Access to Records
Single words leapt out of the pages of my medical records like lobbed concussion grenades, words such as ‘obsessional’, ‘fixated’, ‘risk’ and ‘stalking’ aimed squarely at me. There were other words that I skimmed across, barbed arrows of accusation, fletched with my name, nocked and ready. I was somewhere between dumb-founded and shellshocked.
15th June, 2022 My access to records request was my concerted effort to bring order to chaos, to find explanations and honest answers to a slew of perplexing questions. I made my first request to the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust on the 25th April, 2022 but was immediately informed that they intended taking a full three months to disclose medical records due to the ‘complexity’ of my request! I protested. My request for access to records held by Southern Health NHS Foundation was sent later on the 26th May, 2022 ( I hadn’t properly understood at the time that CAMHS, Bramblys Drive and CMHT, New Road were administered by two separate NHS Trusts ). Medical records held by Southern Health were disclosed by MOD administrator Jan Knapp by 7.57 on the morning of the 15th June, 2022, less than 3 weeks following my original formal request. My protest at the expected 3 MONTH turnaround of access to records held by the Sussex Partnership was answered by Katie Rees, Head of Information Governance & Health Records. Katie apologized on the 19th May explaining that my request ‘was previously misinterpreted’ and again on the 7th June citing a ‘lot of IT issues’ causing a delay.
There were 62 ‘records returned’ in the first 23 pages extracted from the electronic patient record system ‘RiO’ held by Southern Health. Those records, partially redacted, revealed that which I had long suspected, namely a conspiracy, a very real unison of Machiavellian interpersonal manipulation and misrepresentation conducted in hushed tones and murmured whispers behind my back.
When I look back on the morning of the 15th June, 2022 I often think of myself as ‘shellshocked’, but that would be a misnomer. ‘Shellshock’ is the combat stress reaction suffered by soldiers during war, otherwise known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Nevertheless, the ‘shock’, or ‘sudden upsetting or surprising event or experience’ caused by the reading of my medical records was eerily familiar. I am reminded of the panic attacks that started immediately after my ‘art therapy’ sessions with Sally Mungall had ended in December, 2021 and which I alluded to in the earlier blog post ‘FOUR AND TWENTY DEAD CROWS # 13 Crisis peaked’. The sudden onset of intense fear, irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath, dizziness, confusion along with the sense of impending doom and loss of control, all symptoms of a panic attack feel excruciatingly similar to the causes of ‘shock’. While panic attacks can cause temporary spikes in blood pressure due to adrenaline and hyperventilation they usually lead to a sudden drop in blood pressure. ‘Shock’ also leads to a state of insufficient blood flow to the tissues of the body as a result of problems with the circulatory system caused by such events as loss of blood, severe burns, allergic reaction, or sudden emotional stress.
My own diagnosis of Complex post-traumatic stress disorder was later confirmed by a psychiatrist at CMHT The Bridge Centre. C-PTSD is a stress related mental disorder that occurs in response to prolonged or repetitive exposures to a series of traumatic events. The shock I felt at my first reading of those records was my paralysing amygdala response to one horrific event in a whole sequence of horrific events. It seems that there are risks associated with accessing medical records but the emotional pain, delivered like an unpalatable side-order to the main dish has to be accepted. I would NEVER forgo the opportunity to scrutinise my medical records while in search of the truth.
I had expected to find some reassurances that Sally Mungall had fought our corner, to read evidence of her defending her decision to arrange our meeting originally scheduled for the 3rd February, 2022 to review my art therapy drawings. What I found was appalling betrayal, lies and misrepresentation. I was heartbroken.
Those records showed that Sally Mungall, aided and abetted by clinical cohorts and leadership at CAMHS, Bramblys Drive, Basingstoke and the wider Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, intentionally and cynically decided to make a monster out of me. They crafted a false narrative, deceiving their professional counterparts in Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Teams and colleagues within the Community Mental Health Team at The Bridge Centre. That false narrative was made insidious by the corrupted chain of information transmission usually referred to as ‘Chinese Whispers’, the metaphor for cumulative error, especially the inaccuracies as rumours or gossip spread, or, more generally, for the unreliability of typical human recollection. Even my good reputation was ransacked before being presented to Hampshire Constabulary and being taken on face value by them.
By far and above, the worst revelation disclosed by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust was that my trust in Sally Mungall had been misgiven. Laid out in black and white, was the damning evidence that Sally had lied about me and lied to me, had actually lied to my face.
Trust is arguably the most essential component underlying the therapeutic relationship. Therapy equates to risk in the heart and mind of people who have been psychologically damaged. Those of us who have suffered from trauma are hypervigilant to danger and calculate risk in every aspect of life. We are the victims of emotional and or physical abuse or neglect, almost always experienced in childhood. We have likely been manipulated or gaslit, bullied and broken, controlled, judged, invalidated. Choosing to be vulnerable feels life threatening, sometimes existentially so. It was no easy thing to do, to trust Sally Mungall, to make myself vulnerable to her, to trust in the therapeutic relationship. Dishonouring that trust was the most destructive thing she could have done.
The really sad thing was that I didn’t want to believe that my trust had been dishonoured. It was a curious thing about my own psychopathology that I continued to defend Sally Mungall for another three months. I now acknowledge my cognitive dissonance but back in the early summer of 2022 I was still in the thrall of idealised transference.
It was CAMHS General Manager, Wanda Reynold to whom I turned next.
Wanda Reynolds had offered support following my meeting with her and Vicky Long on the 20th May, 2022. She wanted to ‘catch-up’ with me after I had read Sally Mungall’s ‘session notes’. In an email received by me on Monday 23rd May, 2022 Wanda Reynolds wrote
‘I hope your weekend has been ok. I wanted to check in on how you are since our meeting on Friday? I really appreciated your time and recognise just how distressed you are. I'm also mindful of how painful the records of your sessions that I have you may have been to read… Mark, I would value a brief email back to let me know how you are.’
At the time I figured that she was concerned about my welfare and worried about my mental state.
Wanda Reynolds was also aware that I was accessing my medical records held by both Southern Health and the Sussex Partnership. I remember a telephone conversation with Wanda Reynolds and her offer of continued support. She seemed particularly interested in my reaction to the information I was about to receive.
I should never have trusted Wanda Reynolds.
The next chapters of my blog, collected under the title 'A MURDER OF CONSPIRATORS’, will take into account events that transpired between the 15th June, 2022 and the 25th September, 2022.
I will be publishing the details of the most contentious revelations contained in the medical records disclosed first by Southern Health and then by the Sussex Partnership. I will also publish my ‘rebuttals’ to the fabrications and falsehoods propagated by ‘bad faith actors’. (‘Bad faith’ meaning the sustained form of deception which consists of entertaining or pretending to entertain one set of feelings while acting as if influenced by another.) I will lay out a compelling argument that those involved were intentionally deceiving others and that the self-interest of those clinicians evolved into a strategic plan of reputational management.
I will also publish the details of my formal complaints lodged with CAMHS, Bramblys Drive and with CMHT, New Road and track the evolution of my investigations. I will conclude by highlighting the inept handling and woeful outcome of those complaints which led to the intervention of Hampshire Constabulary.