Care Homes Owned by Rethink Mental Illness in West Midlands

I stayed at Victoria Court after I came out of hospital. I found the staff very helpful and friendly. They did all they could to help me settle into my new flat and encouraged me to find employment and to go back into the community. The only fault I have is that their resources are limited and so they could not always do as much as they would like, but this of course is not their fault.

I recently spent a couple of weeks at Victoria Court and the experience left me highly dissatisfied. I was sent here after being discharged from the hospital as I was homeless at the time. I expected staff to work with me to help me explore my options to move forward, however, there was little support in place. During my stay here, I had a couple of experiences that were completely unacceptable: Due to not having any money and being refused universal credit, I was unable to purchase food or top-up for my phone. Once the staff learned that I had told a relative about not getting enough to eat, I was approached by a member of staff who was very irritated and told me that I "need to stop telling people". After this, I was banned from borrowing the office phone, even to make urgent calls to my GP and welfare rights officer. The way I was treated was so bad I was forced to leave immediately, causing me to be homeless. There is a couple of nice staff, my main issue is with 2 individuals.