A powerful true story of survival, injustice and determination, Escape from Moss Park Mental Hospital lifts the lid on one man’s harrowing experience inside the UK mental health system.
Synopsis
I was a voluntary patient at Moss Park Mental Hospital, but they sectioned me. They should not have done that. I should have been free to come and go as I pleased. When my wife, Diane, died, it tipped me into a breakdown; my third one.
Unable to get a doctor to refer me, I went to Moss Park Mental Hospital and banged on the door. Eventually they let me in but they didn’t keep me. They transferred me to Scarborough where I was sectioned. They moved me six times, ending back in York. I was doing well so they allowed me out on unescorted leave. On one of these leaves I obtained an emergency passport. I made no secret of the fact that I wanted to find my Swiss family.
On another unescorted leave, I caught the bus to the railway station, then a train to Manchester Airport and finally a plane to Zurich. The hospital were looking for me. They found me on the plane out to Zurich but were too late to stop me.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find my Swiss family. I found the church where I thought they would have gone to worship, but there was no sign of them.
I caught the plane back to Manchester, where two policemen met me on arrival and took me back to Foss Park. I was back to square one. Or was I? I had done what most people would think was impossible, and escaped from a high security mental hospital. Five weeks later, they released me.
They treated me very badly in hospital. I was abused both mentally and physically. I rang 999 five times to report the abuse but as soon as the police realised I was talking from a mental hospital they put the phone down. I rang 111 fourteen times with the same results.
After being sectioned against his will, Paul Studer defied the odds, and the authorities, to reclaim his freedom in a daring journey that took him all the way to Switzerland. Raw, courageous and deeply personal, this memoir exposes the cracks in a system meant to heal.
