Once Carl was secluded and the paper work for the seclusion was filled out Tim had been taken by the paramedics which had to attend and the ward manage went with him, they took him off to A&E. I was asked to do the incident report on what had happened. I went into the office and there must have been about five staff in the office and asked the other nurse in charge,

‘If you want me to do this report you will have to get the staff in the office to come into the day area while I do this’

She looked around and confidently got three staff to go into the day area for the next ten to fifteen minutes. As some of them walked out you could see the looks on their faces as if they had just been asked to do something terrible. As they walk off into the day area I notice that I get a few funny looks as I sit down at the desk to do the report.

‘Really, What’

I mouth to the staff staring in my direction. As soon as they see me mouthing they look away as if they had just been shamed. I spend the next ten minutes typing away on the computer what had happened, to who, when and where everything had happened and the threats to life made by Carl during the incident. After this was done I had to inform Carl’s social worker and the lead consultant for Carl and of course the local police officer as a serious assault had just happened. Once all this was done I took a look in the diary to see what was happening today, such as patients going into the community, cinema trip or family visits. There was something in the diary for a patient called Mark, he was going into town to buy some clothes if he wanted to buy anything but he just needed a little bit of support. I asked the nurse in charge if it was ok for me to take Mark into town for a change.

‘I don’t get to go out that much with the guys, so could I go?’

‘I don’t see why not I’ll mark you down to go’ said the nurse in charge.

I go back into the day area and see that one member of staff was serving breakfast to the patients and Mark was sitting smiling, just like he did most mornings, Now let me tell you Mark is one of those rare patients you think to yourself why is he here?, he did not disturb anything or anyone on the ward for at least four weeks. Then one day a patient tried to take some of his property and as a result of this Mark beat up the patient but luckily only manged to hit him twice before staff intervened and stopped him. Mark had a bit of a temper from here on in and he had told staff that he was trying his best to hold it together but the voices had got the better of him.  This must have been the worst incident that Mark had since he was with us, he usually kept it together well but occasionally came to staff for some support. So for someone who had been with us for about six to seven months and only ever had two or three big incidents, not bad going I say.

Mark had finished his breakfast and taken his stuff back to the kitchen for the staff to clean and asked for another coffee,

‘Strong coffee no sugar milk please’

In his rough gravel pit voice, he got this through years of smoking and when he went into hospital years ago he had a health scare of possible cancer but it was caught in time. I went over to him and sat with him.

‘You want a coffee too?’ said Mark

‘Please, same as you’ I replied.

We went and sat together at the dining table and Mark had ask if I was ok after seeing that incident earlier. This was always a great thing to hear especially from a patient, it kind of made the job feel more worthwhile to me. I let him know that I was ok and that it was unfortunately part and parcel of the job at times. But never mind and quickly changed the topic of conversation.

‘I’m taking you into town today, so you can maybe buy some new clothes’

‘Cool that’s going to be great, when we going?’ asked Mark.

I let him know that we would be leaving in about an hour which would make it around 10:45 am, once breakfast was finished and I would have done the paper work for him to leave the building to go into the community. The hour soon past getting everything done such as section 17 for leave and checking in Marks notes that it was up to date and if there was any restrictions on his section17. I got the nurse in charge to ring the reception to let them know that Mark was going out with staff for a few hours into town.  Once Mark was ready and paper work filled out Mark and myself walked off towards the reception area through three lots of locked doors and then one more set of doors to enter reception. Once the receptionist pressed a button on her desk which was behind a thick glass window, just like her own little office. Once the button was pressed a light above the door turned green and that meant we could go through the door. Mark swung the door open with it crashing against the wall and making us both laugh as it made the receptionist jump. I shut the door behind us both and handed to the receptionist Marks hospital I.D card which she kept until he returned and I handed in my keys and personal alarm, which every member of staff had to have on them. The receptionist pressed another button and held it and this turned another light above the outside door green so we could go through this door to the outside of the building.

‘I’LL open the door this time Mark’ giving him a cocky smile.

Mark looked at me with a smirk and walked out of the air lock and turned left out of the building.  We headed for five minutes’ walk up the road until we reach Clare Street, once we got there we turned down Clare Street and walked for another ten minutes, this was the main road into town from the hospital. Once we both got to town Mark suggested we go to Costa or another coffee shop. We walk down the main street to the first coffee shop and walk in, it only has one or two customers sitting down drinking whatever coffee they have ordered. Mark confidently walks up to the counter and then with a quiet voice orders his coffee and turns and asks,

‘What you want?’

‘Oh thanks, I’ll have a flat white, cheers’

‘One flat white with an extra shot please’ Mark says to the person making the coffee.

With his smile on his face Mark takes both coffees and sits by the window. Mark asks

‘Do you mind sitting here by the window to drink the coffee?’

‘Not at all I reply’ and smile to make him at ease.

We sit down and Mark is not much of a talker he often likes to sit there with his coffee and just watch people pass by. Sounds familiar, just like me. We sit there drinking our coffees and Mark looks over at me and tries to pull off a smile and says this is nice just sitting and chilling, to be fair Mark is right it is nice just to sit and chill like this. After about ten to fifteen minutes we finish the coffees and Mark takes the cups back up to the counter and says thank you to the person working behind the counter. I thank Mark for the coffee and we head out of the coffee shop and turn right out the shop and slowly walk up the high street looking in shop windows. Mark walks a few feet in front of me, as sometimes he does, just to make himself feel more confident and independent. Once Mark comes to a clothes shop he turns into it but quickly looking back to make sure I know where he is going and I give him a gentle nod and a smile to acknowledge this. Mark wonders slowly around the shop picking up T-shirts and folding them back up neatly, then looks at some trousers and picks out some combat trousers that are a dark blue but nearly look black. Mark wraps them over his arm and heads back to the T-shirts, after looking at the T-shirts for a while Mark picks out at least three polo shirts, white, grey and green and puts them over his arm with the trousers. I turn back to the door and pick up a basket for Mark and hand it to him.  Mark smiles and says,

‘Cheers’

Then continues shopping for clothes. Mark wonders off to the jackets and takes his time browsing while I just look and think about what I would buy, but I’m not here for myself it’s Marks time. Mark decides on a black jacket which is about waist length and has two pockets on the waist and two pockets on the chest area. It appears to be made from a denim material, but looks smart but casual as well. We head off to the cash desk and Mark is looking a little nervous, he sometimes struggles in confidence when it comes to paying for things. I let him know that I’ll walk up to the cash desk with him if he likes and place my hand on his shoulder for that reassurance feeling I think he needs. At this moment we walk up the young lady behind the desk smiles at Mark and greats him and Mark sighs as he places his clothes on the desk.

‘Would you like the hangers with these?’ she asks Mark.

‘No thanks’ is Marks reply.

Mark stairs down at the floor while the cashier puts everything through the till. The young lady lets Mark know that the total cost is £65.55 and Mark hands over £80as he only has twenty pound notes. Mark waits for his change and then we walk off together and off out the shop. Mark turns and says to me,

‘Dam that was difficult’

‘Why?’ I ask.

‘Don’t know, just was’ says Mark

‘Well you managed it with no problem, be pleased’

‘I am I suppose’ and Mark smiles.

Whilst walking slowly down the street looking in shop windows, Mark decides that he wants to go to a book shop and get a couple of books to read for when he has nothing to do or at bed time. So we head off to the local book shop that everyone seems to go to as it is cheap and cheerful. Once in the shop I ask to hold Marks bags so it would free his hands to look at books. Mark hands over the book and says

‘Thanks matey, glad you came’ said with a smirk.

Mark is looking in the self-help books and how to control your anger. He picks a thin book out and it’s by some doctor and Mark reads the back of it then reads one or two pages and decides this book seems to be ok. Then we head over to the fictional section and I stand there watching Mark gaze through the books and after about ten minutes Mark picks a thick book out and it is about some alien coming to earth and taking a woman to his planet where she becomes his queen, Some Sci-fi story.  Marks heads of to the cash desk and puts the two books down on the counter and says to the cashier

‘I’ll take just these two please’

‘That will be £13 pound altogether please’ says the cashier’

Mark hands over a £20 note and waits for the change, then Mark turns and walks to my direction. We must have been shopping for about an hour and Mark says

‘Let’s get another coffee to walk back with’

‘Ok, my treat this time ok’ I say

‘Yer right’ says Mark and walks back to the coffee shop.

Once in the coffee shop I order a skinny flat white and Mark asks for a regular flat white with an extra shot in it. Once we have the coffees I manage to pay this time just before Mark gets his money out. It took Mark longer as his hands are full with his shopping bags. We head out of the coffee shop and slowly walk back to the hospital and it must take us about 20 minutes to half an hour this time round as we are not in any hurry to get back. Once we are nearly back I chuck my coffee cup in a bin but Mark wants to keep his so he has his own cup on the ward for a while. I don’t know why he didn’t buy himself one when he was out in town. Coming back to the hospital we stand at the airlock door and wait for the light to turn green. Once green I push the door open and we both walk into the airlock and let the door shut. Once the receptionist hands over my keys and alarm and I attach them to my belt she presses the button to turn the light green and unlocks the door. Mark and I walk back to the ward. Once on the ward Mark hands over the two bags with the clothes and books as they have to be written down on his property list. I give Mark a search as per policy when anyone goes out they have to be searched and then let him into the day area.  Once Mark is in the day area he heads off to the toilet. I sit in the office and look for the property sheets to write the things Mark has brought. For a change there is only the nurse in charge sitting in the office. Once I have written everything down I take the things out of the bags and throw away the bags and hand over the clothes and book back to Mark.  Marks comes over and takes them from me and says,

‘Thanks for taking me I enjoyed it’

‘Me too’ I replied.

I head back into the office and enter a detailed entry in Marks notes about his visit into town, how his behaviour was, his interaction and whether there was any risk behaviours while out. This took me about 45 minutes to write the whole thing down on the computer.  Once this was done I signed off the computer and then the nurse in charge says

‘It’s not far from 1 o’clock why don’t you go home now, I’ll log you out on the system for 13:45’

‘I’m on a long day’ I reply

‘You ask need to take some of the time owing so we decided you could take some of it today’

‘OK’ I happily replied.

I get my stuff and head off back out of the building and walk home.

I know the ending is different from part one but you can pick which ending it could have. I just thought I’d try something different and have two endings for the day.