I came across 'Nurse with Glasses' a while ago on Twitter. Now she has started a blog. I like this post 'Twenty Commandments for Mental Health Workers'. I wish there had been something about investigating alternative treatments to medication - but I guess that is beyond her remit just now. Good stuff though, Nurse with Glasses.
Here's the link:
http://20commandments.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/20-commandments-for-mental-health.html#comment-form
Very, very good points. I met some truly excellent mental health nurses during my son's hospitalisation. In fact they had much better insight into what was going on than some of the doctors who were hampered by theories taught at medical school.Some treated their patients as equals who had just had a breakdown that's all! I met the other sort too: those who were hiding in the nurses station and started running when they saw me coming; those who hid behind the privacy laws and papers to fill. I met also those who felt terrible about force-feeding drugs to my son on doctor's orders when it was obvious that these drugs were harming him more than doing any good. I felt sorry for them and thought that I could never be a nurse and act against my own conscience.
ReplyDeleteYes it must be hard, yet so many jobs seem to involve acting against ones conscience! So many people must compromise their integrity on a daily basis. Now that I have one foot tentatively in the workplace and one still out I can see more clearly than ever the advantages of the freedom I have had for so many years.
ReplyDeleteI hope your son is keeping well. I was thinking about him this morning for some reason when I was doing the washing up (!) and thinking how hard it must be for him, wanting to get away from the system and yet having them always wanting to check up on him. I thought that if he had a worker (CPN or whatever) who could relate to him and properly understand what he had been through, it might actually help. I know that it is a lottery as to what sort of nurse he would get though, and I do understand him wanting to get away from the system entirely.
Anyway, I want to make a quick post for today, then bath my boys and get them to bed. We have had good weather here today, so we have been out for a long walk with the dog and done some gardening; now they are lovely and grubby and tired!
All the best, Louise
Thankfully my son has really started moving on lately. I hope doctors will be too busy with the changes in the NHS and will leave him alone. His CPN was a right pain. She believed in the "mental illness" malarkey. She didn't like me because I was contradicting her. She was taking him out and used the opportunity to work on him behind my back, telling him that he was suffering from a lifelong illness and that he was bound to have relapses and that he will have to go then back into hospital to be put back on medication. My son had come off it without permission.
DeleteI am really glad that your son is continuing to get better. Such a shame about the CPN. The 'care' was the same at the day hospital I went to; I bought into their view of me and was on Risperidone for several years. Luckily I was on a low dose of the stuff and so hopefully any harm it did me was minimalised. I will be thinking of you both. All the best, Louise
ReplyDelete