NHS pole dance scandal

The NHS has helped a mental health patient get a job as a pole dancer at a London strip club.

The woman took the job at Spearmint Rhino as part of a programme to help vulnerable people regain their independence and confidence.

Her career as a stripper came to light at a European conference on mental health nursing in a speech by Dr Rachel Perkins, clinical director of adult mental health services and a consultant clinical psychologist at the South West London and St George's Mental Health Trust.

She told the delegates how the User Employment Programme, which she founded nine years ago, had helped her patient secure a job as a pole dancer at a gentleman's club". She added that although many of her staff had misgivings about that line of work, it was what the patient wanted and so she had been fully supportive.

"The team has helped her to do it and she is now working at a Spearmint Rhino club. I am not too keen on it, but it is what she wanted to do," she told the Dublin conference .

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