2014-08-24T12:43:04+00:00

Jack at the Bungalow

August 24, 2014March 23, 2016/Jon Hunter/Leave a comment

08:30
Jack hangs up his phone and looks at the clock and it says 08:30 but it feels like it is the early hours of the morning. Jacks phone call was from the agency and they have asked him to go and work in a small town called Brinklow. In the town is a purpose built bungalow that houses two gentlemen in their fifties’ and they both have learning disabilities. One of the men is known as Charlie and the other man is known as Chris. Charlie was born with learning disabilities and has a tendency to be aggressive at times if he is asked or told to stop doing something. The good thing with Charlie’s aggression is it usually stops when staff have to physically intervene, don’t get me wrong Charlie is not that bad. He is a loving and affectionate man, to affectionate at times, plus you can have a great time playing around Charlie. Now Chris is a cute man, he is cheeky, likes to try and play tricks on people and loves to wind Charlie up. He was born a healthy baby but when he was about five he developed a tumour on his brain. The doctors decided to operate on the tumour but this left him with brain damage but it was either operate or his parents would have to watch him die slowly. Chris is a gentle bloke but he has the odd occasion where he has aggressive outbursts. The two guys mostly have fun and settled days going out to parks, town, pubs for meals, college and in the next town over there is a disco held in the evening for service users. The nursing team always has to assist the guys with getting dressed, toileting, baths and cooking for the two guys. This building is built just for the guys and it has a big garden with high walls and Charlie loves to go outside and kick a ball about which seems to make him laugh. Whereas Chris just likes to sit in the garden on his own chair.

09:30
Jack arrives at the Bungalow in his car which happens to be a ford focus sport, with black and silver paint work. He has to drive about to find a parking space as some people who can only be described as bloody idiots have parked at angles and double parked. Jack finally pulls up into a space and jumps out of his car and turns and walks off to the Bungalow. As Jack nears the building he can hear screaming and shouting coming from the building opposite. That building is a house for adults with learning disabilities but it is for rest bight. So it is a short term basis to give their carers a break from a few days to up to a month at a time. Then all of a sudden Jack can see at least four to five men and women running from different buildings over to the house from which he heard screaming. So he continues to walk up to the Bungalow and rings the bell. He waits a few minutes and there is no answer so he tries again but just as he presses it he can see someone come from around the corner.
It is a woman in her thirties long dark hair and slim, as she walks up to the door she opens it with a stern look on her face and when she opens her mouth what she says comes out in a harsh stern way just like she is talking to a naughty child,

“What, erm can I help you” she says.

“I’m Jack from the agency and I have come to help you for a few hours” but thinks to himself with a smile on his face “bloody rude cow”.

“Come in, sorry for the way I spoke it’s that we have just had Charlie kick off a little bit and we had food thrown everywhere”.

“Ok not a problem” replies Jack.

“I’m Alison and I’ll be working with you this afternoon, come and take a seat and I will give you a hand over of this morning”.

The hand over takes about twenty minutes which to be fair is a long time just for two patients that have simple easy needs. So after Alison has finished she stands up and asks Jack to follow her in to the lounge where Chris and Charlie are sitting watching TV and playing with toys. Alison walks into the lounge with Jack following behind and turns to the other staff member Lisa and Chris and Charlie and says

“Everyone this is Jack he come to work with you this afternoon” saying in a loud voice.

Lisa turns and smiles at Jack and says “nice to meet you I’m Lisa”

“Nice to meet you too” shaking her hand and responding with a smile.

Charlie puts his toy down and just stairs at Jack then as he starts to get up he walks over to Jack and stands very close to him and gives Jack a huge toothless smile and hugs him. Jacks heart has just jumped about twenty feet from his body as he was not expecting that. As Charlie is hugging him all Jack can hear is

“mmmmmmmmmm” coming from Charlie

“OK that’s enough now let me go” is Jacks response to this show of affection.

After a couple of seconds after saying this Charlie lets go and goes back to his toys mumbling under his breath but to quietly for anyone to hear. Alison just looks at Jack and shakes her head as if to say don’t worry about that. Then Alison walks over to Chris and says to him

“This is Jack you going to shake his hand “

Chris laughs and giggles at Alison and then holds his hand out as if to shake his hand, so Jack holds his hand out in response to Chris and shakes his hand. While he does this Chris taps his cheek with his other hand and then Alison and Lisa laugh at what Chris did

“What does that mean” Jack asks them while they still laugh

“He wants you to kiss his cheek, he like you” replies Lisa

While Jack still has a hols of Chris’s hand he can feel a little pull from Chris, so Jack bends forward and presses his check against Chris’s cheek. Up on doing this Chris starts to giggle like a little kid and pushes Jack’s hand away, as if to say you can go now. Jack stands up and smiles at Chris and says

“I can see you are a cheeky one”

What seems like a grunt from Chris comes out of his mouth at the same time he nods his head as if he was saying yes.
Alison then turns to Lisa and says to her
“You can go home now if you want; I’ll still sign you here until twelve mid-day”.

Lisa smiles and thanks Alison and walks out of the lounge and picks up her bag from the office which appears to be somewhere he has not been shown yet. Alison asks Jack to follow her and then she continues with the tour. As she walks out of the lounge she turns right then right again and she is in the nurse’s office. Alison then quickly shows Jack this and then shows him where the bathroom and the toilets are for the two guys and staff. After his little tour Alison and Jack head off to the kitchen and sit at the dinning table. Alison asks Jack

“do you fancy a cupa”?

“strong, milk no sugar thanks” replies Jack.

So Alison stands up and walks off to the kettle and starts making the drinks.

“Chris, Charlie, come and get a drink”.

A second or two later you can hear a little giggle come from Chris and then what sounds like Chris singing Dupy do a few times over. Then both Chris and Charlie come wondering in to the kitchen but as they both enter Charlie pushes Chris out of the way. With Chris being a little instead on his feet, over he goes. Jack jumps up and goes to Chris’s aid, as Jack goes to help Chris he attempts to hit Charlie but misses as Charlie was to quick. Jack helps Chris up on to his feet but Chris has started to get upset with the whole situation. Alison turns to Charlie and raises her voice to a tone of mother and points to were his room would be, saying to him

“Go to your room and think about what you have done”.

Charlie just sits at the table and looks at Alison as if he has no idea what she is on about. Again Alison raises her voice and demands that Charlie leaves the kitchen. Still Charlie sits looking at Alison and then she walks over to were he is sitting and pulls Charlies seat from under the table and takes hold of his wrist. At this point Charlie stands and walks with Alison, while I am still with Chris. As Charlie gets near to Chris he sticks his tongue out and starts to attempt to hit Chris. When Charlie sticks his tongue out its a tell that he is about to be aggressive. Jack being a hero stands in front of Chris so he does not get hit. At the same time Jack grabs both of Charlies wrists and Alison pulls Charlie away from Chris. All of a sudden Chris screams out at Charlie and all you can then hear is

” bastard”

Jacks says to Alison ” Wasn’t expecting that” and laughs.

Charlie is taken into his bedroom and both Jack and Alison sit him on the bed. Carefully they let go of Charlie and back away towards the door. Jack goes off to the kitchen and sits with Chris asking him if he is ok. Chris responds with a little grunt as he nods his head and then looks at Jack with a cute smile. Alison continues with making the tea but instead of just three cups she makes four cups. She places the four cups on the table and then calls out

“Charlie, teas ready”

Jack hears a door slowly open and then shut, it takes another minute or so for Charlie to make an appearance. Alison says to Jack quietly

“Just look at him”

Jack doing as he is told just looks at Charlie who slowly appears from round the door and enters the kitchen. Just picture a naughty told off teenager who is looking rather sheepish, this is Charlie’s manner at the minute.

“Come and have your tea Charlie and be good” says Alison.

What can only be described as eeeeeeeee came from Charlie as he came and sat down at the table. Alison stood back up and walked over to the cupboard and pulled out a tin. Jack looks at Chris just to make sure he is ok and notices that he has a huge smile on his face. Just as if he knew what Alison has reached for.

“Anyone want some biscuits” asks Alison.

She turns round and sees Chris and Charlie smiling like a pair of Cheshire cats. Now this is a great sight seeing the simple thing please these two guys. Alison hands the tin over to Charlie and when she does this Charlie hands the tin to Chris as if in his own little way in saying sorry. Chris giggles at this and then Charlie starts to pick a huge handful of biscuits for himself.

“Charlie” is snapped from Alison

With this Charlie drops the biscuits back in the tin and this time takes out just two biscuits. Charlie then hands the tin to Jack and so he takes a biscuit out and says

“Thank you Charlie” with a smile on his face.

For the next ten minutes there is silence while drinking the tea but then Alison asks Jack

” so what do you think of this place and the guys so far”?

” love it, this is the first time I have worked somewhere were it feels like a home not a hospital” replies Jack.

“so would you come back then”? Asks Alison

” without a doubt I would” responds Jack.

After everyone has finished their drinks Jack stands and offers to do the washing up. With this the two guys leave the kitchen rather quickly giggling to themself. Alison says to Jack that the guys are supposed to do the washing up, but as you offered they ran off. Jack can hear the humour in her voice as she talks to Jack.

11:00

The washing up has been done and is drying on the draining board and Alison has just made an entry in both the guys notes about Charlie pushing Chris over.

“Can you cook” asks Alison

” I’m good at spag bol” replie Jack

” ok great the guys love that, do you mind making it and ill help but keep an eye on the guys” responds Alison.

“Sure not a problem” responds Jack.

Alison walks out the kitchen and Jack hunts through the cupboards and the fridge for the ingredients for his version of spag bol. In from of him he has two large onion(salad onions), peppers, mushrooms, pot of gravy, chopped tomatoes and spag bol sauce. To start with Jack peels the onions then washes them under cold water. This is supposed to help reduce the crying affect when cutting onion’s into pieces. Does this work? The hell it does after cutting the onions Jack eyes are watering like a water fall and sting like nettles.

” What’s wrong, why you crying? Its ok” says Alison with some humour in her voice.

Jack finds Alison’s humour funny and laughs at what she said. With the onions cut Jack washes his hands then rinses his eyes just so he can see again. Then he makes a start on the peppers and mushrooms. Alison explains that the peppers and mushrooms need to be cut into small pieces so the guys can swallow them with no problems. Once these have been cut Jack fills the kettle up with water so he can boil it for a small amount of gravy and so he can have some stock to pour in with the mince beef. Once Jack has prepared this he looks for the deep frying pot and calls for Alison

“Where is the frying pot? I can’t find it”.

“In the cupboard next to the sink on the left” replies Alison.

Jack bends down to peer in the cupboard and finds the pan buried at the back, as Jack tries to pull the pan out and he is able to knock everything over.

“You ok in there”? Calls out Alison, with what sounds like laughter in her voice.

“Yes I’m fine I just knocked all the pans over”.

Jack leaves the pans for now and continues with the cooking, as he turns on the hob on the cooker and puts the pot on top but without any oil. He puts the mince beef in the pan and starts to cook the beef for about five minutes. As the mince starts to cook he adds the mushrooms, onions and peepers into the mince beef and continues to cook this for about another ten to fifteen minutes. Turning down the heat Jack pours in the spag bol sauce mixing this in he also pours in the stock and mixes it well. Leaving it to simmer for a while Jack asks if anyone wants a cup of tea, in walks in Chris and Charlie with big grins on their faces and Chris is repeatedly saying
“Tea, Tea, lovely tea”.

While they both take a seat at the table Alison comes in the room and tells Jack that she is going to do the washing up and makes a start with this. Jack moves all the equipment he has used and places it next to the sinks draining board.

“Thanks Jack, I’d love a cup of tea as well” with a smile.

“No worries, I’ll sort that out”.

Jack places the cups of tea on the table and hands Chris and Charlie’s cups on a table mat in from of them and ask them to take it easy and don’t drink it too fast. Chris being Chris doesn’t listen and takes a big gulp and all you can hear is a moan as if it hurt to swallow the tea. Javk checks the dinner and sees it is ready and asks Alison

“Where are the plates”.

“They are in the top cupboard next to the fridge”.

Jack opens the cupboard and pulls out four large plates and places them next to the hob. Jack turns and takes some crusty uncut white bread out of the bread bin and cuts about six thick slices and cuts them in half. Putting them on an extra plate and puts it in the middle of the table, looking at the guys Jack says to them

“Leave these for now until you have your food” with a smile on his face.

The two guys start to smile as Jack dishes up the food but give’s Charlie and Chris about two large serving spoons and gives himself the same to Alison. Alison hands the guys a serviette and they tuck it into their T-shirts so if they spill anything it hopefully go on the serviette. As the guys start to eat they tuck in really well but Alison says to the guys

“Take it slowly guy”

With the eating going on there is not a lot of noise or talking going on. There is a lot of eating and dunking the slices of bread in the sauce of the spag bol, to me this probably the best way to eat this meal. The meal takes about fifteen minutes to eat as the guys are not fast eaters and If anyone got up from the table Chris and Charlie would also leave the table and it would be a little difficult to get them back. When they both finish eating Alison takes their plates and puts them in the sink and Jack stands up and places his plate in the sink as well.
Looking at the guys Alison takes off their serviettes from the top of their T-shirts and this time Charlie has not spilt anything over his clothes which is good for him. Looking at Chris he has spilt a lump of mince down his top but Chris sees the mince and picks it up and pops it into his mouth saying

“mmmmm”

Alison and Jack laugh along with Chris, Alison then asks Chris to get up and go to his bedroom so he can change his T-shirt. Up stands Chris and heads off to his room followed by Jack just to assist him if Chris needs it. As they both pass the lounge Charlie is sitting on the floor playing with his toys and Jack thinks that Charlie looks so happy, which is nice to see. Entering Chris’s bedroom there is a big wardrobe at the end of his room against the wall and a big bed on the right side just behind the door and on the other side of the bed is a high chair for Chris to sit on. In the left corner of the room set up high is what looks like a thirty two in TV on a swivel wall bracket and the remote for this is on the bedside cupboard next to the bed. While Chris goes steadily over to his wardrobe he opens the door and pulls out a blue T-shirt with a pocket on the breast.

Jack asks Chris “do you need help changing”?

Chris replies with a nod and a grunt and Jack assists Chris with taking his T-shirt off and helps him put on his blue T-shirt. Chris smiles and thanks Jack then heads out of the bedroom and starts to head off to the lounge but Jack call him back and tells him that he has some dried sauce around his mouth.

“Come on Chris come to the bathroom lets wipe your mouth clean” Requests Jack.

As Chris stops walking in his tracks he starts groaning but turns round and starts walking to the bathroom. Jack opens the door to the bathroom and wets a flannel and gently wipes Chris’s mouth and makes him look presentable. As Jack finishes this Chris looks a Jack and then suddenly burps in Jacks face. Doing this makes Chris laugh and Jack also sees the funny side of this and to be fair it was a loud burp. Alison calls out from the kitchen

“Was that you Jack? Pig” said with humour.

“No that wasn’t me, it was Chris” replies Jack.

Chris wonders off into the lounge and sits in his high recliner chair in front of the TV. Jack goes into the kitchen where he finds Alison doing the washing up. Jack Takes a T-towel and starts to dry what Alison has washed up.

“Next I will have to give the guys their medication, do you want to help me”?

“Yes sure that be great” replies Jack.

Next to where they were standing is a big white metal cupboard which has a big lock on the door, in this cupboard with all sorts of medication in side. Alison dries her hands from washing up and pulls out a pen from her hip pocket and takes keys off her belt and opens the metal cupboard and takes out two blister packs of medication. On the blister pack is written days of the week with a starting date and morning and afternoon written on the packs. This is to make it easy for staff to dispense the medication amount and times of days. First to take their medication is Charlie and Alison says that Charlie might not come but we will see.

“Charlie come and get your medication please” shouts out Alison.

Slowly and shyly Charlie walks into the kitchen with a little smile on his face. Charlie walks over to Alison as she bursts the blister pack for this time into a pot. She tips it into Charlie’s mouth as he has a history of throwing his medication around. Charlie takes his medication with assistance from Alison and sips down some water to wash it down. Charlie walks off back to the lounge and continues to play with his toys. Alison calls out to Chris

“Come and get you tablets Chris”

Hearing a few grunts and groans Chris walks into the lounge and sits at the table waiting for his medication. Chris has to sit down when taking his medication as he would topple backwards if he took his medication. Alison hands Chris’s medication to him in a small pot and Chris swigs it back like a shot. Taking his medication Jack hands Chris a small drink of water, swigging that back jack slams the cup on the table and stands up and wonders off to the lounge and sits in his chair. Once Alison has done this she puts everything back in the metal white cupboard and locks it back up placing the keys on her belt.

“Come on let’s go and sit in the lounge with the guys” says Alison.

“Ok, so what is next then to do”” asks Jack.

“For now there is nothing to do until about three o’clock when we will go shopping” responds Alison.

So Jack follows Alison into the lounge and sees Chris sitting in his chair but he has reclined it back a little and he appears to be falling asleep. Over in the corner is Charlie sitting behind a chair playing with Lego just putting them together but not really making anything.

15:00

Alison says to Chris and Charlie “come on lets go shopping, Chris take yourself off to the toilet before we go”

Chris presses the button on his chair to sit himself up and heads off to the toilet. Once Charlie is done in the toilet he calls out and Alison says to Jack

“Could you just help Charlie get his trousers up please?”

“Yes sure not a problem replies Jack.

Jack helps Chris with his trousers and head off to the main entrance of the bungalow and waits for Alison and Charlie. Once they are all together Chris opens the door and takes Jacks hand and heads off to the car park towards their own vehicle. They have a big black family wagon with tinted windows and a pull out step for Chris to help him get in the vehicle. Jack helps Charlie and Chris into the vehicle and puts their seat belts on and then climbs into the front seat next to Alison who is driving to the supermarket. They pull out of the car park and head up the road and the journey takes about thirty minutes to get to the supermarket. During the journey Charlie has had his face pressed up to the window with the window slightly open and he must be able to feel the breeze blowing through the crack of the window. Entering the supermarket Alison gives Charlie the trolley because if he did not push the trolley he would wonder off and pick and break things. Once he has hold of the trolley Charlie’s concentration is all on pushing the trolley so he will not wonder off and cause a problem. Chris is able to be left to walk by himself, but Jack and Alison have to walk slowly so Chris can keep up. While wondering around Jack keeps an eye on Charlie just to make sure he doesn’t crash the trolley into anything or anyone. Once Jack and the team have filled up the trolley with food for the next two weeks they get to the till Alison gets Charlie to help take things from the trolley and place them on the conveyor belt. Chris stands with Jack at the end of the till and they both start to pack the shopping. The lady at the till speaks to Alison and they appear to know each other and what is great, the lady at the till is also speaking to Chris and Charlie as well and they seem to be enjoying the attention from the lady. Jack seems to be doing the packing by himself now and Alison is unpacking by herself as the guys love attention from others. Once packed up the shopping costs about £180 which isn’t too bad for two men and two staff for two weeks. Once Alison has paid the lady at the till she gets Charlie to help her push the trolley back to the vehicle. At the vehicle Jack gets Chris and Charlie into the vehicle and puts their seat belts on and then helps Alison pack the shopping into the back of the vehicle.
Once they get back to the bungalow Jack jumps out and opens his side passenger door and gets Charlie out and then undo’s Chris’s belt and he shuffles his way over towards Jack and gets out of Jacks side.

“Why didn’t you get out your side”? Asks Jack to Chris.

Chris just smiles and walks off towards the bungalow and follows Charlie to the door. Charlie tries to open the door but Alison calls out to Charlie

“Hold on Charlie I’ll open it in a second”

Alison takes some of the bags out of the boot of the vehicle and heads towards the door of the bungalow, she places one bag on the floor und unlocks the door and Charlie picks up the bag from the floor and carries it in. Whilst he carries the bag in Charlie knocks it against the door frame and against the walls as he carries it into the kitchen. Jack takes the last three bags of shopping and enters the bungalow and takes the bags into the kitchen. Chris walks off into the lounge and heads straight for his chair and plonks himself in the chair and reclines it back. Charlie hands things to Alison from the shopping the bags. Alison thanks Charlie for helping her and tells Charlie that he can go and play now but Charlie just sits at the table watching Jack and Alison. Now Alison starts to make a drink and asks if Jack would like another drink and fills the kettle up and gets four cups out on the counter. Once the kettle has boiled Alison makes four cups of tea and calls for Chris to come and get his drink but no reply. Jack gets up and wonders into the lounge and sees Chris in his chair laying back and it appears that Chris has fallen asleep. The long walk round the super market must have worn him out. So Jack decides not to wake him and just lets him sleep, to be fair he does look peaceful while lying back in his chair. So Jack goes back into the kitchen and tells Alison that Chris is asleep and he didn’t have the heart to wake him up.

“Not a problem, I’ll make him one later when he wakes up”. Alison says to Jack.

Jack sits at the table next to Charlie and sips his tea; Jack thinks to himself that Alison makes a great cup of tea. While Jack sips his tea Charlie passes over a tin filled with biscuits and Jack takes out two biscuits and enjoys dunking them in his tea. Unfortunately Jack left his biscuit dunked to long in the tea and as he takes it out of the tea it falls back in the cup splashing out. Alison starts to laugh as well as Jack as to be fair we have all done this at some point in our life.
Charlie finishes his tea and walks off to the bathroom. Alison follows Charlie and calls out to Jack to give her a hand with taking Charlie to the toilet as Charlie could be a handful and her being a female. Jack follows them into the bathroom and assists in toileting Charlie. Once this was done Charlie walks off to the lounge and stands staring at Chris as he is asleep and takes a few steps towards Chris. Jack gently takes hold of Charlie’s arm and says

“Charlie leave him alone please” smiling at him.

Charlie listens to Jack and goes and sits on the sofa and looks at Jack while pointing at the TV, so Jack turns the TV on and Alison who just walked in hands one of Charlie’s DVDS and asks Jack to put it on. Charlie is trying to see what DVD Alison handed Jack but he cannot see which one it is. Once it starts playing Charlie starts to bounce up and down clapping his hands together while sitting on the chair. Alison tells Jack

“This is Charlie’s favourite film”

Charlie loves to watch The Frog Princes but also likes other Walt Disney films as well. It goes on for about a hour and half and during that time all Jack can hear is laughter coming from Charlie. Hearing this makes his shift and job so worthwhile.

19:00
As Jack takes the DVD out of the TV he puts on another one for Charlie. Chris had already woken and gone off into the kitchen with Alison as she went to make him a cup of tea, the one he missed when he was asleep. Also Alison stated making the evening snack which consists of sandwiches and a few cakes.
The door bell rings and Jack goes and walks to the door and sees a tall man standing there with a rucksack on his right shoulder. Jack slowly opens the door and says

“Yes can I help you”?

“I’m Tom I’m the night nurse tonight” replies the man.

“Come in Tom, I just made a drink you want one” calls out Alison from the Kitchen.

Jack opens the door and smiles at Tom to which Tom smiles back at Jack and walks to the office which is opposite the door. Tom places his bag in the office and shuts the door behind him and heads to the kitchen. Sitting at the table is Alison and Chris and seeing the excitement in Chris’s face must mean that this bloke Tom is a decent guy and Chris likes him. Jack sits at the table with the others and drinks his tea and Jack turns to Alison and asks if she could sign his time sheet for him.

“Would you fancy working again tomorrow morning Jack” asks Alison.

“Yes for sure, I have loved it today it has been nice and peaceful shift “replies Jack.

Jack stands up and takes his time sheet out of his back pocket and hands it to Alison and she takes a pen from her pocket and signs his sheet. When she hands it back to Jack she says to him

“I’LL book you in now for the morning, the shift is from seven am until one pm is that ok”.

Jack responds with “that’s great, thank you very much for a great shift and I’ll see you in the morning”.

“Thanks very much Jack, see you in the morning” replies Alison.

“Nice to meet you Jack, see you in the morning” says Tom.

Jack says goodbye to Chris and Charlie and then heads off to the car park. Jack thinks to himself that the shift was great looking after the two guys, watching DVDs, cooking and going shopping. Jack is happy to be going back to the Bungalow tomorrow and wonders what sort of shift he would have.

Jack’s Day in Physio

August 19, 2014August 19, 2014/Jon Hunter/Leave a comment

Jack has a day off today and with one of his only days off he has to get up early but Jack is not feeling to bad about this, as he has an appointment at his physiotherapist and he has been waiting about two months for this appointment. Jack has an ongoing problem in his shoulder leading to his neck, so he has been told by his doctor that it torn tendons in his shoulder. Because of this problem Jack has minimal strength in his right should and arm. What he has in his arm is a constant stabbing pain around his shoulder joint and what only is described as a muscular pain in his tricep, like he has over worked it in the gym. Occasionally Jack also gets a down his left arm as pins and needles in his first two fingers and up his forearm and this has been going on for a while now and he has had enough of this now. In this time he has had this pain and discomfort Jack has had to miss out on going to the gym and using the free weights and it even hurts him when he runs. As well as this Jack has had to miss out on kick boxing (self defence) and missing this is not making Jack happy at all.
08:30
Jack sets off from home giving his wife a kiss goodbye as she is leaving for work at the same time as Jack leaves. Jack decides to walk because his wife is going in the opposite direction even though his wife has offered to give him a lift to the hospital, Jack decides to walk and waist time. As Jack watches his wife drive off to work he turns and starts to walk up the street and as he walks off Jack can feel in his left arm pins and needles set in with a pain in his shoulder. While he walks it feels like Jack is carrying a heavy weight in his hand but this discomfort is not to bad but the pain in his shoulder is annoying him as it does at times wakes him up from sleeping at times so he is hoping that the physiotherapist can help sort it out. It takes Jack about twenty minutes to get into town which is not far from the hospital where the physiotherapist is based. As he gets into town Jack walks through the town and off to a local popular coffee shop to get a medium latte. As he walks into the coffee shop Jack stands in the cue and starts to look around and watches what people are doing while sitting drinking their coffee and some eating pieces of cake. In the shop there are people dressed like business men and women and chatting like they are discussing business stuff, people using their computers, typing madly and some of them looking at their computer intensely and Jack just smirks to himself. The coffee shop worker says to Jack
“How can I help you”?
“Can I have a medium latte to take away please” replies Jack.
Jack hands over his point’s card and pays for the coffee with his points and then Jack stands off to the side and waits while the server makes his Latte which takes about five minutes in total. Jack thanks the coffee server and starts to walk out of the shop sipping his coffee and suddenly gulps as the Latte is too hot when it hits his mouth. I’m sure we have all done that at some point with a take away coffee. While Jack starts his journey off to the hospital he walks past a few offices asking for assistant P.A’s, receptionists, warehouse workers and packers, Jack stands there and reads what is written but nothing takes his fancy this time so Jack goes on with his journey. As Jack arrives at the hospital he tries to find on the hospital map where the physiotherapist dept is and only then Jack realises he has entered the wrong end of the hospital. Jack stands there a few minutes and studies the hospital map and goes on his way. Jack arrives in the right department and sees the reception is closed so he has to register on a computer touch screen. Jack goes and takes a seat and whips his phone out and starts to play in his phone and checks his face book and twitter and sees there is nothing new from earlier. Due to the injury Jack also sits and contemplates his future and thinks about what else he could do, maybe security, work for Mi5. After about fifteen minutes a man comes through the door and calls Jack’s name, so Jack puts his phone away and stands up and walks up to the man that called his name. The physiotherapist is a young man who cannot be more than twenty five/six and greats him with a smile. Jack follows the man into a room and he looks around and notices a table that looks like a massage table, three black chairs with a swivel chair and a table with two computers on them. The man sits opposite Jack and says
Hi I’m Toby; this session is about assessments and working from what you say”.
Cool, I don’t care what you have to do I just want the discomfort and pain to stop, the doctor in A&E and my G.P just seem to dismiss me” replies Jack.
“I won’t dismiss you or but in when you are talking” replies Toby.
Jack sits there and explains what happened in the past and what others have told him and what he has experienced in the last few months. While Jack is explaining what has happened he notices that Toby is writing everything down and drawing on a body map of the problem areas. While Jack observes this it does make it seem ‘at last someone is listening’ which makes it all worthwhile now. This whole process takes about fifteen to twenty minutes and then Toby shows everything he has written on Jack which pleases him.
“Can you sit on the edge of the bed and take off your top please and we will try a few exercises to sort this out” Toby says to Jack.
Jack stands up and takes off his top and walks over to the massage table sitting on the edge. Toby walks behind him and tries a few movement exercises and a few tension exercises and then Toby explains to Jack that it is not his shoulder that’s the problem.
“I’m going to press on your neck and while I do can you lift your head up and down” says Toby.
Jack sits there while Toby is pressing his neck and Jack lifts his neck up and down Toby explains
“I’m pressing on your vertebra C6 to be exact “
Jack carries lifting his head up and down while Toby presses on his neck and Jack suddenly realises ‘there’s no pain or discomfort’. Jack start to feel like a huge weight has just disappeared off his shoulders. Toby repeats this exercise with Jack at least ten times. When Toby has done with the exercises he mentions that he needs to repeat these exercises as much as he can lift his head up and down and this should reduce the pain and discomfort. Toby places physio tape over Jacks shoulder and down the left side of his neck. When this has been placed on Jack he feels that the pain is going to nonexistent. When finishing the session with Toby Jack feels so much happier and feels like that a weight has been lifted.
12:30pm
After the time in being treated by Toby Jack decides to go and try a work out in his gym, so he gets his gym stuff ready. Once Jack arrives at the gym he walks in and head to the changing rooms and on entering it is a little noisy with men laughing and chatting loudly about their workouts they have done. With Jacks shoulder just starting to be on the mend he decides to take it easy. Once changed into his gym kit he walks out of the changing room and fills his water bottle up. The first thing Jack goes on is the treadmill and does some interval running, this help burn body fat for the next twenty four hours so he was told. Jack walks for two minutes and runs at a reasonably fast pace for two minutes and repeats this for at least ten times and Jack adds the odd sprint in a few times. After completing this Jack goes to the free weights section and attempts bench press at 25kg- 13 repsx3, decline bench press at 17.5kg-13 repsx3 and then incline press at 25kg-13×3. Jack rests and starts to move his shoulders as he can feel some discomfort after this. After about a minutes rest Jack tries seated fly at 45kg-11×3 and then walks over to where he can do hanging leg raises. Jack attempts to try fifteen leg raises while hanging from a bar, but he can only manage about five in each set which he repeats five times. After doing these exercises Jack goes on the exercise bike and cycles for about twenty five minutes but this finishes Jack off. After doing this Jack realises that he may just have done a little too much but it was not painful for him. Jack goes off to the changing room and has a shower and freshens himself up and changes his clothes and realises that his tape on his shoulder is still attached. Once Jack is ready he head off out of the gym and walks home.
14:00pm
Jack arrives home and chucks his gym kick in the washing machine but also throws in some dark clothes from the laundry basket. Once the washing machine is set and running Jack sits on the sofa and crashes out and falls asleep like an elderly person having an afternoon nap.

Jack with the Adolescents

August 17, 2014/Jon Hunter/Leave a comment

Jack is working on an adolescent ward this afternoon and it happens to be a ward that he has worked on before. He is on Castle unit this afternoon and it is a ward for teenage girls that suffer from mental health issues such as self harm, eating disorders, past abuse and visual and auditory hallucinations. These patients have had a poor to horrific upbringing from family members to so called family friends. Jack thinks to himself how on earth can people do such nasty things like this to innocent children. It doesn’t matter who you are working in this line of work you do tend to feel for some of the patients that have to stay in hospital like this.
13:00pm
Jack enters Castle ward and walks into the nursing office which is just off to the left when you come onto Castle ward, he greets the nurse that is sitting at a computer with her back to him.
Jack greets the nurse;
“Hi I’m Jack from the nursing agency; I’m on an afternoon with you guys”.
The nurse stops what she is doing and swings round on the office swivel chair just a little too hard and nearly topples over as she tries to catch herself on the side of the desk she starts to laugh at herself. Jack wonders if she is laughing through embarrassment or does she genuinely finds what she did funny? As she lifts herself up Jack notices that she has turned a nice shade of pinky red and says to himself ” embarrassment” but only says this in thinking. To save her dying from embarrassment Jack says to this;
“At least I’m not the only one that falls off chairs”
Then gives her a little smile and takes a seat next to her. The nurse introduces herself as Karen and she happens to be the duty nurse manager of Castle ward. Karen asks if Jack has worked on here before to which he nods and says;
“About six months ago was my last shift, I spent most of my shift on a constant with a patient called Sarah”
Karen replies to Jack “Sarah has been transferred to adult services back in her home town”
Jack just smiles as that shift was a bit of a nightmare from what he can remember. Karen hands over about the patients to which there are eight girls in total, mostly suffering from abuse and have a history of violence to staff and self harm. In Jacks history he has found that he does work well with patients that have aggressive behaviours and self harm. Karen mentions a patient called Terri;
“She has a history or aggression and serious self harm which possibly stems from early abuse and has a six inch open wound on her left arm which will not heal as she keeps reopening and now the skin will not grow back over it and it is all dried up. Terri does try to stick objects in her arm and will try to make her arm bleed”.
First thing Jack asks is “is she on a constant and do you want me to be on her constant”.
Karen looks at Jack and smiles and says;
“Yes I’m afraid so, is that ok”?
Jack simply nods and responds to her by saying;
“that’s fine with me I do my best work with difficult patients like Terri”

As Jack stands up Karen says to Jack;
“one more thing Jack, Terri is having a visit from her boyfriend at about three o’clock and they will probably spend time in her room which is fine but just keep an eye on him as he does not help Terri”.
Jack asks ” what do you mean”?
Karen tells Jack ” he brings stuff in with him for her to self harm with but we know he hides the objects on himself and we can’t search him. If you see anything he is to leave straight away”
Jack responds “ok not a problem, he will be leaving quickly if I see anything”.
Jack walks out of the office and onto the ward and as he walks through the door he scans the ward through a window in the door just for his own safety. He doesn’t want a patient trying to run at him to get out the door, or as has before to be punched in the side of the head before as he walked into a ward in the past and it is something he doesn’t want to happen again. As Jack closes the door behind him he sees two staff towering over a patient who is sitting in a corner of the day area facing the wall. The two staff are just standing there and as Jack walks over and nods at them he wonders to himself
“why does one of them not sit down next to the patient and talk to her”?
Hey but who is he to judge right he doesn’t know the full story. As he gets over to the two staff Jack says;
” I’m here to be on Terri’s constant, where is she”?
One of the nurses respond in an unprofessional manner and say;
“thank god for that, this is Terri and she has decided to sit her and not come out of the corner and we have had enough”
Jack looks at the idiot talking to him and has a feeling of wanting to slap the arrogance out of him a few hundred times and just responds
“well maybe if you sit down next to her and try something unusual in this job, talk to her”
Jack just looks at him then plonks his butt down next to Terri. She turns round with a smile on her face and just says
“thanks, they don’t want to talk to me when they are on my constant”
Now Jack doesn’t know the full story of what’s going on here buy he is not easily fooled by patients’ as he has learnt quick. Now what you got to understand about Terri is she does manipulate or tries too, a situation to her advantage just so she can have an opportunity to self harm or get stuff to hurt herself with. Terri is a 17 year old girl from a well to do family and she is dearly loved by her parents. Het history is that she went to a general school but she was top of all her classes sand she was pushed by her parents to succeed as well. Doctors think the pressure to do well from her parents and getting bullied at school caused her mental health issues. Terri is a short girl slim with long dark hair and dresses in dark blue Nike trainers, with gold digger track bottoms and a dark blue Nike hooded top.
Jack introduces himself and says
“I’m on your constant for now, ok so lets not have a bad few hours please” the smiles at her.
Jack suggests getting up out of the corner and maybe walking up and down the day area or having a game of cards. Terri smiles and starts to get up and says
“can we just walk up and down for now”
So up Jack gets and starts to walk with her at a slow pace which suits him just fine. Terri stops and asks Hack to let her in the toilet as she needs to go desperately. Jack looks at her and says
” you are fully supervised so you need a female staff member to let you in a observe you”
Terri expression changes to somewhat of annoyance and replies to Jack in a hostile, annoyed and angry voice
” no I tucking don’t I’m not supervised”
Jack stands his ground and replies to Terri in a calm and softly spoken voice
” I have just had handover from Karen and she has told me you are on full supervision”
Terri buts in and still angry saying “well she fucking lying”
Jacks says “OK shall I just call her out and we will ask her yes” , Jack turns as if to go and call Karen but Terri grabs his arm and says
” no don’t I’ll get Susan to supervise me”
Jack doesn’t say anything her just smiles and calls out for Susan. As Susan walks over the three of them walk over to the toilets and Susan opens the observation hatch in the toilet door then unlocks it and asks Terri not to try and lock the door to which Terri responds
” I know for fucks sake” and then slams the door.
Susan lets Jack know that he handled her well then playing her bluff about calling Karen. Jack responds with just a smile as her doesn’t take compliments very well, he gets all embarrassed. After about five minutes Terri comes out of the toilet and walks away from Jack and Susan just giving and evil stair at Jack. This doesn’t bother Jack as this reaction is common in this line of work from the adolescent patients. Terri storms of and goes and plonks herself on the sofa in the day area and watched TV with some of her peers, it appears to be some sort of crappy soap that they are all watching which happens to be very cheesy in the acting parts but this does amuse Jack so he joins her and sits next to her. By the look on Terri’s face she does not seem very happy that he has joined her on the big brown leather looking sofa but to be fare she has no choice in the matter.
15:00pm (3o’clock)
They sit there for a while and then Karen comes looking for Jack and Terri and calls out to Terri that her boyfriend is here and Terri’s expression and body posture goes from annoyance and slouchy to a big beaming smile and to Terri sitting up straight just like a lady of well to do upbringing. Terri stands and walks over to her boyfriends and she raps her arms around him hugging and kissing him like a woman that has not seen her husband from before the war. Terri asks her boyfriend is known as Jon and appears to be dressing very much like Terri in Nike trainers with track bottoms and a blue hoody with what appears to be a gold necklace around his neck,
“Let’s go to my bedroom” she says to Jon and then turns to Jack and says
“Can you and Susan take us down to our bedroom please?” she asks Jack.
Jack has noticed that she is all politeness and sweat when her boyfriend is here but Jack being Jack just turns to Susan and calls for her to come down with the three of them. Susan gets off the sofa and follows the three of them down to the bedroom corridor to Terri’s room. Jack walks up to the door and opens it for the two love birds but Terri says in a demanding and bossy tone that comes across as sharp as well
“You have to wait out her”
Jack just smiles and notices that the boyfriend just stairs at Jack in a cocky, attempting to look tough manner. Jack just looks back in a manner of I really cannot be arsed with your childish way. As they walk into her bedroom Jon slams the door shut and he can hear from the bedroom Jon speaking to Terri saying
“Don’t fucking like that nurse with his cocky attitude; he’s lucky I didn’t slap him out”
Jack just looks at Susan and laughs and Susan tells Jack that he shouldn’t worry about Jon,
“He’s just a wonna be gangster but can’t stand for himself”
Jack just smiles and replies “that how it appears to me too”
Jack goes back to the door and he can see Terri and Jon sitting on the bed looking in a carrier bag that he had brought in for her. Nothing looks too bad at the minute just Jon’s dress sense and so with that Jack sits back down with Susan. They sit there and every ten minutes one of them has to get up and just check on the pair in the room. About an hour passes and all of a sudden Jack and Susan hear a sound coming from Terrie’s room. It can only be described as a yelp from a woman that appears to be in pain, so with this noise Jack walks over to the door and looks through the observation window in the door and all he can see is Terri sitting on the bed with her arm out to the side and her boyfriend standing in front of her arm and doing what looks like he is shaking something over her arm. Jack swings the bedroom door open and it bangs against the wall and this makes Jon drop whatever was in his hands onto the floor. Jack looks on the floor and it appears to be a tubular container which is white with black writing on and a load of powder falls out over the floor. Jon quickly bends down and tries to pick it up but Jack rushes over and as Jack goes to pick it up he knocks into Jon and Jon goes to the floor with a thud and Jack manages to pick it up before Jon realises where he is. All of a sudden the attack alarms go off and Jack turns round and Susan has activated the alarms and she is starring at Terri’s arm. Terri’s arm which has the open wound on it appears to be raw red almost like it is burnt with specks of white powder over her wound and it is just starting to bleed. Jack looks at what he has in his hands and what is written on the container is oven cleaner, with this Jack looks over at Jon who is starting to get his arse off the floor and Jack says to Jon in a tone what only could be described as ‘I’m going to kick your ass’,
“What the fuck is this? You little shit, how could you do this’
Jon’ response which sounds like someone that’s going to get his ass kicked replies
“She asked me to bring it in”
Jack goes over to Jon thinking I really want to kick the shit out of you but at the same time thinks to himself “you aren’t with losing my job over”. Jack grabs him by the shoulder and drags Jon backwards out of the room and tells Jon to
“Get the fuck off the ward and don’t come back”
Jon has appeared to be a wonna be gangster but to Jack he is a frightened little boy who is under the spell of his girlfriend Terri. Jack watches Jon walk off down the corridor with his head bowed down and sees him walk off the ward but as he gets to the door Jon turns round and shouts at Jack
“You better what your fuck back matey I’m going to get you”
Jack stops in his tracks and turns round to face Jon and starts to run at Jon but Jon bolts it out of the door as quick as a flash and then Jack stops and heads back to the bedroom. Susan heads out of the bedroom and raises her hand and puts it on Jacks chest as if to stop him entering the bed room. Jack stops and looks at Susan and replies to the gesture
“What? What have I done?”
Susan asks him “why do you think you done anything wrong”?
Jacks reply was “well by the look on you face I would say that I have and I’m in trouble”
Susan then smiles and says to Jack “you haven’t done anything wrong, we can’t stand her cocky boyfriend and we have wanted to kick him out for a while”.
Jack smile back at Susan and tells her “well that’s what I’m here for to do the jobs that no one wants”.
At this point the response team that came to help out come out of the bedroom escorting Terri down the bedroom corridor and into the clinic. It looks like she is going to get treated for burns to her arm and well she will have to go to the hospital later if it’s serious enough. Jack goes off to the office and sits with Karen and explains everything what had happened from the moment they got to her bedroom.
18:00 (6 o’clock)
It has taken quite a while to fill out the paper work with Karen as Jack being on the agency does not have access to the patient’s notes. So all the relevant people have been contacted, like Duty consultant, Nurse Manager and the police. To be fair even though the patient has asked for this stuff to be brought in and Terri asked Jon to poor it in her open wound Jon has still committed an offence and the police need to be informed. So once all the paper work has been done and Jack has written his statement it appears to be seven o’clock. Jack looks at his watch and thinks dam that went so quick. Karen turns to Jack and asks if he would come back and work on the ward which seems to be a great idea as Jack does need to have a permanent job with regular hours. There is a knock at the door and it is Terri standing there all bandaged up looking sorry for herself and tells Jack
“I’m sorry for that” looking at Jack.
Jacks response was “there no need to say sorry to me”
Terri quickly turns and walks away to the lounge with her two constant nurses. Jack tells Karen that he has had a great shift and it has gone so quick with everything that has happened but he has enjoyed the evening.
“Thanks again” says Karen as Jack walks off and then Susan calls out to Jack “thanks for the help”.
Jack just Bowes his head and walks off the ward through the door and thinks that was different for sure.

Some of the things Jack has learnt in mental health.

August 16, 2014August 19, 2014/Jon Hunter/Leave a comment

As I have already said before Jack has worked in mental health for a number of years and he has learnt quite a lot. Today Jack is going over things he has heard and learnt about in his working years such as:

Patient= A person also will be known as a service user with in the hospital or service of mental health.
Nurses= A person that has done training at university for up to three years and has passed their training and assessments to be recognised as a qualified nurse.
HCA= Is a person who is also known as a nurse, health care assistant, care assistant or nursing auxiliary. These people are the front line on the wards and have a lot of input towards the client or patient getting treatment.
Consultant= is the term used for the doctor in charge of the patient care while they stay in hospital and are also known as a Psychiatrist.
Section= this is a legal holding power for the mental health team that enables the hospital to keep a patient for treatment.
Section 2= A patient is to be detained under the mental health act for up to 28 days for assessment but they could be taken off the section before the 28 days.
Section 3= the patient is to be detained for up to 6 months for treatment and also they could be released before the 6 months is up. If not then the section 3 will restart after the 6 months and the patient could be detained up to 12 months.
Schizophrenia= a patient could hear or see things that are real to them but we cannot hear or see and this could be upsetting to the patient. It could affect the patients thought process, perception of reality and fantasy, set on paranoia and also aggression.
Paranoia= a patient could be thinking that people are talking about them, people are out to get them and sometimes that the government are out to get them and could lead to aggressive or abnormal behaviour.
Meds= medication given to patients that is supposed to help the patient in their treatment and help settle them.
Self-harm= this is when a patient will physically hurt them self by either cutting them self, head banging, pulling out their hair or in some cases starving themselves. There are so many reasons why a patient will do some of these things such as a history of abuse, bullying overpowering people in their lives. The list can go on.
Control and restraint= is the act of controlling a patient that could have been aggressive towards another patient or staff member and the team has to stop the patient with physical intervention. Staffs are trained to a high standard when using these techniques.
Seclusion= this is when a patient has been highly aggressive towards someone and they have to be removed from the environment into a low stimulus room. Some seclusion rooms have padding on the walls, floor and doors but some don not.
Enhanced Nursing= A patient will have a nurse with then 24/7 knowing where and what they are doing.
Arms Length= The nurse is to be within arms reach at all time.
Eye sight= The nurse has to be able to see the patient at all times.
Allocated= Is to know what the patient is doing and where they are at all times but does not have to be in eyesight.
2-2-1= a patient has two nurses with them all the time.
1-2-1= a patient has one nurse with them all times.

These are just some of the things Jack has come across in his journey in being a mental health nurse and working in different places and with different patients and nursing teams. Jack has never wanted to be a qualified nurse as there is a lot of responsibility on the nurse’s shoulders while looking after the patients and a hell of a lot of paper work too. So Jack decided to stay as a health care assistant and work mainly on the shop floor with the patients and he feels that he has more of an input in the patient’s wellbeing.
Over time we will come across a lot of patients Jack will meet with all sorts of history and some sad and some horrible, which could make you think “how could anyone do this to some people”? It is easy to understand why some patients can be aggressive towards others with their past. Have trouble building up trust in the nursing team as people they have trusted and loved have hurt them and let them down so why should the nurses be any different. Jack has come across patient that has had no family input while they have been in hospital. A lot of family visits and input and have a good family life. Drug induced problems brought on by drugs or was the problem there and the drugs just help bring it out? Who knows really.

Jack is having a bad day.

August 14, 2014March 23, 2016/Jon Hunter/Leave a comment

Jack wakes up suddenly and sits bolt upright in bed covered in sweat and heavy breathing. Jack says to himself “what the hell” and with his right hand rubs his head and wipes the sweat from his face. Once he gathers himself he lies back down again, but looks over to his wife and notices that she is awake. His wife cuddles up to Jack resting her head on his right shoulder and says to him in a quiet gentle voice “bad dream? You want to talk about it”? While she says this to him she starts to stroke his hairy chest. Jack responds “it’s about the patient on yesterday’s shift. What if he had killed himself in front of me and what if ” his wife cut him off in his tracks and said ” but he didn’t kill himself thanks to you jumping in there quickly, you’re a hero ” Jack looked down at his wife and said to her lovingly ” you always know exactly what to say to make me feel better”. Jack bent his head forward and kissed the top of his wives head softly. Jacks wife looked up and lifted her head up towards Jacks and she softly kissed him on the lips which made Jack smile like a Cheshire cat. His wife turns back over saying quietly “love you” and pulls the quilt up passed her shoulders leaving just the top of her head showing. Jack lays there for a few minutes and then decides to get out of bed and go down stairs.
05:30 am.
While Jack enters the lounge he decides to attempt some exercises just so it will wake him up a bit more. Jack decides to do leg raises, so he lays flat on his back with his legs out in front of him and his hands down by his side but just tucked a little under his butt. Jack raises his legs straight up and holds it in place for the count of three seconds then gently lowers his feet to the floor but not actually touching the floor. Jack manages to do this about fifteen times and repeats these fifteen reps three times with a rest of about forty seconds in between each set. After Jack completes this he decides to do some press ups with his feet elevated on a dinning chair. He lowers his shoulders and chest to the ground and holds it in a low position for the count of three then raises his chest and repeats this exercise about thirteen times. After completing the first set Jack rests for thirty seconds and repeats the exercise another two more times with a rest of thirty seconds each time. When Jack finishes this he starts running on the spot bringing his knees up past his waist at a fast pace for about a minute with a rest of about forty seconds and then does it again two more times. Jack completes this and decides to try and does one more round of each exercise. Once he has completed the exercises one more time he collapses on the floor in a heap, Jack stretches out with his legs in front and his arms above is head and lays there for a minute or two. When Jack gets his breath back he staggers up the stairs and heads to the bathroom and strips of his sweaty clothes and dumps them in the laundry basket next to the door. Jack opens the shower cubicle door and turns the shower on, he doesn’t jump straight in as it takes a couple of seconds for the water to warm up. As Jack sticks his hand through the door under the water to see if it’s hot enough he leans in and realises that it is hot enough for him and steps inside. While Jack washes himself down he thinks about what to have for his breakfast, should it be fried egg and bacon in a bread roll or scrambled egg with a slice of wholemeal toast. Jack reaches round and turns off the shower and then pulls open the cubicle door to the shower and as he pulls it open he loses his footing and slips on the shower cubicle floor and at the same time Jack says to himself “you bloody twat” but also chuckles to himself. He steps out of the shower after nearly going head over tip and starts to dry himself off with a towel. Jack finishes drying off and decides to moisturise himself as his skin does at times get quite dry and can look a little embarrassing at times when it does dry when it appears to be on your shoulders of a dark top. So quietly off he goes trying to be as quiet as a mouse trying to get his clothes to get dressed into for the day, he decides that he is going to wear beige combats with a black polo shirt which does kind of suit him. After getting dressed he walks down the stairs into the kitchen and starts to make breakfast. Jack has decided to make himself scrambled eggs on whole meal toast and decides to use six large eggs. After turning the frying pan on Jack puts a knob of butter in the frying pan and stands hypnotised watching it melt in the pan then realising what he is doing Jack reaches for the eggs one by one and cracks them open in the pan and with each one he tries to fish out the splinters of shell that fall off from the egg. When he finishes this the fishing of the shells Jack turns on the grill for his bread to toast and leaves that grilling but also turning back to the frying pan to stir it once in a while just so it does not burn and turns down the heat. Jack walks over to the kettle and fills it with just enough water and makes himself a coffee but has two spoons of coffee to wake him up a little. I know Jack has exercised and appears to be awake but that little bit of extra help never hurts. After about five minutes Jack serves up his coffee and breakfast and goes and sits in front of the TV watching crappy daytime TV while he eats from the plate on his lap. When Jack has just about to finish his last bit of buttery scrambled egg his mobile starts to ring and he notices on his phone that it is the nursing agency he works for. Jack picks up his phone and greats the person on the other end with a loud “morning” and the voice on the other end replies “oh err err good morning Jack it’s Janet at the agency, do you fancy working today? It’s at Walton Lodge which is a mental health unit for teenagers”? Jack pauses before he answers and then replies “yer why not, what are the hours then”? Janet response “it is going to be about four to five hours as they want someone with your set of skills to help escort a patient back to prison but the patient can be a little difficult to handle”. Jack smiles and replies to Janet “not a problem when do they want me there”? “As soon as you can, shall I tell them you are on your way then and expect you in the next hour or so”? Replies Janet. “Ok on my way in five minutes” says Jack and hangs up the phone. Standing up Jack takes his plate and cup over to the sink and washes them up and leaves them on the drainer to dry by themselves. Jack pops up stairs to his wife and tells her that he has just been asked to work for a few hours and that he will see her later. Jacks wife replies “ok darling have a good shift” and kisses Jack with a peck on the lips and smiles as she turns over back to sleep.
07:30 am
Out the door Jack goes locking it behind him just to make sure his wife is safe when she is still sleeping. Jack turns right and walks down the street to the end then turns left and walks down the main road. Jack knows Walton Lodge and knows it is not very far maybe about thirty minutes give or take As Jack walks down the main road he pops into a shop just to get some extra strong minutes as he needs his little fix of mints now and again. Jack leaves the shop after a few minutes and says good morning to the shop keeper as he leaves and continues on his merry way. On the way to work Jack passes an elderly man must be in his sixties for sure but he appears to be physically fit as he appears to be going for a morning jog. Jack tries not to stare at the elderly man as he gets closer but at that last minute Jacks catches his eye and says morning to the elderly man, as the man is puffing and panting he says in an exhausted breath “morning” and continues running in the other direction. Jack smiles at himself but then thinks “how long has it been since I went for a run? Maybe I should start again”. Jack reaches the end of the road he was walking down and has to cross a busy road where it is known for a few bad accidents. This time Jack is not one of those statistics and gets across the road with somewhat ease but he did run across at his first opportunity. Continuing on his walk to Walton Lodge Jack decides to shut himself off from the world and listens to music on his phone. The music is not what Jack downloaded; his wife had to do that for him as Jack is not really technically minded. He reaches into his left pocket and pulls out his phone and in his rucksack he rummages around for his headphones; he places his bag on the floor and has a proper search for his head phones. Picking up his bag Jack plugs his headphones in and continues on his way to work, he decides to listen to music he usually listens to when he decides to go to the gym which is not that often. Jack finally reaches Walton Lodge and he lifts up his right arm to see the time and he walked to work in just around thirty minutes which was not too bad for him. As Jack has worked here before he knows where he is going and walks to the main reception area. Once he has walked to the reception area Jack opens the door and is greeted by an older lady behind a thick glass panel with a hatch at the bottom of it as if to pass things through it. Jack says to the older lady “Hi I’m Jack I think I am here to help in an escort today”. The lady just looks at Jack and say “ok” and picks up the phone and dials a five digit number and there is a pause for a few seconds then the older lady says ” I got a Jack here for the escort where do you want me to send him”? The lady slams down the phone then presses a button which Jack has noticed made a clicking sound come from a double door he was standing next to and the lady said “just push the door please and come in” So Jack being a good boy pushes the door open and shuts it behind him and now Jack is in what is only described as an air lock with another window with another hatch at the bottom. The same lady reappears and asks for his ID from his nursing agency, so Jack takes the ID which by the way is hanging round his neck and passes it through the hatch at the bottom of the window. The lady takes the ID and walks away with it into another room to which Jack cannot see her then she comes back quite quickly and brings him a set of keys and an alarm which everyone has to have when they enter the building. The alarm when pulled lets other staff knows were exactly an incident is going on and they can respond with a team. The lady in reception tells Jack “you need to go to Acute admissions ward, do you know where that is”? Jack just simply nods and turns towards another door on the other side of the airlock and at the same time the lady in reception presses another button and the door makes a noise and Jack pulls it open and walks through. Once Jack has shut the door he attaches the keys to his own belt clip and the personal alarm to his belt then walks to his left and down a long corridor towards the acute admissions unit. As walking down towards his ward he will be working on you can see pictures on the wall of scenery but all the pictures have been screwed on to the wall which is not too surprising in a mental health hospital. The carpets are thick under the feet and are of a dark shade of blue and black, Jack thinks to himself the designer in here I think needs some glasses as the carpet is blue and black patterns and the walls are a off colour of burgundy and it just seem to match but that’s just Jacks personal opinion. As Jack gets closer to the ward there is a double door painted white with a sign on it which says “ press the bell to be let in” so as the sign says Jack presses the bell but does not hear anything but stands there. On the door is the ward name and it says in different colours Acute Admissions and under that says please wait until you are let in. Jack continues to wait for another five minutes then Jack hears a click come from the door and the door slowly opens and a man pokes his head round the door and says “hello can I help you”? Jack replies “I have been sent from the agency to come and do an escort to prison for a few hours”. The man smiles and steps out from behind the door and shut it behind him. Jack looks at the man and he is about six foot with a shaven head and is built like he regularly goes to a gym and lifts weights. I mean this guy looks like a house on legs and has a voice to match it as well. Down the man’s left arm is a nice thick tribal tattoo which Jack likes and on the other arm he has what looks like a number of runes tattoo just like the ones from that film ‘ Mortal Instruments, City of bones’ and they do look impressive. The man reaches out his right hand as if to shake Jacks hand , Jack does the same and shakes his hand , this man has a hand shake like a vice and Jack feels at this point a little small as this man is a unit. The man says to Jack “nice to meet you in Gary I will be coming with you on the escort I am head of conflict management”. Jack smiles and says “nice to meet you”. Gary says to Jack “I’ll take you through to the office and hand over to you about the patient and what’s going to happen”. Gary takes his keys out of his pocket and then holds his keys over a little panel by the door and it beeps then he pulls the right side of the door and walks through with Jack. As Jack walks through he enters a little corridor come airlock and notices to his right is an open door with thick padding on it and he hears voices coming from it, this must be the seclusion room. To his left is another two doors one in front saying Kitchen and another one just off from the kitchen saying Day Area and in front is the nursing office. Gary opens the office door and says to Jack “come in and take a seat”. Jack enters the office and sits on a swivel office chair just by the door and sees three other people in the office, one is another man about 5ft 8 and is well built as well with short cropped hair wearing black combats and a black polo shirt with ESCORT written on his shirt. This man looks at Jack and smiles and say “hi there, you ready for this “with a little bit of humour in his voice. Then says “I’m Carl I will be joining you on the escort today”. Jacks response is to just smile and say “hi I’m Jack and yes I am ready for this is it going to be difficult transfer “? Carl smile and says “not really but the patient thinks he is a gangster and a hard nut” Jack thinks to himself oh well and asks “so he is a bit of a bully then”?
After about ten minutes Gary sits next to Jack and says “right hand over time, you ready for this”? And start to tell everything about the patient who is called Stanley. Stanley is from a dysfunctional family and his up brining was to be beaten by his father and forced to fight people bigger than him and if he lost or gave up in a fight he was beaten by his father. So all Stanley knows is if someone gets onto you, you use your fists and feet to get one over on your opponent and don’t stop until you win. So it is not surprising he has a history of attacking staff, men or women or just anyone who pisses him off. When Jack hears everything about the patient Stanley he is not surprised he is like this as Jack himself hates bullies and Stanley is a perfect result of a bullying. Jack stands up and leaves the office with Gary and Carl and walks into the seclusion room where Stanley is sat on the floor with two staff holding him in a forearm hold. Carl says to Stanley “this is Jack and he is helping with taking you back to prison” Stanley looks at Jack looking him up and down and Stanley says to Jack trying to look and sound tough “he looks like a weasel “ and laughs. Jack stands there and looks at Gary and Carl then looks at Stanley and says “sorry but was that suppose to intimidate me”? And just looks Stanley straight in the eyes, trying not to take a gulp. Jack says “I think you need to work on you intimidation because it isn’t working”. Jack hears a little snigger coming from Carl and Gary. Gary steps forward and says to Stanley “I’m afraid you are going to have to be placed in handcuffs, this is because of the high risk of potential aggression from you”, Stanley looks at Gary and says “whatever twat face, do what you got to do”. Gary says “well if you are going to play ball we can hand cuff you to the front but if you are going to be silly I will cuff your hands behind you and it will be uncomfortable for you”, Stanley responds “I will play game “. The two nurses holding Stanley turn toward him and get up on the feet still hold him by the wrists now but hold his hands out in front of him , Gary leans forward and cuffs Stanley to the front. The two nurses stand up as they let go and walk out of the seclusion room and Jack hears one of the nurses mutter “Thank god he’s going” but the only thing with the nurse saying this is that Stanley hears this and stands up quickly and attempts to run at the nurse. Jack reaches forward and grabs the cuffs and tilts the cuffs side ways to put Stanley in a bit of discomfort in the cuffs and stop him in his tracks. At the same time Gary and Carl jump forward and take hold of Stanley by the elbows just so they can bring his arms back towards his stomach to control his aggression. Stanley at this time is shouting “what the fuck, why that bitch say that” Jack responds “Stanley relax, you is not going to get her so please relax, I will back you up with what she said” Stanley suddenly stops and looks Jack in the eyes and says “really” and Jack nods in response to what Stanley says. Stanley says to Jack “you’re a top bloke, thank you, they hate me on here”. Gary and Carl relax their grip on Stanley’s elbows and Jack asks Stanley to relax and just lean back against the wall and says “us three are here just to escort you and we are not here to judge you, we just want a nice and easy journey what about you”? Stanley looks at Carl, Gary and Jack and says “thanks”.
10:00am
Walking out of reception with Gary, Carl and the patient Stanley Jack says here we go, let’s have a nice journey please. In front of the team is a black family wagon with doors on the side and Gary walks in front of me, Stanley and Carl and unlocks the vehicle, sliding the side door open. We all climb in the transport with Carl on one side then Stanley then myself sitting in the back of the transport. Everybody makes sure we are all strapped in with our seat belts and the vehicle pulls off with Gary driving. As we are pulling off Gary says to Carl and me “if any problems just call out pull over “this is our say so to pull over and implement full restraint with Stanley. We both reply “ok will do”. After about fifteen minutes into the journey Carl and myself notice that Stanley has fallen asleep like a little baby and we both look at each other and smile and Jack takes this as a point to relax but just still be aware of Stanley. This is because you cannot let your guard down with this character just because of his sad past of bullying from his father. If you think about it, if you train Stanley to use his aggression and get him to form some form of self control he would make a great UFC fighter. It just looks like this will not happen at the minutes as he has a too short a fuse for this life style at the minute. You never know in prison he may come under the wing of someone with sense and teach him the ways and teach him discipline.
The journey takes about hour and half and as we pull up to the prison gates to Jack it does look quite scary seeing the high walls and the huge double doors just to get through the first few metres of entry. I give Stanley a nudge and quietly say” we are here now but relax “, Stanley starts to wake up and stairs around and say “dam” Jack looks at Stanley and smiles. As Gary drives through the gates there are about six to ten guards standing there waiting and watching us as we drive through. Gary pulls the vehicle to a stop and says “sorry Jack but you will have to wait here due to the clearance, which Jack has not had due to the short nice of coming in to help with the escort. Jacks say “not a problem, I understand”. As Carl and Gary leave with Stanley, Jack sits back and pulls out his phone from his pocket of his combat trousers and plays on a few games while waiting. Jack sits while playing on his phone which happens to be an I phone but the reception is not too good in the prison grounds, not surprising really being on a prison ground. It must be at least another hour or two before Carl and Gary returns to the vehicle. Gary says as he enters the Vehicle and says “that went better than I thought”, what he meant by this is that Stanley has a bad history of aggression against others mainly on the ward and during transfer so he could try and get away as in escape. Stanley appears to be happy going back to prison but maybe we are wrong, who knows.
On the journey back Gary tells Jack that they are looking for a few more members of their staffing team and would like Jack to join their team of escorting the worst of the worst in the country. The training will be given to you once you agree to the job. Once you agree and get taken on in the team you will be part of a twenty four person team that escorts the most dangerous criminals and most psychotic patients in the country. If you do not pass the training first time round you will be supervised on a strict supervised working schedule and then we will assist you on your reassessment and you will pass. While Gary tells Jack all this Carl is nodding and once in a while Gary laughs to himself as if to say it’s a no win basis and Jack will be paid better than what he is earning at the moment. Gary tells Jack to think about it and if he has a partner please talk it over with them and get back to me in about a week or two. Jack smiles and thinks constantly about Gary’s offer on the way home. Once they enter the grounds of Walton Lodge and Gary drives down the lane to the entrance.
16:25 pm
Pulling up outside Walton Lodge the team has chatted and jokes about how bad the day could have gone but also how well the day did go. Gary told Jack that he is very good at working in escort and he is on a wasted job doing just a health care worker. Don’t get me wrong hospitals, community homes and mental health hospitals of any sort could not and will not no matter where they are in the world survive without health care workers, nursing assistants, care assistants and health care assistants just to name a few. These are the unsung heroes of the health care profession.
Jack walks into the nursing office of the acute admissions unit and takes a seat from where he was earlier in the day. Looks like that the chair is still in the same place as before and no one has sat in it yet but still Jack could be mistaken. In the office is a nurse called Pat and she is a young nurse but young as in her thirties. She turns to Jack as he sits down and asks him “how was the escort”? and Jack replies “went without a problem, Stanley was a angle he fell asleep as soon as the transport pulled off, he did not try anything on the way”, Pat replied he won’t not with Gary and Carl they are our two best transporter staff going” in response to that I said that they offered me a job and the money seems good with benefits”. Pat turned in her swivel chair and said with excitement “are you going to take it”? Jack smiles and says to Pat “after a shift that we had hardly any contact you would have me here”? On this reply Pat says if Gary and Carl ask you to come and work, you are a top bloke and that is good enough for us”.

17:10pm
Jack has sat there for about an hour letting Pat know what happened from the seclusion room to entering back on the unit during the whole transfer and as Jack is talking to Pat she is typing it in his notes and then transfers it to his admission papers to prison. Jack and Pat sit there and talk about Stanley and how miss understood he is and he is just in need of guidance to control hid aggression. Pat then says to Jack “we don’t have anyone with those skills here to deal with patients like him”. Upon this Jack says that “you may need to respond to this by controlling the out bursts with punching pad work to a say so of the pad holder in a timed environment controlling the movement and breathing of the patient”. This controls the patient’s aggression and temper but only with someone that can hold their ground and environment and reduces the aggressive outbursts.
Pat after this has finished typing in the patient’s notes and with everything Jack has said she mentioned “what if I put forward about controlling the aggression in a therapeutic environment and controlled setting to redirect the aggressive behaviour to a positive outcome”. Jack replies that he would love something like that and a permanent job and hours just to relax his life style. As time goes by and finishes what has happened during the day Jack thinks “I do like it here, I’d come and work here again.
Jack finishes his handover and asks if it is ok to finish his shift?. Pat looks at Jack and smiles and thanks him for his work and reassures Jack that they will be asking for his services again for escorts and for on ward activities as he does not seem to be afraid by the intimidation of others. Now we come to realise Jack is not to be backed down by patients, men or women man or child meaning teenager. Jack leaves the building feeling positive and a worthwhile and a place that wants his skills of confrontation and de-escalation but there are not a lot of staff skills in using these particular skill sets in mental health. Jack walks out of the ward and building and thinks “that was an easy shift, and due to the aggression of high risk it was worth the money. So as he walks out of the grounds, Jack walks home and thinks about the job offer he has had from the escort team and the ward and to be fair it would be more than what he is on at the minute. If he took this role on he could be having a regular pay check and income.

Jacks day in working as a Health Care Assistant

August 7, 2014March 23, 2016/Jon Hunter/1 Comment

07:00 am
The alarms goes off to the music of radio one and Jack wakes to a startle as he had been drinking the night before. Jack reaches over and slams his hand on the alarm clock radio to turn the noise off. Jack rubs his hand over his head rubbing it and says to himself ‘shit what was I drinking?’. then roles back over in bed just lying there, feeling a bit worse for wear from the previous night. Jack turns over after five minutes and kisses his sleeping wife and jumps out of bed and heads over to the bathroom for a shower. Jack turns the shower on but does not check the temperature of the water and as he steps in he lets out a little yelp as the water is cold but maybe that’s what he needs as he is feeling a bit hung over. Jack just stands in the shower for a few minutes then starts slowly to wash himself over. When Jack is done he starts to wake up a little more and starts to get dressed in the bathroom just so he does not wake his sleeping wife. Jack checks the time and it is about 07:23 am and he quietly comes out of the bathroom which is off the bedroom and creeps through the bedroom and out into the landing and heads down stairs to the kitchen. Whilst in the kitchen Jack makes a strong coffee with two scoops of coffee and a little milk just to make it that bit stronger. As he drinks it he turns the TV on but quietly just to have a little thing to listen too while making some toast to eat. Jack has the strong coffee with toast with a homemade meat pate and ham on top. Jack starts to wake up better now after drinking the coffee and then walks to the sink and washes up his things but leaves them on the drainer to dry. Jack checks the time on his watch and it says it is 07:40 and collects his things and puts them in his rucksack. Before Jack leaves he heads back to the bedroom and kisses his wife on the check goodbye and says ‘I Love you’, his wife mumbles ‘love you too’ and turns over in bed. Jack heads off down stairs and out the door.
It usually takes Jack about forty minutes to walk to work but Jack has plenty of time as he does not have to start until about 08:45 am. On the way to work Jack likes to watch people and think about what people have been up to and what they do for a job. On the way to work Jack watches and looks at people and on the way he sees a man with stains down his shirt and a bloody face walking all over the place, Jack chuckles to himself and thinks that maybe this man has been in a fight over a woman he tried to chat up the night before. The girl’s boyfriend maybe took offence to this and smacks this bloke in the face making him spill his beer over his shirt. Jack walks on to work and does not see any interesting people until about five minutes from work wear he sees a bloke passed out on the grassy verge. Jack being a caring person walks over to him and gives him a little shake and asks the passed out gentle man ‘are you ok’, the man mumbles to Jack ‘piss off, leave me alone’. Jack stands back and tells the passed out man that he is sleeping on a grassy verge in the street. The man stumbles to get up and starts to wonder off. Jack turns around and walks off as the man appears aggressive and even though Jack can handle himself he does not want to get in to a fight with a drunk. Jack continues on his way to work and gets there about 08:35 am and thinks that’s not bad timing.

08:45am
Jack arrives at a Mental Health Hospital for adults from the age of 16 to the age of 60. Today Jack is working on a ward called Premier and it is an admissions ward which is mixed males and females but with two bedroom corridors, one side females and the other is males. After Jack have had his hand over in the nursing office with a team of ten nurses which has two qualified and eight Health Care Assistants and has one seclusion room for aggressive patients. On Premier ward the patients are held on a section of the mental health act which is either a section 2 which means the person is held in hospital for assessment for up to twenty eight days or a section 3 which means the person is held in hospital for treatment for up to six months then if the section is going to be restarted it will go for twelve months for treatment.
Today Jack is nursing a patient who is on a constant or an enhanced nursing program due to the seriousness of the patients self-harm or suicide attempts. A constant is a nurse has to be within arm’s length of the patient at all times no matter where they are or what they are doing. This is because the patient has serious potential of trying to kill himself. The patients name is Paul and he is a thirty five year old man who has gone through a bad divorce with his wife and Paul could not handle it as he lost custody of his kids and house. Paul could not handle this and decided to try and end his life by cutting his throat. Paul was admitted a week ago and due to Paul’s injuries he was placed on a constant as he has tried to rip out his stitches from his throat. Jack goes over to Paul as he is in the day area which the communal area for the patients, ‘Hi I’m Jack I am on your constant for a while ‘ Paul looks up and stares at Jack looking him up and down with a look of disgust. Paul stands up suddenly looking annoyed facing Jack, so jack stands his ground and holds his hand out to shake hands with Paul. The only thing is Jack is thinking ‘this guy is trying to intimidate me’ but Jack just smiles holding out his hand. Paul facing Jack just gulps asks Jack does not move and decides to shake his hand. Jack continues to smile and says ‘nice to meet you Paul’. Paul just sits back down and talks to Jack about what he is hear for but tells Jack ‘I’m on a constant because I hurt people and like hurting people’. Jacks response to this was ‘ you’re on a constant because of you attempts of killing yourself’ and just looks Paul in the eyes but Pauls response was just to smile and says to Jack ‘ ok you’re not easily pushed, I like you’. Jacks smiles and says ‘thanks’ but Jack still does not let his guard down as Paul appears to be a bit of a player but not a good one in his eyes.
Paul gets up and wonders off down the corridor toward his room and Jack gets up and follows him but Paul looks back and looks annoyed that Jack is following him, this does not faze Jack he is only doing his job and this patient will try it no matter who is on his constant. Paul enters his bedroom and slams the door behind him shutting Jack in the corridor. Jack Opens the bedroom door and enters the room where he finds Paul standing at the window looking out the window. Jack keeps the door open by putting a chair against the door and Jack stands where he can see Paul fully which means he is standing against a wall which he leans against. Paul says to Jack ‘what the bloody hell you doing in my room, did I say you could come in?’ Jack smiles and responds to him ‘ you are on a constant and I have to be with arm’s length of you all times’ which seems to shit Paul up straight away as Jack does not seemed to be fazed by Pauls attitude. Paul asks Jack ‘what if I need to go to the toilet?’ and Jacks response is ‘I need to be able to see you at all times’ and leaves it there with the conversation. Paul stands there at the window and appears to be responding to outside stimulation (voices) but from Jacks hand over nothing was handed over about Paul hears voices. Paul asks Jack ‘is you afraid of blood?’ Jack stands up straights and stops leaning against the wall and moves his hand down towards his personal alarm which will tell other staff where the emergency is so they could respond. Paul turns round and looks Jack in the eyes and Paul brings his right hand up to his dressing and rips off his dressing and with the other hand rips at his stitches. At this point Jack has set off the alarms for assistance and lunges at Paul to stop him hurting himself more. Jack grabs his right wrist and tries to grab his other hand ripping at his stitches. By the time Jack manages to grab at Pauls left hand he has ripped out his stitches and his wound has opened up and you can see inside his throat. In the struggle Jack has pinned Paul against the wall and Paul has managed to get his fingers inside his throat and hooked his fingers in side. Jack has hold of Pauls hand and pins his hand against Pauls hand against his open wound. Staff enter the room in a rush and Jack shouts out ‘don’t move him he’s got his hand in his throat’. Paul sees all the staff enter and stops struggling, staff see the situation and decide one other staff will support Jack and contain the other side of Paul to minimise the danger of the situation. If staff did not do this Paul could have coursed serious injuries or worse to himself. Another staff member holds on to Jacks hand to support his hand which is holding Pauls hand. Some of the team walk out of the room and Jack can hear them chatting but he cannot hear what they are saying. After about ten minutes but seems like hours the qualified comes back in who is called Clare and explains what is going to happen. Clare tells Jack and Paul that staffs is going to tape Jacks hand to Pauls hand and neck to minimise the potential risk of injury or death and then they will inject Paul with medication to chill him out. Paul starts shouting out ‘no fucking way’ and attempts to struggle but the team hold on to Paul and Clare rushes out and returns quickly with some tape. Clare tapes up Pauls and Jacks hands around Paul’s neck and then Clare injects Pauls in the left arm and after about ten to fifteen minutes Paul starts to relax and releases the tension in his body and Jack can feel this relaxing body. Staff in the meantime has brought up a patient trolley to transport Paul down to another department in the hospital so Paul can have treatment and Jacks hand can be let go and Pauls hand can be removed safely with no problems. Jack and the staff move Paul slowly out of his bedroom and into the corridor while Jacks hand is still taped around Paul’s neck. Staffs have helped Paul on to the trolley and Jack has to try and walk on the side of the trolley but facing Paul.
The whole journey down to the other ward takes at least about fifteen minutes and they have gone down to a clinic or theatre so that Paul can be given more medication to make him sleep and both Jacks and Pauls hands can be removed. During the whole journey Clare the qualified nurse has stayed with Paul and Jack given Jack reassurance the whole time. Once in the clinic there is a team of about ten staff all in scrubs or theatre gowns waiting for us which is a happy site for Jack. Once wheeled in to the theatre a nurse starts to put an intravenous cannula into his arm to give him medication to make him sleep. This takes about three to four minutes to take effect and Paul appears to be sleeping with an oxygen mask over his mouth. The lead person in the theatre unravels the tape around Paul’s neck and Jacks hand. Jack has held his breath while this is being done and as soon as the tape comes off Jacks starts breathing again. When Jack has done this the lead nurse in the theatre giggles and says to Jack ‘you can relax now’, Jack lets go of Pauls hand and steps back and turns to Clare and smiles and says ‘thanks’. The theatre staff asks Jack and Clare to leave the room while they operate on Paul. With a feeling of happiness from Jack he walks out of theatre and has all sorts of emotions running through his head and body.
Jack leaves the theatre and wonders down to the canteen to get his head together. What Jack has been through is not what anyone should go though, as seeing someone trying to kill themself is not an event that is ever nice to see. Jack orders a coffee and takes a seat and relaxes for about thirty to forty minutes before Clare enters and sits with Jack with a drink and askes Jack ‘How you feeling?’ Jacks response is ‘shit that was fucked up but I’m fine thank you’ and just smiles ay Clare. Clare askes Jack ‘really?’ and Jack just nods. Clare finishes her drink and says to Jack ‘I think we should head back to theatre and collect Paul and take him back to the ward. Clare and Jack stand up and return their cups back to the counter and say ‘Thank you’ and walk slowly back to theatre. Once in theatre they see Paul in recovery and see him still sleeping on a patient trolley and the recovery nurse say that he is ok to return to the ward now. A porter, Jack and Clare return back to Premier ward and return back to Paul’s room and slide Paul over to his bed. Even though Jack has just been through a bad incident Jack has to remain on his constant and observe his breathing and vital signs. To Jacks delight he will have company has company while observing Paul it is Clare as a qualified nurse as policy states with in the hospital.

12:45pm
Jack is sitting there doing his job well with Clare and he looks at his watch and notices that he only has about fifteen minutes left on his shift as he is only working a half day today. Clare askes Jack ‘do you think you will come back and work here again?’ Jack just looks at Clare and smiles as he nods and says ‘yes, it’s been exciting’. Clare lets Jack know that she will write the incident report of what has happened this morning and he needs not to worry about anything that has happened. Jack was told that he has done a great job and that he has probably saved a man’s life with his actions. This brings a smile to Jacks face and made him feel worthwhile in his job as a health care post. It hits one o’clock in the afternoon and another nurse comes in and says ‘I have come to take over you on Pauls constant and you can go home now. Jack responds by saying ‘thank you for an exciting shift.

13:00 pm
Jack walks out of the building and thinks to himself ‘what the hell’ but really Jack did enjoy his shift today. Jack wonders off home and looks forward to getting home but the only thing is that his was wife will be at work and he will be alone when he gets back. So Jack wonders off in to town and decides to buy his wife a gift just because, this means there is no special occasion just to say I Love You. It reaches about 14:30 pm and Jack gets home and after having a shower and dumps his clothes in the laundry he changes into shorts and a vest and sits on the sofa with a bottle of wine and puts on a movie. Jack sits there and thinks to himself where and what will he be doing tomorrow and how long will his shift be.

	Jon Hunter on Men’s mental health.
	Jon Hunter on Men’s support group
	Jon Hunter on Men’s support group on zo…
	Jon Hunter on Men’s support group
	Jon Hunter on Warrior men’s group

	Jon Hunter on Men’s mental health.
	Jon Hunter on Men’s support group
	Jon Hunter on Men’s support group on zo…
	Jon Hunter on Men’s support group
	Jon Hunter on Warrior men’s group

Motivational things

trying something different

Month: August 2014

Jack at the Bungalow

Jack’s Day in Physio

Jack with the Adolescents

Some of the things Jack has learnt in mental health.

Jack is having a bad day.

Jacks day in working as a Health Care Assistant

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