1. The importance of values
Values have a key role in today’s mental health services and the experiences of those using them and their relatives. Here’s an account from Pete, someone who has used services for most of his life.
Pete’s account.
‘My name is Pete. I’m 44 and I live in a room in a house that I share with four other people who have mental problems. I live in one of the rooms on the top floor. My friend Colin
lives in the other one. I should have a key to lock my room but the key’s broken. The light bulb’s gone on the stairs so it’s very dark in the hall. Elsie is on duty today.
‘I shake a lot and sometimes dribble. I try to wipe my mouth before I dribble but I’m not always quick enough. I wish I didn’t dribble, it’s embarrassing when I talk to people. My right arm is hot and swollen. I’ve seen the GP, he says there’s nothing he can do about it. I wonder if it’s the chemicals I use that causes it.
‘My brother visited today. He was really upset when he saw me. He’d come to take me and Colin out for lunch. I had someone else’s trousers on and I had to hold them up as they were too big for me. I told my brother I didn’t wear underpants, I do but I didn’t have any and he was really upset. All my clothes go into the laundry and get lost. I just have to wear what I can find. My brother, me and Colin went to Tesco, we bought some new clothes, then we went for lunch. I can’t chew so I had the soup. I think it’s my tablets that make it difficult for me to chew. I take my tablets, Procycladine and Olanzapine.
‘On the way back in the car I was teasing my brother, he has satellite navigation. Colin was teasing him as well, I don’t think he minds, we all laughed. I like photography, I go to a course at college and develop my own pictures. I want to take landscape photographs. I showed my brother my photos, he wants to frame them they’re so good.
‘It’s my birthday tomorrow, my brother left me some presents, some tobacco and a bottle of lager. Colin told him we can’t have alcohol in the house. I know my brother cries sometimes after he visits me.’
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