a very caring family succeeds

.We first noticed a change in X when his Higher school certificates were coming up. He seemed to have become less communicative and somehow different.
We thought it was just growing u p and exam nerves, and didn't worry too much. His examination results were disappointing, as he had always been in the top three in the class for everything.
We tried to persuade him to stay home and take his exams again, but with no success. He was always artistic, and he wanted to go to an art school.
His careers teacher however advised him to apply to go for biological Sciences, So he took this advice and at the last moment of going through the sorting system got a place at Manchester Polytechnic.
It was a great rush to find him accommodation - about 7-10 days, But we got him a room to himself with a Mrs Q. It was long way from college and he would spend the evenngs on his own, in his room.

The house was run by the son of the landlady who used to feed them well, but he was a seaman and after a few weeks he went off on a trip.

X. came home for Christmas and didn't look well, but he got together with his old pals, and had a nice Christmas at home and we fed him well.
He went back for his second term, and the first thing I recognised that something was very wrong was when
I received a tetter from him that was a!! jumbled and didn't rnake any sense. [ Ed:- writing material is often the most producable evidence to convince people about the nature of the ilness ] .

I took the letter to the GP who said it looks like schizophrenai and he should come home. He always kept in contact by phone, and I asked him to come home about 10-12 days into his second term. He said he hated it there and didn't like cutting up poor little mice.
When he arrived home I took him to the G.P. and he said he would like him to se a psychiatrist, and the local catchment psychiatrist made a home visit. I recall that he said he seemed rather isolated In his room upstairs. He agreed to come into the local mental hospital as a voluntary patient and was admitted to a young people's part where they played snooker etc.
But when his Dad and I visited, he didn't seem to have much contact with the other patients.
This was in complete opposition to how he had been before all the above story, as he was the most affable and fun loving boy you could wish to meet.
Not getting itno any trouble, but a bit mschievous and never doing anyone any harm or doing any damage.

It was some time after that he told me that when he went back to Manchester after Christmas,
inspite of having (as requested) informed Mrs.Q when he would be arriving, there was nobody there. He waited around until another lodger came and let him in.
He looked in the fridge for some food, and said there was nothing there but a green chicken. I took him to mean it was mouldy, but wonder now if he was halucinating.
The second time he got to his lodgings (after Christmas) the son had gone, and Mrs.Q. had taken in more lodgers, and X. was in a room with four others. One was a bus driver on shifts and often had his "bird" in bed with him.

From the phone calls I was getting it was obvious that he was not well. So I told him to come home, and it was then that I took him to the G.P. and the psychiatric service became involved.
He was discharged on Largactil and as he would forget it at times, I supervised his medication.
We had the small holding at the time, and he would get up and come outside, but didn't do anything much.
I once remember hm sitting ona bench and letting a handsful of granular fertilizer just drip through his fingers.

This went on for some time.

Before he had gone to college he had always hollday time helping his brother -in-law on the farm and had really enjoyed it.
But unfortunately after being in the mental hospital his B-in-law forbade him to go to the farm. Just ignorance I think and the stigmas of mental illlness.

After about twelve months of being rather withdrawn and doing nothing much he suddenly decided he must do something, and applied to a College There they advised him to try to get into a School of Art.
He did so and was successful.

I took him up there in the car and went with him to see the head, and I explained that he had had a bad breakdown and had a diagnosis of schziophrenia.
I asked if they would keep an eye on him and let me know if he seemed ill.
They were very co-operative, and one of the tutors kept an eye on him.

He enjoyed it up there, but got -i/ into difficulties and phoned me up to say that it was weekend and he had run out of pills.
So I suggested he went to the hospital and told them. He got to the phone box near the hospital, phoned me and said he couldn't find his way in, so I phoned the Out-Patient there and someone went and fetched him in. He was admitted, and given his pills and they kept hm in for about three weeks sending him to the College through the day and returning for a meal and a bed in the evening.
He finished his second year there and came home on holiday. Was O.K.

He then returned to college. Some time later I was phoned by the head to say that he was unwell and had hit someone and they had called the doctor and he was admitted on Section to the old hospital. 1 imagine this would be very difficult for him as they would all probably talk local and possibly be old.

I then had a phone call to say that he had absconded. I was told to wait at home as they had informed the police. So for two days he was missing and I was very worried. Then I had a call to say that the Police had found him and returned him to hospital. So his Dad and I went up in the car and asked that we could bring him back to the local hospital. I believe there was some communication and they said thay had a bed, and he was put in our charge and a letter sent with us to the local mental hospital.
He stayed at home one evening (We had then moved to temporary accommodation until we found a house) Incidentally when his Dad and I went to fetch him from the W Hospital we saw a female psychiatrist. She gave me the impression that she would be glad to be rid of him.

At a much later date X told me that when missing, the two nights in February, in the cold, and ill clad, were the first time he had felt any peace for a long time. He was ill again for a while (can't remember how long) but I think it was during that time in hospital that he had another flare up- he knocked a painter off his ladder and grabbed hold of a very hot teapot.
We were told, and went to visit him. He was in a darkened room down in the "dungeon", in bed. He just looked at us with a pleading expression. I saw h is hand, which was all blistered, and asked the nurse if it had been given any attention. He didn't know about it, but said he wouid see lo it. We saw some of the older patients in a sort of caged area. This upset me quite a lot.

The next time I visited S. was back on the male admission ward. He looked washed out, and didn't speak, but I felt that he was pleased I was there.
The next incident was that he was brought home in a hospital car by two nurses who said he was better.
The following day he rushed down from his room and threatened to kill me - so I removed myself, and went up to the shed where his Dad was working. It is difficult to describe the look on his face, His eyes seemed to have retracted into his head, he seemed not to be'ooking at me but at something beyond.

My husband told me to get out of the shed,and I ran to the phone and phoned the hospital and was told to phone the police.
In a very short time the police arrived.
By this time his father had taken the action I once described [ kicking to disable ] !
So the three of us were sitting in the kitchen when the police arrived. They were wonderful. They talked to him sternly but kindly, and after about half an hour they said they had another call and would haveto leave.
Shortly after a car from the hospital arrived, and X was taken back. The Police called a short time after and checked to see everything was all right. I thought this was very good of them and efficient.
I later wrote to the Chief Constable telling him how good they had been and thanking him for their attention. Some time later I happened to meet the Sergeant , and he recognised me, came over to te car and thanked me fo the letter which had gained him promotion!

Another incident in the hospital was when the nurse phoned to tell me that X had punched him. However he did apologise and said it was his own fault as he hadn't realised that one of the other nurses had told S. to go to te dentist ( X. says the best he's ever had ]

_ When X. came off section and was sent home I think he was on depot injections.
The nurse called weekly to admnister them, and sometimes brought a couple of students with him. He wold talk first to X and then to me and then to both of us. When he brought the students he took X out in the car for a short drive, whilst 1 spoke to the students hoping I might teach them something about the caring position.
The injections continued for quite a long time(should have kept the diary that was often recommended, but didn't.

When X settled down at home (He had obtained his Certificate in Art & Design from the College) we talked about a job. He wasn't driving at this time so l took him to all the local printers in the disrict, but they couldn't offer him work.
For a very short time he worked at the local pub, but got in such amuddle with all the different drinks and prices that the publican sent him and a girl from the vilage who had a different M.H problem to play noughts and crosses on the stone floor of the pub. He gave them chalk to play with! Eventually Ie upgraded his camera and after his Dad had died I used to take him down the beach and he would go off walking ,whilst I took a leisurely stroll. He took photographs. He joined the local Art Clubin th summer, and helped with the setting up the exhibitiona they had in th summer, for the visitors. In winter he joined the local Camera Club and came away with a few medals.He had a small dark room [ Local hospital Social worker got him a 50£ grant ] and enjoyed manipulating in black and white photographs.

The carer was very active in searching out low cost sources of materilas for X to continue with his 'interests. She sourced offcuts for wood - X alwa ys had some project in craft wood working,
Always had something on hand in the garden 'landsscaping and ornameting.
'Always had his hobbies there - photography painting. In effect there was a contiuing background of a programme of activity that would give a 'known routine' to come backon to - to provide and sustain a direction onto outer engagements.

[ Ed:- That is the aftercare success unrecognised by the psychiatric establishment : domestic backing, and a regular routine of a daily and a weekly intent. in activities of interest. Unfortunately ill supported by Departmental NHS contiuing health care for schizophrenia - it remains an NHS UNMET NEED ]

I had him named as a driver on my Car Insurance and he returned to confident driving, finally getting his own approval for his independent driving licence with the support of recommendation from the GP who knew him well.

The arrangement now - he is on oral olanzapine - up here with me , which is his registered home. after we moved [ I was becoming physically frailer ], to be near near his older brother in the next county,
And he is now with the G.P. up here, and sister-in law fetches his pills.
He still has to be reminded.

Half time stays me, half time with Y, now 40 miles away, whom he had befriended whilst in hospital years previously and took up with locally when he could drive himself.

There is a routine and a direction of activities there for him

About reading. He bought three books from Amazon, and started to read last evening. After a while he put them down having found that he hadn't quite sorted them out. So perhaps his claim to having read a book before was a bit previous. Although, knowing him, he will probably keep on trying, and keep going back if there is something he hasn't quite understood.

He loves gardening, and works hard both here and at Y and is now doing a bit for a chap across the road at Y who has a wife who needs a lot of care.
Most of the time he is bright and breezy, and I think he likes his own company quite a bit, as he finds conversation worries him.

Although when he is away he phones me every evening, and I hardly say a word as he tells me all he has been doing in the garden and I have a daily list of all the plants he has put in. I also get a curse about the rabbits that have invaded the garden down there and which Y won't let him do anything about, in spite of them eating all the plants that he has produced from seed.

.
Y is a vegetarian and won't let X have his bacon buttle for breakfast, so he get up very early and has it before Y appears on the scene.

1 think that is quite a story.

What will happen after me will be another. He is well placed near his brother.

There appear to be quite a few on forums who object to their medications, and who think that Psychiatrists are the Devils disciples! Ah! Well Some are Angels!

Addendum to date

" Hasn't been able to read a book for years.
Said he couldn't remember the top of the page by the time he got to the bottom. [ a man twenty years on with long-term schizophrenia, now well settled to a
routine, describes a difficulty that continues.




a long discussion with X. re: reading which he has just started, having
always read quite a lot before the onset of illness. He got a copy of 'The
Woodlanders' which he had read as a school project. He told me that he had
great difficulty in connecting the characters with the descriptions
intervening. He had found the same with other books he had tried to read. He
also finds that any disturbance affects his ability to retain anything he
has read. e.g. someone talking to him.




Someone putting the T.V. or radio on. Someone calling him away to undertake
another task.
He then finds it difficult to "pick up the string" and has to return to a
previous area of the reading.
He is able to write and uses the computer for this, but again does not like
disturbance.
Often a short ability to continue a project, though he does usually return
to complete it. he made a record of what he had done, in order that he could
return and pick up the "train" at a later date

Doesn't read the paper. Seems to get most of the news from T.V. [ X. listens to radio more so probably gets the news there ] .but does'nt
make any particular effort to follow it. Is mostly garden minded, and have
just had a long talk about what jobs he has to do for R - repairs,
painting.
Plans for some woodwork he would like to do. Has some picture
painting on the go at Zs but is'nt getting on very well with it. Is still
persisting his reading but still finds it difficult.

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