142 Chapter 7 Table 3: [continued] Family R: You know, the social worker doesn’t know that either, I shield him a bit. When she calls me again to ask, “Is your father home?” Then I usually say, “I don’t know.” While I do know that he is at home. Family member choosing not to inform professional Those are difficult moments, when another new doctor temporarily takes up the case. Those files are very bulky, so you can’t expect someone to master that file completely at once either. But it’s hopeless for family members, let alone patients, to explain every time what happened and where you came from. And it was very pleasant that his psychiatrist remained a stable factor [for years]. On having to inform professionals new to the case again Professionals You know, that man who lies in bed so much and talks little. His sister said, he loves to read, ask him to read something to you. And that was a very good tip. Because you get him talking, and he gets out of bed. Yeah, so that was kind of nice. Professional gets informed by family member Once, I treated a man at my ward, put him on medication and he went home and after a week he stopped taking his pills. “Why did you stop”, I asked? He said: “Well my mother said, why did you take those pills.” Then I thought: “I messed up! Didn’t involve family, gave them no psycho-education.” Professional learned how not informing family impacted outcome He also doesn’t dare tell his family what exactly he is afraid of. He doesn’t want people to worry too much about him. So I think it is important he has a place with me to be honest about his fears. Knowing that person with severe mental illness does not inform family 2.3 Agency to change Persons with severe mental illness R: Then, I got that mania. And now I am unable to manage my classes, because I am unable to concentrate. So I discuss this with my mental health practitioner: “Can we taper off my medication a little quicker than we agreed?” [...] And I don’t bother when she says: “no, that’s not wise, take it easy.” Then I say: “okay”, so it becomes a bit of a consultation. Person with severe mental illness heeding advice of mental health practitioner Family So he went missing and I spent a year and a half looking for him. Finally, I managed to find him again far away abroad, and managed to arrange for him to fly back. Family member going great lengths to get person with severe mental illness home R: One time I did like was when the nurse at the ward said to her: “Mrs. D, you should pour your brother coffee”. And my sister immediately took to the task. She had never done that before, pouring coffee for us and stuff. And that’s nice because this nurse really helped the contact by suggesting that. Family member on the help that a nurse provided to facilitate contact [continued on next page]
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