How we've helped - James' story

James*(name changed) is young man in his 20s. He was detained under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act with a referral made for support from an IMHA.

 

James had been detained out of area and was concerned about his father, who wasn’t well. James was his father’s carer.

 

We assigned ‘Claire’ as his Advocate. When she met James, he said that he wanted to be discharged. He didn’t feel being on the ward was making any difference anymore because they had stopped making changes to his treatment. He was also worried about how his dad was coping and wanted to get home to care for him.

 

James had a ward review later in the week. Claire supported him to prepare for the review. At James’ request, his dad joined their meeting by Teams. They discussed how James felt, how he felt he would manage at home, and what he wanted to say in the meeting. James said that he had previously had issues with drugs, and he thought this would be brought up. He agreed to Claire looking for local support for when he got home to help him manage this.

 

At the ward review, James used the list he had created with Claire to say what he wanted to and why he should be discharged. As agreed, where he forgot to say something, Claire prompted him. As James thought the MDT brought up his previous drug use and he was able to say he planned on accessing support when he was home.

 

As a result of the review, the decision was made to discharge James the same afternoon. His dad came to pick him up. James was thrilled. After the meeting, he told Claire he was sorry that he had done all the talking and hadn’t given her time to speak. Claire told him that is what we want to see and congratulated James and a great job self-advocating, which she felt would help him in the future.

 

James said: “I was really pleased to hear there was an independent service to support me. Claire was invaluable in helping me prepare for the ward review meeting. I’m really glad to be going home and chuffed with myself for saying what I wanted.”

 

*Name has been changed to protect identity.