It amazes my in today’s society how rude and selfish people can be today. We all need to live together in society and just be nice to each other but this doesn’t happen does it? People think it is perfectly acceptable to be rude to people and either give looks of disgust to anyone that dares stands up to them.One example was the other day. I was coming home from a flight from Europe and as I was walking from the plane to passport check in there were people rushing and even running past knocking into people. One incident happened, a woman was walking with her child holding her hand close to the wall. I passed her by and I could see a man in a hurry behind me in the Windows reflection. He tried to pass me but then he changed direction and walked the other side of the woman with her child. He barged past them both just barely squeezing past the child and just about knocked the child over with his suitcase. The mother must of said something and the child was about to cry. I stopped to see if they was ok. I snapped at the man and just asked him to be careful. Hi stopped and gave us all a dirty look. My immediate thought was to give him what he gave out. I looked at the man if you can call him that and snapped ‘WHAT?’ The lady said to me don’t worry about it it’s not worth it. Then the man walked off with no word of a sorry. Total rudeness and nasty person.

Another example is that I was in a coffee shop and a young lad serving got an order wrong and the person who’s order was wrong started verbally abusing the person serving. Mistakes happen, why be like that? How nice it must be to be so perfect in his little own fantasy world. Luckily the manager heard what was going on and asked so politely for the customer to leave. Saying there is no need to be rude to the staff. The customer refused at first until the manager came out from behind the counter and asked politely for him to leave again. The manager stepped up to him and you could see the customer looking nervous. So the customer back down swearing at staff as he left. I suppose there is a time to stand fast and a time not too.

The act of being rude is showing a small mind of social upbringing and in my mind a small educational back ground. Agree or disagree that’s your choice. This is just one persons opinion. If someone is being rude or selfish then a good way but difficult way for some to deal with it is to just be NICE and smile at the person. People always will be rude or selfish to someone in the world. Which to me is a dam shame because the world world be a lot better place if most people tried just that little bit harder. Don’t get me wrong it’s not always going to work. There are some people out there that go on in life just being horrible people and feel a need not to be nice.

Why not try next time you feel you need to be rude or selfish, think first and imagine how would you feel? In time you may find yourself changing your ways towards people and incidents that are happening around you. Don’t misunderstand me I’m not perfect at doing this but I’m getting there.

In one of my other jobs I work in town at night and often come across obnoxious people. I find that if I take a breath and then smile and be polite, they either shut up or walk away but from the words of Dolton from Roadhouse ‘be nice’. Don’t misunderstand me there is going to be a time when it’s not time to be nice but they are few and far between.

Rudeness and selfishness does not need to happen but unfortunately it does and that is a dam shame. We are high up in the food chain but some of us act like primates or animals and it doesn’t need to happen. Just remember these words and try to implement them BE NICE and SMILE the next time someone is rude or selfish or just plain right nasty

I have been at work for five and half hours now and it is 12:30 pm and it has been kind of a slow day so far, don’t get me wrong it is nice to have slow days as the patients have been either sleeping in the day area or doing therapy sessions. At the moment I am on response, which means if the alarms go off or we get a call over a radio to respond I am the one to go to were ever help is needed. I am going to go on my break in about half an hour but then a call comes over the radio,

‘Urgent assistants needed by the main entrance, we have a patient going AWOL’.

I respond over the radio,

‘Willow ward responding’.

I stop what I am doing, which was playing cards with a patient and call over to the nurse in charge (NIC) and let them know that I am responding to an urgent call. I quickly rush off the ward and head to the reception area to leave, this is where I leave my keys and grab a mobile just in case I have to call in information. I run off towards the main entrance of the hospital and on the way I come across about another five staff, men and women running the same way I am. Some of the staff look as if they are going to collapse already, which makes me smirk. As we reach the main entrance there is security standing there watching down the road and it has taken us five minutes to reach the main entrance running. The security team inform us that a patient has run off towards town and give us a description of 5ft 10, long brown scruffy hair going bold on top, blue t-shirt, baggy black jeans and black trainers. The information passed over to us is basic and his name in Carl, he has the potential to be aggressive and a possibility could be a danger to the public if they intervene as well to us if we stop him. So we get the permission to use force if needed to protect ourselves or the public.  This just means we may have to restrain him in public if needed and we have to make sure we have our I.D’s on us, this is just to show the public or police if we have to restrain him. We are divided into three teams of two staff. I am teamed up with a nurse who is qualified named Darren who knows the patient that has gone AWOL (absent without leave), which makes it easier if we find him. We head off to the main road which is up a side street and a five minute walk. On the main road is a load of different shops but also ends at the beginning of town.

Hitting the main road we come across an off licence and we go in and have a look around the shop. I turn to the shop keeper we are looking for a man and give him the details of his description.

‘I haven’t seen him, but give me a number to call just in case he comes in’.

I let him know that he is not to be served alcohol if possible as it can make him aggressive and delusional with his medication, plus I hand over the number of the mobile I picked up from work. Then at this point Darren and I leave the shop and head right off into town. As we walk towards town we pass a mini supermarket and pop in there and have a look. Darren speaks to the shopkeeper this time and gives a description of who we are looking for and I have a look around the store, I turn back to Darren and shake my head to let him know that the patient is not here. After this we head towards town after a lengthy twenty five minute search up the main round and in some shops and hit town. Darren radios through to let the others know that we have reached town and found nothing on the main road.

‘Copy that’

Comes over the radio five times and once from security. To be fair why the hell are security joining us in the search?

As we both head down towards the main drag of town we walk into a little news agents and have a scout around but no sign of him in there. So Darren and I walk out the news agents and follow the street further into town.

Darren starts to let me know that as he knows this patient, Carl is the sort of patient to head to an off licence and bye some booze and get drunk, not just to run and go nowhere and just abscond. So we head off to find shops that sell booze and check them out. So off we head to the next store that sells alcohol, to which I asked Darren to radio to the others to head to any shop that sells alcohol,

‘All responding teams go to any shop that sells alcohol, this is where you are more likely to find Carl’.

‘Roger that’

Comes the reply over the radio. Then after about an hour of searching shops in town, the mobile I picked up in reception rings. It is the first shop Darren and I searched, a voice answers

‘Hello is this the nurse that is looking for a patient?’

‘Yes’

‘I have just seen a man that looks like the one you described walking pass my shop’

‘Ok thank you, which way is he heading’?

‘Away from town and he has a bottle of something that looks like vodka in his hand’

‘Ok thank you we are on our way’

I put the phone down and call over the radio,

‘All teams head towards the main road leading away from town (Colling road) and head towards the main off licence by Francis Street’.

‘On way’

As Darren and I head off towards Colling road and start to run down the road a police car passes by and we wave them down and immediately they pull over. I run over to them and say that we are from the St Mary’s Hospital and we are looking for a patient gone AWOL. The police officer, who looks like he is in his early twenties explains he has been drawn into the search due to the risk. I give him a detail of the look of the patient and he asks us to jump in, I call Darren over and we jump in the police car shouting

‘Shot gun’

Laughing at my childish call out we jump in the police car and ask the police office not to put sirens on as it will make the patient aware of us all, plus he does not like police. The police officer turns on the blues and pulls out into the traffic, but as usual there are a few drives that don’t pay attention to the horn and the lights of the police car. The police car goes to turn down a side street to spin round and heads down the road towards Francis Street. Sitting in the front of the police car going fast with the lights on is quite exciting and adrenalin pumping too.  As we reach the off licence the shop keeper is standing outside pointing towards the side street, Francis Street. I lower the window and the shop keeper shouts out as the police car slows on Darren’s request

‘He’s gone down Francis Street’

I wave just to acknowledge the shout out and the shop keeper waves back. The police office waves as well and then slows down and turns down Francis Street. In front of us on the right is a man walking and staggering down the road with a bottle in his hand. A woman passes by but as she passes he says something to her and she turns round and says something back. He stops and slowly staggers towards her. The woman starts to look a little worried as he raises his arm holding the bottle and goes towards her. The police officer turns the sirens on and skids to a stop beside him. Darren and myself jump out of the car and charge at Carl. The police officer takes the woman and leads her off to the car for safety. Darren and I reach Carl and Darren calls and demands Carl to drop the bottle.

‘Carl drop the bottle now, you’re going to hurt someone’

Carl kind of stalls and stands there holding the bottle over his head and looks at the both of us, Darren repeats the commands to Carl

‘Drop the bottle’

‘Why the hell should I’

‘If you don’t the police will press charges and we will get the lady to press charges as well and this could lead to your section being changed to a 37/41which will lead to a longer and more secure placement for you’

As we are talking to Carl I notice the police officer walking round to the back of Carl, with the woman safe in the police car. We continue talking to Carl, mainly Darren. All of a sudden Carl smashes the bottle of the side of a front garden wall and raises it towards Carl and I but he still does not notice the police officer. The officer calls out

‘Taser, Taser’

And the red dot hits Carl in the side by the ribs, and at this point the rest of the search team joins us on Francis Street and all of a sudden a mighty scream comes from Carl and the police officer fired his Taser at Carl because he ran at Darren with a broken bottle shouting out

‘I’m going to kill you bastards’

‘Aww’

Calls out Carl as he collapses to the floor with wires sticking out of him. Then myself and Darren rush over to him and take away the bottle and restrain him with the wires sticking out of him.

‘We have to take him to hospital to get the pins removed from him’

As we restrain the patient, the police officer calls over the radio for medical assistance. We sit there holding Carl but by this time as Darren and I are holding him and talking to him to try and relax him, he calms down and starts to cry. Then he starts to say

‘I’m sorry, the voices told me she was a bad person, and she likes to hurt people’

Darren and I keeps hold and explains to Carl that it is the voices in his head telling him this and how would he know this of the innocent woman. Carl cries out in response,

‘I know, I know but the voices are loud in my head’.

‘But that’s because of the alcohol you have drunk, it makes the voices louder’.

After about five minutes the paramedics pull up and the police officer hands over to them what has happened and this is all out of ear shot of Carl. Carl looks at the police officer and says

‘He’s talking about me’

‘Yes he is, he is just handing over to the paramedics what has happened so they can treat you better’.

As the paramedic approaches he smiles at Carl and introduces himself as Ian. Carl smiles back and lets the paramedic remove the pins from the Taser from his side, while we still hold him. After the paramedic has removed the pins he does a check over on Carl and lets us know,

‘He should be ok but just keep an eye on him for the next twenty four hours’

‘Ok we will when he is back on the ward’.

After about another ten minutes we help Carl up and escort him in holds to the police car as the police officer takes the lady out of the car and starts to explain the situation. The lady decides not to press charges as she is just suffering from shock. One of the spare staff decides to walk her back home, which is just around the corner and stay with her for a while. On the way back in the back of the police car the patient is starting to sit there and cry to himself and feel sorry for himself. Five minutes later we are nearly back and someone has called for assistance to the entrance of the patients ward and there is about five big staff standing there waiting for us. As we get out of the police car a staff member takes over my holds and says,

‘I’ll take it from here’

Then he just looks sternly at me as, let go, and with Darren walks Carl in holds off into the building, with this the police officer asks me my name and says

‘It’s for my records’

Then follows the staff off into the building. I am left there standing alone and thinking to myself is that it. I head off to the canteen and get a strong coffee and slowly walk out of the canteen back towards my ward. Slowly walking back I think to my self

‘What a good but also bad search that was and how wrong that could have turned out if the police officer was not there. Myself or Carl or even worse the member of public could have got cut or worse. So I reach my ward and walk back in and go and speak to the nurse in charge and explain what has happened. After about fifteen minutes of explaining to him what has happened and another half hour of venting to him, he tells me to go on my break. As I walk off the ward to go on my break, I think to myself how thankful I am for the tight team I work with within the hospital.

I wake up when my alarm starts to bellow out the talking on the radio at 05:50 and think in my head

‘Dam already, feels like I only slept a few hours’

I slowly crawl my ass out of bed and head for the kitchen down stairs to make myself a coffee. Walking there my eyes feel like they are burning as if I have only had about two to three hours sleep and I also feel like I have a hangover. Even though I have had about nine hours sleep and did not drink a drop that night. Once I have made my coffee I sit feeling sorry for myself and think about breakfast but I can’t be arsed to make anything. After ten minutes of feeling sorry for myself and drinking my coffee I head for a shower and stand in the shower letting the water gush over me hoping that the day will be ok and not to tiring. Once I have this sorrowful shower I go get dressed and today I think it is going to be a green Krav Maga T-shirt and black combat trousers with black boots and I look at myself in the mirror and think

‘Sod it the shave can wait for another day’

Once I make my breakfast of eggy bread with slices of ham and burger mustard I go and wash up and think that I need a new job. You will see how busy and stressful the job is as we go through these stories. But what could I do as I don’t have the national standards of a basic C grade in maths and English. Don’t get me wrong I have worked in mental health for about twelve years and I have learnt a lot as in illness, how to deal with situations that others may feel squeamish with and how to deal with confrontations, after a while it does get to you. What I really want is a teaching post as in teaching others how to deal with situations and deescalate people, but how hard are these jobs to come by in today’s job market and without the certificates to prove your worth. Looking at my watch I see it is already 06:50 and I need to be at work for 07:15, I’ll be cutting it fine today but

‘What the hell, I’m usually the first in and one of the few last out’

As I walk onto the ward I enter the office and it looks like they have just started hand over for the previous night and one person says;

‘On time then?’

I reply to this in short term

‘Oh shut the hell up as if you ever on time’

I’m feeling so tired that I cannot be bothered with arrogant shits like him. I take a seat and the night nurse in charge carries on with the hand over. Just to let you readers know on this ward we have a patient who is nursed on a two to one enhanced observation. This means that the patient is too unsettled and for his safety or others he needs two nurses with him within arm’s reach 24/7. This particular particular patient needs two staff with him for his own safety as he has a tendency to start verbally abusing others due to a brain injury and his lack of reality.  I think to myself

‘I know where I am going to be for the shift’

At the end of hand over the nurse in charge askes Carl and myself to be on his constant. To me that’s not too bad as Carl and I can work very well together. As some as you, health care professionals are aware that you and a colleague click and don’t need to verbally communicate, it’s just a look you both give and you both know what to do. So off we both go and take over the two night staff that are sitting outside his room and park our butts on the chairs by his door. Now it is about 07:35 and the patient is still asleep for now and in about ten minutes we will have to wake him but be aware of the other patients in his vicinity, just in case they attack him due to him saying to other patients what he thinks of their behaviour. Don’t get me wrong, some of the time he is right but there is a way of saying it in the right terminology.  It comes to 07:45 and Carl walks in to the patient’s room and gently shakes him on the shoulder calling his name and saying in a soft caring voice

‘Time to wake up, its 7:45, time to get up and showered’.

The patient wakes up and tells Carl to

‘Fuck off and leave me alone’

As I am standing in the door way watching Carl’s back I laugh to myself as Carl turns to me with that Dam look on his face. As Carl walks out and gives him time to wake up, the patient slowly comes around and surprisingly apologises to Carl for swearing at him. Carl lets him know that he should not worry about it as Carl is a little grumpy shit when he wakes up. We walk the patient to the shower and spend five to ten minutes waiting outside the shower until he is done and follow him back to his room and he neatly puts his night wear away and his toiletries away. This patient is a nice bloke, don’t get me wrong but due to his injury he tends to tell people how it is in his mind which makes him very vulnerable towards others. After his shower and tidying his clothes and room it is about 08:00 and we all head down stairs to the day area for breakfast. This can be a challenging time as this particular patient does not have a lot of patience for waiting. Today must be a good day for this patient as he waits and tolerates the others taking their time. Once everyone is sitting down we stay sitting with him until he is called up for ordering his breakfast. Myself and Carl let the patient go up on his own but keeping a sharp eye on his body language and his tone of language. The patient returns and sit’s with us both and asks if we would like some of his breakfast. We both decline the offer but tell him to enjoy what he has. This in my eyes is a moment to remember. I f you work in this line of work you will understand.

The patient asks to go in to the quiet room and watch a DVD as it is a bank holiday and there is no sessions on today. In the quiet room is a three seater sofa and a TV DVD player. The patient decides to watch a film called Total Recall, which is an action film that is fairly easy watching, it’s the one with Collin Farrell in it. Carl and I sit there for about an hour and half watching this film and when it finishes, the patient wants a cup of tea. So off we go back into the day area so the patient can go and have a cup of tea. Whilst sitting there Carl notices a patient pacing nearby and looks at me and nods, this is to make me aware of the other patient pacing. I look at Carl and smile to give him the recognition that I am aware. Carl shouts out, I only assume to myself and the patient

‘MOVE’

The patient dives out the way and Carl and myself stand to attention and manage to stop this other patient getting to the patient we are looking after. Immediately another staff member steps up and covers me with the constant and I deal with the aggressive patient. We take hold of the patient using a conflict management known as PMAV and immediately relocate this patient to what is known as seclusion. Once in the seclusion room we stand there with the patient and the nurse in charge (NIC) tries to talk to the patient. The patient explains that he is sick to death of the patient saying what he says. The nurse explains that due to his injury he cannot help says what he says, it’s part of his condition.  This patient starts to put a struggle while we are holding him. We both lock our holds and move in tighter to control the situation and the patient starts swearing and trying to push us both around the room. Due to our training we both have a tight lock on our holds and with what’s coming out of the patient’s mouth we both nod at each other and the patient drops to his knees. The staff member and myself drop to our knees then down to a laying position and hold the patient on the floor face down. He is screaming and shouting

‘Get the fuck off me you bastards’

I activate the emergency alarms and we both wait for staff to respond to us. Once staff enter one staff member takes hold of the patients head and the other staff member takes hold of the patient’s legs as he is trying to kick and knee us in the back. Once we take hold the NIC tries to speak to the patient and deescalate him. All that is coming out of his mouth is swear words and threats of aggression, threats to kill the patient and anyone that gets in his way. The NIC yet again asks him to try and take some medication to help him calm him down, but yet he still refuses to take anything.  Whilst we are holding him face down the patient is beginning to become highly resistive and during this time the nurse that has the best rapport tries to speak to him, with no effect. The NIC walks off and goes to get some medication to inject into him, which will have a faster effect once it gets into his system. After about five minutes the NIC returns with a bowl that has a syringe of some sort of liquid in it and a plaster in it.  The nurse gently pulls his trouser down a little just to reveal his butt cheek and injects the needle into the muscle in his backside.  After the nurse disappears we all continue holding on to the patient and start to talk to him again after the swearing and threats have stopped. The team decide to turn him over onto his back, just so there is no pressure on his chest and he can breathe easier. This will be a well-timed and easy thing to do if you have the right people with you. Whilst he is on his back a staff member starts to talk to the patient and tries to deescalate him which has a very good effect. It has been about ten minutes since the injection has been given and with the nurse talking to the patient and the medication working we all start having a little bit of a giggle. The problem with this patient is that he suffers from paranoia and this turns out why he went for the patient is was with. The patient starts to relax a little and the nurse chatting to him asks if he wants to sit up and the person on his legs can get off.

Once sitting up myself and another staff member keep hold of his arms while the nurse that was holding his head moves round to where his is facing and continues talking to him. The patient starts to apologise to staff with tears in his eyes and asks if he could say sorry to the other patient, which to be fair seems like an ok thing at the time. After another ten minutes we decide to let go of our holds on this patient as we appear to be relaxing and deescalating him well and he goes to sit on the chair in the seclusion room with us. The patient asks if it would be ok for him to remain in this room for a while as he says he does not feel 100% safer to be on the ward but just wants time to relax. So myself and this other staff sit there chatting to him and he talks about that he was feeling paranoid this morning and while I was chatting quietly to the other patient he thought I was chatting about him and that’s why he attacked him. It’s about fifteen minutes and we all decide to go out into the day area and remain with the patient until he appears to be settled. As we walk out into the day area the patient that I was originally looking after decides to stand up and start shouting at the other patient giving him a lot of abuse. The nurse with him take hold of him and demand that he stops and sits down, surprisingly he listens and does as he is asked and sits down.

I walk with the patient that has just come out of the seclusion room and go and sit on one of the sofas. We start to watch a movie that is on the TV as there is no sessions on for today and it appears to be an action film Bourne Ultimatum, which appears to be a good action film. We sit for a while and I look round at the patient and realise that he has fallen asleep while watching the film.  I gently stand up and walk away from him and at the same time he puts his legs up on the sofa and gets comfy with his eyes closed. Once I see that he is still appears to be asleep I walk off into the nursing office and handover what has happened, it appears that the other staff member has already started to fill out the incident form for what has happened. Not bad for team work, team to restrain and one taking notes as the incident goes on. Now that’s what I call team work.

This is how a team is supposed to be working together in a job like this. We all muck in together, one leads, one takes details and the other does the notes of the patient in relation to the incident. It does not matter what position or grade you are anyone can take the lead and anyone can take notes or writes the notes. As long as you get all the details and don’t write their own personal opinions in the notes everything should work like clockwork.

Like I said these are just stories of possibilities and nothing is true fact. If you work in mental health of any sorts you will recognise situations and potential in what I write.

Introduction

What you will read about in these stories are what could possibly happen whilst working as a health care professional with in the wide range of mental health. Nothing in the stories are true fact. I have worked with in Mental Health for a good many years. I have come across many things with in my job(s), so good things and some not so good and also some emotional situations. The situations will range from young adolescents to elderly patients within s hospital setting and also in the community.

There are so many different subjects that could be covered in mental health, to many to cover but such thing like Schizophrenia, Depression, Personality Disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), self-harm and Post-Traumatic stress disorder; just to name a few. Some of these will be covered as you go through the stories.

Few too many people truly understand what it is like to live with these condition but just because you have a diagnosis does not mean that you are different or that you should be locked away. The person with a mental health diagnosis can quite easily be the person sitting or standing next to you in the shop or the lift. It does not mean that you have to be afraid of them just be considerate towards them and be an ear or friend and just listen to them.

It amazes mean that people only hear about the bad things in mental health such as stories hitting the news. Such stories as patient escaping from hospital, nurse getting assaulted by patient or patients coursing a riot on a wing. You never hear about the great work patients do with the help from health care assistants, qualified nurses, Occupational therapists, Teachers, Doctors and social workers. Let’s not forget the families that sometimes have a lot of input into their family members care.

People come into hospital for all sorts of reasons. Adolescents for example could be problems due to past abuse, whether it be physical, or sexual, neglect or forced isolation. There has been some cases of people being kept in cages and forced to fight others and if they do not they are beaten. Basically slaves to fighting. There are also people that could have inherited mental health problems from family members, mental health due to major stresses such as war, jobs and even people preparing for exams have caused forms of mental health problems. It could also be that someone has just moved from adolescent services to adult services and have not moved on as yet. It could also be due to a brain injury they have acquired from an injury or illness as in infection.

So from what I have written so far I don’t want to scare anyone but it’s a matter of care and think and do not judge the people under care whether it is in the community or hospital.

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.

Jack is a 34 year old man, who is about 5ft 8 and is of medium build. Jack is not fat person but he is not to muscular either. Jack has short dark brown hair with it thinning on top; he also has a little bit of five o’clock shadow coming through as well. Jack is a little bit of a dreamer when he is relaxing, what I mean by this is that Jack knows he is destined for better things but as what he doesn’t know yet. He can sit and think of different jobs he would like to do such as working for Mi5 or Mi6 doing something in the lines of Jason Bourne. Perhaps he could be an instructor in combat defence, close quarter fighting, as he does takes lessons in self-defence. Maybe he could head a training department for physical interventions such as Control & Restraint, break away and self-defence for nurses in the community. This would make Jack very happy indeed as he doesn’t really enjoy what he is doing for work at the minute. Jack is often looking for that one great job that will make him wake up and smell the roses. Jack often checks for opportunities on the Mi5 website for something in security or something with excitement where he can progress. Jack has also thought about becoming a close protection officer but he found out there will be two much time spent away from his wife, also it costs a lot to do the training as well. Jack is not the richest guy but he isn’t poor but he has priorities to think of first.
Jack is a physically fit man as he does enjoy going to a gym which is about thirty minutes away from his house if he travels by foot. Jack would like to build his strength up and look a little more muscular, not to look good for others but for his own confidence. He has started looking up different healthy eating plans to go with his weight training or body transformation as some call it nowadays. Plus Jack has also been trying to find a good weights program for himself but has decided to try his own thing and it appears to be working well for him. As long as Jack goes to the gym and he can feel it burn the next day he will be happy. During the days he works out Jack like to do what is known as Interval Running, this is where he will walk for about one minute and fifteen seconds then run fast for either forty seconds. This will be done at least ten times in one session and this should help speed up his metabolism for the next twenty four hours. So the fat in his body gets burnt up quicker. There is also on a Tuesday Jack attends self-defence classes from 5:30 pm until 7:00pm in the local community hall; this is about a five to ten minute walk from Jacks house. This class combines a lot of punching and kicking combinations with blocks and a lot of fitness mixed in with the self-defence and pushes Jack to his limits at times. Jack would like to be teaching his own version of self-defence and fitness but just needs the opportunity to teach people and to be insured through a recognised company. Maybe have his own place to teach classes, set up with punch bags, mirrored walls, padded floor and shelving for extra gloves and pads for people that can’t afford their own. In the gym Jack will have a reception area and a seated area for relatives to sit and wait for students, toilets and maybe changing areas well. On in the back ground Jack will have music playing quietly but have the students to bring in their type of music too. This is one of Jacks goals in life, one of many ideas and dreams he has. What you need to realise about Jack is when he is at work he comes across as confident, strong willed and maybe a little bit of a rough, tough guy and can talk to anyone at any time with no problem. The thing is when you see him outside of work Jack comes across as shy when it comes to talking to strangers, confidence appears not as strong and as appearing as a rough tough guy well you will not see that. Like the saying goes don’t judge a book by its cover, as he can still stand his ground and hold his own. Jack would rather just walk away and not get involved if he can help it.

Jack is married to a beautiful woman who happens to be younger than himself, she is ten years younger than him, not that age is an issue. His wife is from east Europe and is very smart as well as beautiful. He met his wife at work who used to be a cleaner on the ward Jack worked on, as they started dating she had to stop working on the same ward, company policy. Jack works in a mental health hospital and has worked in all types of places from rest bite for you children with learning disabilities to elderly with dementia or Alzheimer’s. With this line of work Jack has experienced a lot of things and now he has learnt to phase it out and not let it bother him. After doing this sort of job for fourteen years you would think anyone could learn to not let things faze then too much. So as you can tell from his job Jack is a caring person who just wants to help people and make a difference. It is not a job were you will become famous or rich as health care assistants are not very well paid and in some places get looked down upon. Jack has found that the ones that do look down upon the health care assistants are the ones that sit in offices all day long and have minimal or no patient interaction. Jack has come to realise that in his mine of work, he will have to either go to college or university if he wants to progress which does not fill him with joy. Jack is a hard worker in his job and he loves being on the shop floor, being on the ward area not in the office or meetings. Jacks skills he uses and has learnt in his job which he finds most useful are verbal de-escalation and using physical control & restraint in aggressive situations. Unfortunately Jack is very good at dealing with potentially violent situations on and off the ward. So he is staffs usual first port of call and I suppose Jack has kind of got used to things being this way. Even though at times it still bothers Jack that he is used this way but he has learnt to accept it.

During Jacks story you will come across his style of healthy eat and his workout routine. How and what he is up to during his working hours plus we will come across any traveling he will be doing as Jack likes to travel a little bit as well. People he meets in and out of work and trusts me there are a few unusual characters in his life. Jacks all time goal which is just a dream really as he knows it will never happen to him is to be famous. Not to be that famous he can’t walk down the street but just enough he gets recognised by one or two people. It could be to be from writing a book of sorts, maybe news articles he has written or the best of all is from a movie or two he has been in. Not a huge role like a starring role but a gripping role for a character. Jack would like to be a successful writer but one of these writers that always sells a book or article no matter what and makes some good money. Jack is not one for having material things but he would work part time still as a health care assistant but then when he is not working he can be writing a book or a news article for a paper, making money from this. All Jack needs to do then is get his arse in gear and maybe start writing about something
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