NURSING

16
and to get changed.
We meet up after the game
for a chat and I get to catch up
with the youngest member of the
group, – a beautiful six-month-old
daughter of one of the players.
His girlfriend comes and
supports the group and we get to
take turns to hold the baby.
I reflect it was just over two
years ago that life was very
different for this couple and it is
amazing how nursing can make a
difference with hope, medication
and a plan that can change lives.
We all say our goodbyes and as
I leave I hear people making plans
to catch up over the weekend,
which always pleases me greatly
as that is the whole point of the
group.
Mental illness can be lonely and
friendships often bring fun, hope
and engagement with a form of
reality that is not as scary as it
can be at times.
It also gives me a chance to
spend some time with some of
the service users to discuss the
next few months at the university.
The discussions on the way
home are filled with highlights of
the football, plans for the next few
weeks and, of course, the English
weather.
By 5pm my legs are tired,
which means it’s beer o’clock!
MHN
Name:
Janice Dunn
Role/setting:
Senior nurse, recovery team,
London
‘‘
She says
she wants
to thank
me for
being there
at such an
important
time
’’
I have been nursing now for about
20 years, all of that in London,
and mostly in community mental
health settings.
I often have to deal with
traumatic home situations
whereby a mental health condition
innately changes something within
a family context.
There have been lots of tears,
but thankfully also loads of fun,
and I hope many experiences
where patients and carers are
able to remember something
positive that came out of a crisis.
It is the late evening. My
daughter has come to meet me at
a local bus stop on my way home
from work. After the usual chatter
over kisses and cuddles, a lady
comes up and puts her hand on
my shoulder. She seems vaguely
familiar and this becomes clearer
as we speak.
She introduces herself,
explaining that I had nursed her
son through his first psychotic
episode about 10 years ago.
She talks about his life now
being difficult. He lives in a
supported project and has been
in hospital many times over the
years.
He has three siblings and they
appear to have been able to fulfil
a lot of Mum’s dreams.
She apologises for interrupting
us, but says she wants to say
hello and thank me for being there
at such an important time.
She says she can see the
closeness of my relationship
with my daughter as we met up
just now, and that she clearly
remembers the caring nature of
my time with her son.
We sit there for a bit as she
talks about her loneliness over his
illness, and how it has not only
affected him but also the rest of
the family.
She describes how she tends
to not have many friends now,
and has become socially isolated
herself. She feels unsure about
the impacts such an illness may
have on any new relationships she
would have.
I remind her that she
has managed to start this
conversation today, and how she
is socially able to talk with others.
What she says next profoundly
affects me. She describes how I
stood out as a practitioner.
She explains that nurses
don’t spend enough time with
the ‘problem’ and that they are
now too concerned about too
many things to give the patient
enough space for it to be really
meaningful.
She tells my daughter some
nice things about having such
a mother and our conversation
ends with a brief cuddle.
As we walk into a supermarket
my daughter reminds me about
all those times when I would
come home from work at such
crazy times in the evening/night
and feeling totally drained, yet I
never discussed the situations I
was involved with.
We reflect about how an
individual can do that, year after
year. She says it is only after all
these years that she recognises
that the nurse is probably not
someone who is taught how to
care, but someone who is taught
what to do with their caring
nature. MHN
Name:
George Coxon
Role/setting:
Owner, care home
for older people
‘‘
The role
is multilayered,
varied and
diverse – in
the nicest
possible
way
’’
The work of a mental health
nurse is multi-layered, varied and
diverse – and never more so than
when making the transition from
a traditional mental health nursing
role in an NHS setting to a social
care one.
Although having full
responsibility for the care of our
16 residents at Pottles Court
near Exeter, who are mostly
living with advancing dementia