Motivational things

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.