I attended the Collective Voice event in Manchester in October and was really pleased to be able to contribute to such a big event. As the parent of a young man with mental health problems, I am part of many groups where I speak about my experiences and am grateful for the chance to contribute to bigger objectives for the whole region. My son was diagnosed as having bipolar at 11yrs old which was re-diagnosed as schizo-affective disorder by 13yrs. It took until this time for him to get an official diagnosis of Autism aswell but we'd known for years. He was sectioned and admitted to a childrens specialist unit (McGuinness Unit) at Prestwich. This was a very difficult time for him and also for me as his mum.
He is currently on section at Guild Lodge medium secure unit in Preston. He has been there for 7 months and his section is due to be extended. He is supposed to have access to a new activity every week so he asked 3 weeks ago if he could go to the community centre on site and was told he would be accompanied for half an hour every Saturday and Sunday. He has not been once yet because for the first 2 weeks it was not written up and most recently there has been no one to take him. That is really hard for him to understand. As someone with Autism (and significant mental health problems) when he is told that he can do something it is important that he then can. The staff do not seem to understand how much this could disrupt and upset him. He was told he could access certain aspects of the OT support but has now been told by the Aspergers group that these activities are not age-appropriate.
One positive thing I have to mention is that the Aspergers centre in Sheffield have told my son that he can visit the Lonsdale unit to get used to the staff and ward. This should mean that moves are much more smooth and that the massive change he has to get used to when he has a tranisition is made more manageable for him.
I feel that staff try their best to communicate with him in his way but as it's so secure, its difficult. He is very much an individual and has his own way of expressing what he needs and wants. A more specialised unit like St Andrews in Birmingham might have been able to dedicate a little more time to understanding him but it would have cost a lot of money for him to go there and it was just too much for us.
The unit he is on now cope very well with his mental health issues, they have stabilised him for the first time in 10 years which is great. This is because they are so highly specialised in mental health. But this isn't entirely positive because it feels like they do not manage his learning difficulties so well. Individuals have cared for him better than others I'd say.
I am looking forward to his move to the Lonsdale unit and I am optimistic about what they will be able to do for him. I would like staff to take him out more often and involve him in a variety of activities - which I know is difficult but is so important.
Staff seem to have listened to us much more now than they ever did before he was sectioned - it feels like everything in mental health is reactive rather than preventative. It took 13yrs for him to have a conclusive diagnosis but I think more could have been done to help him and prevent distress in the years leading up to this. I feel like if people had worked preventatively and proactively with my son he'd have had a better quality of life and we'd have avoided him going into hospital and being sectioned. At one point servicers were 'arguing' over who should be responsible for his care - learning difficulties or mental health. I was so worried that he would end up with no sufficient care. Could there not be a better way of working together to provide consistent, good quality care?
I got in touch with Lancashire Care NHS Trust's CE many years ago who I was very impressed with. He organised for a representative to chair meetings between LD and mental health care c-ordinators to help make the transition between child and adult mental health servies more smooth. I have heard so many times of there being a real gap between the two. In the mean time, my son became ill and was admitted so we had no time to plan his admission properly.
I attend carers contact meetings in Burnley and I'm on the carers mental health panel and the LIT. I want to be as involved in his care as I can be.
Overall, his care has been good but inconsistent. Sometimes he has been very well cared for and sometimes not. I have a carer who supports my son and while she has very little qualifications in mental health, no one has ever cared for him in the way she could. It proves to me that looking after someone well isn't about your qualifications or even your experience, it is about being person-centered and motivated to make their life better no matter who they are.
Everyone is different, and that is true of people with mental health problems or learning difficulties as well as those without. Care should always be person-centered.
I will continue to be involved with Collective Voice and I will be interested in seeing how what we are all saying at these events is used.
"Not everyone with SchizoAffective Disorder is the same"
About: Collective Voice: North West Standing Conference Collective Voice: North West Standing Conference Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust / Adult mental health Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust Adult mental health PR5 6AW
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