Help
I'm a health professional working with people with psychosis and i have been reading some of the moving leads and stories. Sadly your stories are similar to many. I am so glad that rethink is focusing on siblings as we have been working hard to have them included as a voice. I get frustrated when i hear about patient confidentiality as an excuse for not interacting with service users and their support networks. It doesn't mean you can't discuss generic process, mental health information or instill hope. Luckily services are changing but for some it may come to late. We use sport to encourage the siblings of my serivce users to atend and we all interact with each other. It makes such a difference for everyone involved to share experiences, symptoms, social networks but most of all we have a laugh.
What has helped me to get a better understanding of mental illness and for siblings is to read case studies from those who have fisrt hand knowledge. I am lucky to work with a colleague who's brother has schizophrenia and this adds a new perspective on how we should work. There is also some great text books aimed at us health care professionals that i think are suitable for all to help provide guidance and understanding in mental illness. Reading your entries helps me professionally to try and do my job better and see the bigger picture. I would like to encourage you all to keep going and share your stories.
A generic piece of advice that i would like to share is the use of the Citizens Advice Bureau. They are a great service to help with benefits and housing issues. I would also recommend looking for your nearest carers or advocate service if appropiate.
Good luck to you all and you all do a fantastic job.
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making your voice heard
#1
Health professional 
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Posted 18 July 2011 - 02:57 PM
MultiQuote
#2
eyewashere
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Posted 20 July 2011 - 05:43 PM
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#4
Psychodelicious
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Posted 21 July 2011 - 01:12 PM
Hi Health Professional,
You say "Reading your entries helps me professionally to try and do my job better and see the bigger picture. I would like to encourage you all to keep going and share your stories" for which I would like to say thank you.
One of the biggest problems I have experienced in sessions with psychiatrists and psychologists is that there is an expectation for me to talk in language they understand. I tell them I can express myself better in songs, as I can add a lot more emotional colour to the words.
If you want to understand someone, you need to learn their language. I think that all mental health workers should be aware that language is always ambiguous, that it depends enormously on prosody. Bear in mind also that the psychiatric profession can't yet agree amongst themselves on the meanings and implications of many jargon words and phrases. Yet many of these people happily assume that verbal interchange - provided that it doesn't get too uh, expressive - is the way to communicate with the service user, who is probably having trouble trying to find words to describe and express their feelings anyway (because language is so ambiguous) and have been probably been misunderstood by an analyst before.
Why are so few MH professionals prepared to listen to self-analytical songs and spoken poetry? It is just another medium of expression, probably superior to speech alone. The suggestion has been dismissed out of hand every time. Why do we meet this objection to self-advocacy? Is it because you are taught to rely too much on visual clues?
While teaching accredited music courses to long-term MH service users I discovered that a musical performance holds many clues, particularly if you are aware of the person's relationship with the song they are singing. This is a good chance for me to plug some of my songs on this site. I would be interested to know what you think of the the idea of "musical advocacy"?
Good luck in your work
You say "Reading your entries helps me professionally to try and do my job better and see the bigger picture. I would like to encourage you all to keep going and share your stories" for which I would like to say thank you.
One of the biggest problems I have experienced in sessions with psychiatrists and psychologists is that there is an expectation for me to talk in language they understand. I tell them I can express myself better in songs, as I can add a lot more emotional colour to the words.
If you want to understand someone, you need to learn their language. I think that all mental health workers should be aware that language is always ambiguous, that it depends enormously on prosody. Bear in mind also that the psychiatric profession can't yet agree amongst themselves on the meanings and implications of many jargon words and phrases. Yet many of these people happily assume that verbal interchange - provided that it doesn't get too uh, expressive - is the way to communicate with the service user, who is probably having trouble trying to find words to describe and express their feelings anyway (because language is so ambiguous) and have been probably been misunderstood by an analyst before.
Why are so few MH professionals prepared to listen to self-analytical songs and spoken poetry? It is just another medium of expression, probably superior to speech alone. The suggestion has been dismissed out of hand every time. Why do we meet this objection to self-advocacy? Is it because you are taught to rely too much on visual clues?
While teaching accredited music courses to long-term MH service users I discovered that a musical performance holds many clues, particularly if you are aware of the person's relationship with the song they are singing. This is a good chance for me to plug some of my songs on this site. I would be interested to know what you think of the the idea of "musical advocacy"?
Good luck in your work
#5
Health professional
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Posted 25 July 2011 - 08:33 AM
Hi Psychodelicious,
What a great point you make. Words are often over used and more often misrepresented. Even writing this my brain is working over time to try and make it come across from within. I mentioned sport, but music , art, dance or ambitions are just so important in expression. I learn't from one of my young service users that to put his feelings and experience into words was too traumatic (and untherapeutic) for him. However, he focused on his music and he continues to do really well. There is some great work done by Cornwall early Intervention service by using drama to communicate psychosis and what its like. I think you can google it. Mental illness is so unique and indiviual that it often conflicts with the system design to help it. I cannot comment on other services but i value working in Early Intervention as we look at symptoms , not boxes to tick and are allowed time to get to know the people we care for. More importantly we see the person we care for as the expert and we are the facilitator to help them. I didn't always see like this mind you. I recommend the THORN training as a major turning point.
Good luck
What a great point you make. Words are often over used and more often misrepresented. Even writing this my brain is working over time to try and make it come across from within. I mentioned sport, but music , art, dance or ambitions are just so important in expression. I learn't from one of my young service users that to put his feelings and experience into words was too traumatic (and untherapeutic) for him. However, he focused on his music and he continues to do really well. There is some great work done by Cornwall early Intervention service by using drama to communicate psychosis and what its like. I think you can google it. Mental illness is so unique and indiviual that it often conflicts with the system design to help it. I cannot comment on other services but i value working in Early Intervention as we look at symptoms , not boxes to tick and are allowed time to get to know the people we care for. More importantly we see the person we care for as the expert and we are the facilitator to help them. I didn't always see like this mind you. I recommend the THORN training as a major turning point.
Good luck
#6
Psychodelicious
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Posted 25 July 2011 - 01:43 PM
Hi Health Professional,
Early intervention is incredibly important. It can bring insights which shape the way we think about ourselves and other people. Perhaps the biggest advantage is that you get to see people before their problems have changed them too much. You are in a position where you can practise preventative medicine and help people develop coping strategies early on.
However, I wouldn't count on the assumption that service users (or anyone else) are experts. Despite our having a unique knowledge of our symptoms and conditions with which we live, we can't always make sense of what is happening to us, as a lot of that comes only with hindsight.
The words we choose and our interpretations of intended meaning are often confusing. Also, the language we use when talking between ourselves and the language we use when talking to psychologists and analysts are very different. This "inside language" is comparable to the specialised jargon and silent signals MH professionals use amongst themselves.
For many people, mental health problems and the discrimination that goes with it are not things to be cured, but something we have to learn to cope with. Having MH professionals looking at what we are good at is just as important as having them looking at our problems. Music is a particularly useful medium for self-advocacy as it's easy to pass it off as entertainment. Otherwise intolerant people seem to accept this quite happily and sometimes say "hey, that's good, can I buy a cd?" That's a huge improvement over being told "don't talk about that now, take your meds, and don't cause any more trouble."
I would not always agree with the idea that systems are "designed to help" - sometimes it seems that MH services are designed to solve the government's problems and not those of the people it is supposed to be serving. How well it works depends very much on who is supplying the services and the ways in which they are allowed to do their work.
Hopefully you can find ways in your work to promote the positive aspects of peoples' lives as tools and coping strategies for improving their situations and to encourage others to give us recognition for what we are good at. We definitely need more MH workers who think like you and are willing to learn more about the people with the symptoms, our abilities and other peoples' inability to find us useful to society.
Love and luck,
Early intervention is incredibly important. It can bring insights which shape the way we think about ourselves and other people. Perhaps the biggest advantage is that you get to see people before their problems have changed them too much. You are in a position where you can practise preventative medicine and help people develop coping strategies early on.
However, I wouldn't count on the assumption that service users (or anyone else) are experts. Despite our having a unique knowledge of our symptoms and conditions with which we live, we can't always make sense of what is happening to us, as a lot of that comes only with hindsight.
The words we choose and our interpretations of intended meaning are often confusing. Also, the language we use when talking between ourselves and the language we use when talking to psychologists and analysts are very different. This "inside language" is comparable to the specialised jargon and silent signals MH professionals use amongst themselves.
For many people, mental health problems and the discrimination that goes with it are not things to be cured, but something we have to learn to cope with. Having MH professionals looking at what we are good at is just as important as having them looking at our problems. Music is a particularly useful medium for self-advocacy as it's easy to pass it off as entertainment. Otherwise intolerant people seem to accept this quite happily and sometimes say "hey, that's good, can I buy a cd?" That's a huge improvement over being told "don't talk about that now, take your meds, and don't cause any more trouble."
I would not always agree with the idea that systems are "designed to help" - sometimes it seems that MH services are designed to solve the government's problems and not those of the people it is supposed to be serving. How well it works depends very much on who is supplying the services and the ways in which they are allowed to do their work.
Hopefully you can find ways in your work to promote the positive aspects of peoples' lives as tools and coping strategies for improving their situations and to encourage others to give us recognition for what we are good at. We definitely need more MH workers who think like you and are willing to learn more about the people with the symptoms, our abilities and other peoples' inability to find us useful to society.
Love and luck,
#7
Olivia - Rethink
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Posted 13 December 2011 - 05:41 PM
Health professional, on 18 July 2011 - 02:57 PM, said:
I'm a health professional working with people with psychosis and i have been reading some of the moving leads and stories. Sadly your stories are similar to many. I am so glad that rethink is focusing on siblings as we have been working hard to have them included as a voice. I get frustrated when i hear about patient confidentiality as an excuse for not interacting with service users and their support networks. It doesn't mean you can't discuss generic process, mental health information or instill hope. Luckily services are changing but for some it may come to late. We use sport to encourage the siblings of my serivce users to atend and we all interact with each other. It makes such a difference for everyone involved to share experiences, symptoms, social networks but most of all we have a laugh.
What has helped me to get a better understanding of mental illness and for siblings is to read case studies from those who have fisrt hand knowledge. I am lucky to work with a colleague who's brother has schizophrenia and this adds a new perspective on how we should work. There is also some great text books aimed at us health care professionals that i think are suitable for all to help provide guidance and understanding in mental illness. Reading your entries helps me professionally to try and do my job better and see the bigger picture. I would like to encourage you all to keep going and share your stories.
A generic piece of advice that i would like to share is the use of the Citizens Advice Bureau. They are a great service to help with benefits and housing issues. I would also recommend looking for your nearest carers or advocate service if appropiate.
Good luck to you all and you all do a fantastic job.
What has helped me to get a better understanding of mental illness and for siblings is to read case studies from those who have fisrt hand knowledge. I am lucky to work with a colleague who's brother has schizophrenia and this adds a new perspective on how we should work. There is also some great text books aimed at us health care professionals that i think are suitable for all to help provide guidance and understanding in mental illness. Reading your entries helps me professionally to try and do my job better and see the bigger picture. I would like to encourage you all to keep going and share your stories.
A generic piece of advice that i would like to share is the use of the Citizens Advice Bureau. They are a great service to help with benefits and housing issues. I would also recommend looking for your nearest carers or advocate service if appropiate.
Good luck to you all and you all do a fantastic job.
Hi Health Professional,
Unfortunately I missed your messages when you previously came to the forum, but it's great to hear you are keen to also involve siblings in your work. I wanted to let you know that we are offering FREE workshops for siblings aged 14-18 and 19-25 which you may be interested in: www.rethink.org/siblingsworkshops
You can find out more in the professionals section of the siblings website.
There are lots of other ways we can help you to support siblings, for instance providing posters and leaflets for your workplace so that you can signpost them to the resources we have available.
Best wishes,
Olivia
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