from
some of the ASDA staff but from the customers they told.
Once I saw a red faced trolley collector tell the woman at
the till in Holland and Barrett’s that I was a ‘poof’. And
so the rumour spread. Soon I could not go shopping
without someone pointing the finger. The next door
neighbours the street sweeper the dustmen were all
verbally abusive. I could not step outside the door for fear
of verbal abuse from neighbours or residents visitors.
When Becky was moving into flat 6 I heard her sister and
some other people one of whom I now to be her sister
talking outside the kitchen window of flat 2 where I was
then living; ‘Shall we ask him to help us’ said one, ‘No
he’s a poof, the woman said’ said Becky’s sister. Some of
Becky’s visitors were rowdy. One of them said as they left
the house outside the same window,’ The best thing he
can do is move out of here’; a remark that I felt was aimed
at me. One visitor was shouting up at Becky’s window
one morning at six o clock in the morning;’ I can visit here
any time I want’.
I believe it was the same fellow who later called me a
poof in the car park by the doctor’s surgeries in Swanley.
We exchanged words but I walked away. I ran into him
outside the doctor’s surgery, he was with two women; one
who I think may be his partner outside the cedars surgery.
I took refuge in the surgery and when he followed me in I
threatened him with the police. ‘If you call the police I’ll
kill you he said. I asked the receptionist to call the police
and the fellow walked away. I don’t think that was the
start of the verbal abuse at the Cedars surgery, I think the
typist at the back of the receptionists work place was
already mouthing the word poof at me. After this incident
I was met by more hostility by not only the typist but also
by an office worker who is quite short and has quite long
dark hair. Here are some of the homophobic taunts I have
had to endure over the years.
‘What’s he doing here?’
‘He won’t get another appointment’.
On one occasion a receptionist asked me point blank' Why
do you sleep with men’ On another a patient asked’
What’s wrong with him?’ ‘He’s a poof’ replied the short
receptionist. On another occasion the same receptionist
said that I looked like I had AIDS. You can imagine how
terrifying it is to be singled out as gay in a surgery that
serves a parish that recently voted a British Movement
candidate onto the council, in a town with a strong equally
homophobic catholic and gypsy presence. Not all are
homophobic but some are. I informed Dr Williams about
bullying she said to contact social services. I told Dr
Williams recently that the receptionists had had ‘a pop’ at
me a few times I wonder if this was the reason for the
phone not working incident.
It may be that the staff manager will not take any
complaint from me seriously as I have a history of mental
illness but will be more willing to listen to a health
worker. The staff involved are unlikely to admit verbal
abuse and it is likely that they will cover in any case as if
there is a question of harm as a result, the practise will not
want to be held responsible. I had heard two of the MIND
staff tell visitors I was a ‘poof’. First Jill told a visitor.
Then just before it was decided that Andrew was to install
decking in the garden, Deirdre had said the same thing to
a landscape gardener who was giving an estimate for the
work. If one of the MIND housing staff told Becky’s sister
I was gay perhaps their malicious gossip and
incompetence was inspired by the fact that they the MIND
staff have admitted to claiming for a service that they are
not providing leaving patients at risk. This may account
for the verbal bullying I have also had to endure.
A fellow with an ulcer on his leg and another fellow
who carried a clear polythene carrier bag full of scraps of
paper were harassing people in the high street. They were
seen drinking on the bench by the railway bridge, and
outside the citizen’s advice. One day they turned up on
my doorstep demanding ‘help’ with the same menacing
attitude they used to accost passers-by in the high street.
At first I wanted to help them and I agreed that they could
wait in the house while I phoned the office to see if they
would send someone to see these two street drinkers.
When they started to make their way to the house I
realised that I had fallen for their intimidation and I told
them if they did not leave I would call the police, they left
angrily. When I saw the fellow with the leg ulcer again he
shouted at me calling me names in a threatening way.
After Tom retired a new gardener/handyman turned
up. After filling our wheely bins with Dartford MIND
office waste he turned up making homophobic remarks to
a female resident. He then went on to call me a poof in
front of an elderly stranger when clearing the snow. On
another occasion he turned up at the weekend and told his
12 year old daughter that I was gay. More recently he said
to another resident that he can’t wait until that poof dies’.
I suspect that his mind has been poisoned by the same staff
who wanted to destroy Liz’s diaries, and want to divert
attention away from that fact.
I caught the bus to the Bluewater shopping centre the
other side of Dartford from Swanley. A fellow who used
to work for MIND and left to become a member of the
local council was talking to a companion. He pointed me
out saying that I was quite a worker in my day, but now
they say I have got AIDS. Then he said something that I
thought might point to the source of the rumour. ‘You
were nothing if you did not work in those days’. It seemed
that he was saying that in case I had heard him gossip. But
it was also a phrase I had told to one of the MIND housing
officers when I was describing what it was like in parts of
America with a strong work ethic. Perhaps it was nothing
but the rumour was being circulated by the local gossips.
This talk worried me enough to have an HIV test more
than once because, even though I had not practiced risk
taking behaviour, I worried that someone had somehow
contaminated me.
Liz’s anorexia was not just a media fuelled obsession,
centred on achieving the ‘perfect look’, in relation to her
weight. Her illness was also triggered by and a reaction to
bullying by people who thought they have a right to
interfere in her life by using her as an emotional punch
bag when they could not get their own way. Andrew
would leave sharp objects about, Linda’s boyfriend would
turn up the television knowing that he was tormenting Liz.
Deirdre wants to assert herself and prove she is in charge,
because that way she can hide her incompetence. There
are mitigating circumstances. Or at least reasons for this
trio’s cowardly behaviour. Andrew was afraid of losing
custody of his children. Linda’s boyfriend may have been
ill, reports vary. Deirdre along with the rest of MIND staff
are given an impossible job, by a health authority that has
a limited mental health budget, as do the social services,
housing association and local authorities. These agencies
all delegate work to MIND that they are not trained to do.
But there is no excuse for bullying.
Recently a resident was terrorised by an ex-boyfriend who
entered her flat by breaking in by breaking a large double
glazed downstairs window. It was left to another female
resident to call the police and handle the situation. To
claim even a small amount of funding MIND have had to
agree to take younger residents on short term leases.
MIND cannot provide rehabilitation for these residents
and in any case the residents sent here now are more likely
to have issues with drink or drugs, whereas in the past this
problem was kept out of the housing project by previous
staff who were able to stand up to both the social services
who knowingly send patients with drink or drug
problems. They also send patients with dysfunctional
families without warning MIND of this potential cause of
disruption in the housing project. But there is no excuse
for spreading malicious rumours. Perhaps ‘the lady’ who
Becky’s sister referred to was trying to distract attention
from the events that occurred during the summer of 2005.
If MIND staff has to sink to this level then it is
indicative of their incompetence. If MIND staff continue
to be expected to look after the patients that need a higher
level of support than they can provide there will be more
disruption at the expense of the well behaved residents. If
MIND resort to bullying then they should not be surprised
when residents become resentful. The fact that MIND
staff wanted to destroy Liz’s diaries is suspicious but also
suggests she may have documented the bullying she had
to endure from not only residents but possibly the staff
and local bigots. Because of her slight build and frailty Liz
usually went out accompanied by one of her friends or a
social worker. I still wonder how much of my version of
events coincided with Liz’s account in her diaries and if
Ann Marie, her friend, was really given her diaries to look
after.
It is one thing to identify a need, another to find a solution.
MIND have a habit of telling the patient what they think
they need rather than asking them. I believe this has had
disastrous consequences and was a contributory factor in
Liz’s decision to starve herself to death. I believe that is
why the staff were keen to destroy her diaries.
What is more MIND have failed to learn lessons from the
past. But it is not enough to just blame MIND. We have
to question the government’s policy of transferring the
responsibility for care in the community from NHS
professional resources to the charities. In North West
Kent day hospitals and day centres were closed down,
leaving patients vulnerable in the community, with no
place of safety during the day.
The ghettoization of the mentally ill and drug users occurs
in the hostels, on the wards, and on the street. Liz was
aware of and frightened by this. Older residents have
usually spent years on the psychiatric ward and are often
suffering from the effects of toxic treatment besides their
illness. We are only allowed to earn £20 a week before it
affects benefit but we are allowed to work as many hours
as we want as long as we want. Liz was devoted to her art,
but the local art therapy departments had been shut down.
The short term saving achieved by closing day resources
may cost more in both financial and humanitarian terms
in the long run.