Since its foundation 150 years ago, Broadmoor Hospital has fascinated the public and the media, but there are many misconceptions about what it does and the patients it is responsible for.
Now for the first time it has opened its doors to a TV camera crew, giving unprecedented insight into its patients and the work that is carried out to treat and rehabilitate them.
Broadmoor, the wordl ‘s most notorious high secure psychiatric hospital .
home to some of the country’s infamous offenders
for the furist time an after years of negoation broadmoor has allowed our cameras in to meet its patients and shoe what really goes on behind these walls.
men are sent to broadmoore because they’re suffering from serious mental disorders,
and many have committed vilent crimes ,they are considered too dangerous to be treated anywhere else.
many think the broadmoor is simply the dumping ground for society’s most notorious crminals . a final destination.
with no hope of return.
broadmoore is home to two hundred men each carefully assigned to one of 50 wards ,depending on their mental state.
patients identities have been protected atthe hospital´s request.
cranfield is the intensive care ward for the hospital’s most acutely mentally patients.
meal slide in to the patient on the floor.
the man here are unpredictable and violent and the simple act of serving meals has to be carefully tailored to the indiviudal.
one of the biggest misconceptions,is that those have severe metntal illness, or those end up in a place like brod moore are kind of destined to be unwell forever or to be risky forever and that simply isn´t true the mental disorders that s been treat are wery amenable to treatment.
its hard to believet that men locked up like caged tigers and only allowed out one by one can ever. progress.
but each ward in broadmoore is ta staging post to their recovery.
breakfast time on epson a high risk dependency ward.
the risk here is is a little lower.
patient here are allowed out to assiciate with each other , with plenty of staff and attendants.
Lianne McGees the hospital’s dirctor whenever she can ,shecomes backt to the floor.
“i think i there’s a different between being mentally ill and not being mentally ill and i think if you’re mentally ill and you done something that perhaps your are not in full control of the time you certainly society owes you a break and and i think everybody deserve to have a little bit of hope. if yhoou have no hope ,you just gonna give up.”
– hospital’s dirctor ,broadmoore hospital.
Once the risk of violence to themselves or others has been reduced
a patient can movet o the greater freedom of an assertive Rehab ward
adam has been on canterby ward for past four years before that he spent nine years in broadmoore in a high depencdeny ward.
a bed , a stereo
a TV.
a six foot by three foot room
a toilet
the only problem having the toilet in there is they ‘ve also gout their wardrobe in there.
convicted of arson he was seven years into a life sentence in prison when his self- harm became so acute he was was moved to broadmoor.
adams broadmoor jorney has been long with many setbacks. but the end is finally in sight. he’s to be allowed out on trial leave to a medium secure unite. 30 miles away.
the constant tooing and throwing up patients on this ward.can make you forget your in broadmoor.but there’s always the reminder ,that this is a high security for men capable of violence
when patients taken in turns to cook carful account has to be kept of every day houshold items.
especially those that could be used as weapons.
dylan is 49 ,it’s his second time in bradmoor, dylan was in care from the age of 7 to 18 as an adult he became a homeless alcoholic.
dylans psychiatrist iscurrently assessing whether he’s sufficently recovered for release from broadmoore.
moving on from broadmoor is a slow process,birthdays come and go with no set days for release.
broadmoor has 800 staff many have been here for years, despite the daily risk of a sort. it may be a hopsital but staff here have to have specialized training and equpment to deal with anything from enforcing medications to managing for scale riots.
it’s unusual training for nursing staff.
this team is deployed around 30 times a year.
administering medication and disarming patient’s with weapons
not everyone in broadmoor is directly violant but their behavior can nonetheless cause grave risk to others.
anthony has been on an admissions ward for five months.he’s at the start of his broadmoor journey.its arson that has led to anthony’s incarceration in broadmoor. his mental health became to deteriorate at university when he’s was 19 , started to eat a lot of amounts of cannabis .
sent to a medium secure psychiatric unit he again began psychotic and started a fire there , brought him to bradmoor.
he’s previously been on prevfentive anti-psychotic medication and now his psychiatrist wants him back on it. anthony’s refusing to go back on medication, his doctor saying that if he doesn’t get medicated and he never get out
many of the patients here have a history of substance abuse often linked to their mental illness, therapy aims to give them the skills to resist temptation.
therapy aims to give them the skills to resist temptation
42 years old michael is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia ,he hears voices while medication has diminished micheals voices it hasn’t eradicated them .
mukhtar ha been in broadmoor for two years,it’s been the most stable period of his life so far.he has never seen his mom, she suppsed to be in America. he has tried to find her . he doesnt even know her full name.
mukhar run away from foster care when he was 16 and become involved in street gangs and stared selling drugs. he didn’trealize he was also becoming mentally ill.
a rival gang warned him off their territory mukhtar says his drug supplier gave him a gun and told him to deal with it. armed with a gun mukhtar returned to the estate.
found guilty of manslaughter muhktar was sent to boradmoor under a hospital order .
mohktar is focusing on his recovery and hopes to go to university ,someday.
like everything in broadmoor getting in and out takes time and follows a strict protocol
adam has been out to visit medium secure unit ,he’s hoping to move to within the next couple of weeks.
adam has been here for 13 years.he thought he was leaving in a week , now it could be months.its a big disappointment.its a big disappointment.
it wasn’t a good day for adam , he got more depressed , he ended up screaming, shouting,crying , normally he’ll get up pick the bits up and do something with that , but he didnt do it this time.meaning he use the bits to hurt himself.but he didnt’ self- harm.
if adam does self harm he’ll jeopardize his chances of transfer out of broadmoor.
In broadmoore staff rely on knowing their patients well enough to be aware of what’s going on in their heads , they call it relational security.
this patient believes the hospital is trying to poison him.
they way out of broadmoor is usually along a winding road that eventually leads to a regional secure unit or RSU .
they’re found in towns up and down the country.
simon has been moving between high and medium dependency walls with in broadmoor for some years.
a few weeks later , simon attacked a nurse on his medium dependency ward.he’s due to return to high dependency .it’s a step bckwards.
tey’re collecting simon from the seclusion area in schepstow ward where he’s been kept since the incident.
he’s threatened to attack more staff and needs the restrictive regime of a high dependency ward.
it’s a walkingthrough 10 locked doors to move him to another ward in the same building.
get him back in the structure,restarting on his medication,get him stablizied again .
for many of broamoor patients the stability to be found in a strict routine of an institution
it may also be the first time,they’ve been looked after.had regular meals and consistent interaction with others.
Dylan was a homeless alcoholic for years and ended up living in a forest foraging for food.he’s been on an assertive rehab ward for four years. he’s hoping his psychiatrist will let him move on .
adam still waiting for a date for his transfer to a medium secure unit.
anthony continues to question his need for medication.
“i think one of the bigest cruetees of mental health conditions like psychosis is that often the first thing that will disappear is that understanding that your own behavior and your own thoughts are actualy being impacted upon by your mental health.”
adam got the news he’s been waiting for,his bed in the medium secure unit is finally available.
it’s his final evening and time for a last movie with his mate. he has to stay out in the corridor.
anthony’s condition had been stable but a few days ago he was forcibly medicated following an incident on the ward, when he refused to return to his room and threw himself on the floor singing prayers.
his brother and his solicitors are attending a meeting to discuss his care.
his lack of cooperation is likely to prolong his time in broadmoor.
after a second pychotic episode anthony started taking medication,he’s been allowed to move to an assertive rehab ward
following his psychiatrist recommendation that he be kept in less secure condition dylan is going to a mental health tribunal to see if they will agree.
dylan is going to a mental health tribunal to see if they will agree.
unusually the tribunal is over wuickly and with everyone ina greement
adam is finally leaving broadmoor and the hospital director has come to say goodby.
adam is now on trial leave from hopsital , in the event of an incident , he could be recalled at any time .
this has been the first and quite possibly the last chance to see inside boradmoor hospital in its current form. the lives of todays patients will continue nearby where a new hospital is under construction.
these old victorian buildings
have witnessed the troubled lives of so many over over boardmoore’s 150 year history now there’s talk of turning them into a hotel.