On hand to listen (1969)

[Music] no no all my not was bad [Music] I of [Music] [Music] the nearly half of all the hospital beds in England and Wales are occupied by people who are mentally ill and it is estimated that one out of every nine women and one out of every 14 men will at some time during their lives require treatment for a nervous or mental disorder well I went to grammar school and uh I took uh some GCS you know like you usually do o levels and I only got two usually and I was kicked out of the school H what was that for bad behavior no not bad behavior because I failed in my exams and think I was a worthwhile Prospect you see I realized something was wrong because I could hear um murmurings or kind of voices in my head you know to a certain extent I realized something was wrong and I seem to be in half a dream world I don't know exactly how to describe it but everything seemed to be going slow and and just like these shots you get on the moon like um weird music accompanying it and it seem to be just everything seemed to be static and slow and quite frightening really you know and I thought people were talking about me and everything you know what happens to when the funds run low and you you're still craving for liquor well I've uh I've Sun a law as to um by surgical Spirits which is I know it's a terrible thing it says on the bottom of quot PL enough for external use only and I still drink it how much of that sort of stuff do you drink I've drank all but three bottles a day is this a a physical thing would you say or uh purely in the mind do you do you feel depressed without a drink no I think it's it's it's um in the mind to me it's it's mentally mental it is yes are they always women's voices that you hear or are they always women's voices that you hear no there's a female and a male yeah there one in the U females in the um little on the top yeah and what sort of things do they say to you then Ernie to see old of foolish Talk N talk not not not no sense in you were you were telling me all these voices in your head were caused by radar but this is really persecution surely it's what persecution isn't it to to have these voices for 10 years it is living us that's what they are why should you want to take an overdose of tablets depression just being depressed all the time it's horrible feeling and you really wanted to um die did you yes at the time yes at the time mental illness then is a major social problem but the public are gradually beginning to recognize the size of the problem and much of the fear and the Prejudice surrounding it is disappearing this is encouraging to us because we now realize that we're not fighting this problem alone mental illness in many ways is more severe than other forms of illness because it can be so very disabling to the individual and because of the enormous strain it throws upon the whole family fortunately nowadays it's not necessary for everybody to come into hospital for treatment a great many are seen in outpatient departments treated in the psychiatric units of General hospitals and an increasing number are treated in out day hospitals this is a psychiatric day Hospital part of the Community Mental Health Center in Plymouth here there are day rooms for adult patients a clinic for Disturbed children Consulting rooms and offices for the staff here people can receive treatment without being completely separated from their families patients arrive after breakfast go home again after tea take your time this also gives their families relief from the strain of trying to cope on their own 24 hours a [Music] day that's gentle heating the day hospital has a warm slightly club-like atmosphere more informal than most ordinary hospitals the nurses men and women don't wear uniforms form patients are encouraged to do as much as they can for themselves to be as independent as possible how about your hat as well some of the day patients are elderly and Confused families caring for elderly relatives often feel guilty about seeking any outside help out of love for the old person they may May struggle on alone far too long but this is one of the things that a day hospital is for not only can It care for the old person during the day but also staff from their experience may be able to suggest ways of handling which will help things at home through the day you know she just wanders around and picks up things and adds her away yes and she plays with a fire does she very dangerous so you really can't leave her no she's not allowed to be left the doctor said that how would you feel about in old people's home you wouldn't like that no but of course something must be done it's too big a strain for the family this is why we want her to come to the Bay Hospital so that we can look after her for you during the bay I think if she comes here and she takes her medicine yeah but she'll be a lot calmer and happier and you'll be able to manage it'll only be the night time and then she'll have something to help her to sleep will you give me the medicine tonight uh yes I'll give you the medicine to take home give her one before she goes to sleep and she should sleep through the night can you put both hands up that's the [Music] way and now your wrist bend it left to themselves many patients would just sit and do nothing they feel so depressed pressed or isolated that nothing seems worth the effort doing a few exercises together is part of encouraging a small step forward and it wakes up the circulation so everybody feels warmer open and [Music] close and rest [Applause] day hospitals help patients with a wide variety of mental illnesses the new treatments and New Attitudes to mental illness mean that many patients can gradually lead almost ordinary lives again each new patient discovers that everyone else here also has an illness to cope with that in itself can be a support and an encouragement I had a complete nervous breakdown 2 and 1 half years ago I cried for six solid months never stopped till they got me in here and got me interested in mixing with people and it's open for me a entirely new life you see when you have bad nerves the outside world they don't understand you that doing here that you think before you come here you're the only one that uh has it you see but when you get here and you see people that are worse than yourself then that does you the world of good new ways of helping patients have come about partly because of the discovery of effective drugs and partly because of a gradual change in public attitude to mental illness most people no longer consider it as something disgraceful which must be shut away nowadays psychiatric nurses are nurses not attendants and they train to be part of the psychiatric team with doctors and social workers in the day Hospital the nursing staff meet every morning to discuss the progress of current patients and the needs of new ones and the student nurses are involved from the start as part of the group she was seen by the psychiatrist and referred to attend a day Hospital 5 days weekly the second admission is Mr B har age 43 of St Junes Ian you know this man so perhaps you'd like to present him please yes now he was referred um by his GP to our patient Department he was a radio operator in the Merchant Navy and was divorced 5 years ago and since then he he's been making mistakes in his work and subsequently he became tense and anxious to relieve this tension like many he started drinking heavily and with his charge from The Merchant Navy a year ago his chief complaints nowar are of depression and loneliness and I think he needs resocialization please resocialization is nursing jargon for learning how to get on with other people again for someone who's been ill this can be difficult and worrying it may need a big effort and a lot of encouragement even to try part of the nurse's work is to give that encouragement help patients to make that [Music] step the main idea of this hospital in General is to make ourselves SE as we really are and gen accept ourselves for being what we are and when this acceptance comes you live a happier life you're not forever running away or touching or anybody you're you're going to a place where everybody knows about you and it is kind of a a freedom which exists which you've never thought of before day hospitals outpatients Department the family doctor can all help but for some people a complete rest away from their usual surroundings is important and so they come for a time as inpatients to a psychiatric hospital the average length of stay nowadays in an admission Ward is six weeks most patients are voluntary like this girl arriving with her mother and the social worker the unexpected thing is how undramatic much of it is mental illness doesn't mean that people go around looking mad as this social worker explains I think it's um sometimes quite misleading to just look at people as they appear their appearance belies what is really happening to them when someone comes into Hospital looking untroubled at least superficially and calm well-dressed and not obviously showing any symptom of distress one has to try to understand what has occurred which has required their needing psychiatric help and advice sh's mother you do if youd like to just come along with me and I'll get us to show you into bed and show you around the ward and introduce you to C people to help you s sometimes people can get dreadfully depressed to family problems or to personal worries which they don't always tell anyone about and therefore a psychiatric hospital can sometimes provide the setting where people can discuss with someone in confidence what has taken place what is worrying them put and of of course it's important to see the relatives and to give them the opportunity of giving one an idea of what has gone wrong she's been terribly disappointed and she's been going for different situations and because she hasn't had typing qualifications she's been turned down has she been crying a lot no she hasn't been crying a lot but she's been terribly irritable I mean you just we just haven't been able to live for her and doesn't matter what we did it wasn't right we just couldn't seem to please her anyway at all what about her sleeping has she been sleeping at all not terribly good no she hasn't slept very well at all because her bed is just opposite mine in the bedroom we have twin beds like you know and I can hear it cuz I don't sleep every good at night either myself when someone comes into hospital we are trying as far as possible to look at the whole family and see why it is that the patient particularly has these worries but whether there's anything else in the family that's taken place and whether in fact someone else in the family needs far more help even than the person who has sought the help of the psychiatrist just can't put yourself together if there's anything you want you can always get hold of me or get the nurse to ring me or whoever wants to ring me at work and I can bring it up treatment may be a combination of things drugs physical treatments group discussions some illnesses may be largely cured by drugs alone or drugs may help a patient to reach the point at which they're able to face and reconsider the difficulties and fears which are driving them to illness in the first place what about the Patients Group discussion of problems can give individuals in that group support and encouragement in working out their difficulties what do you think one should do about them this patient is asking when I'm going to let her go home does the rest of the group feel but there may be a reason why she should be kept here be quiet I no I'm trying to help you I patient as well I me doctor doesn't keep here unnecessarily no well you sign my discharge paper yes I'm wondering though whether or not in fact we are now seeing the situation such as we talked of earlier where a patient feels she should go home and perhaps is unable to appreciate the reasons why she's been kept in hospital and I'm wondering whether the rest of the group hearing what has just been said by this patient whether they feel in fact there is a reason why she she should remain here he may think you're well mured but the doctors may think Trouble Knows I'm well you must know how well trouble I think this patient hasn't reached the stage of realization yet know yes I think it's part of very honest not to face up to reality you don't face up to your problems right away you just give them a Miss Until you realize what do better but some people do feel ill when they come in but they don't realize why let me tell any for goodness sake six times or seven times Well only come from the holidays that's all 50% is up to the patient surely doctor you've got to have the will to get better better the will to get better and not come back again oh I'm not coming back again yes but you say that M but you've already said that you rely on the place you think it's lovely holiday if I fall ill I'll come back again that's all I know I couldn't care less you accept the place I've accepted the place I accept the food everything the staff everything I think it's a marvelous Hospital you've got to accept it to get better is a holiday no I don't think it's funny oh I do I think it's I don't think so I think it's serious no I can't be serious I I can't be serious never laugh you come why do you think this patients got hav't walked out just way she's made she is she do like to accept it she wants to be on for it do you think really that this patient is saying that it's necessary to be aware of the reason for one's presence in hospital in order to accept it of course a psychiatric admission Ward is different to a medical ward but it's not as different as people imagine who've never visited a psychiatric hospital one of the things that is different is the job of the nurse patients spend the first few days in bed after that they're mostly up and about the special part of a psychiatric nurse's job is to spend as much time as possible with the patients joining in activities as far as possible sharing day-to-day Ward life on hand to listen to their problems and fears when the patient wants to talk this is the ideal if a hospital is short staffed it's not always possible but when it is achieve this kind of nursing gives a lot back to the nurses themselves the real reward is when you see a person coming in who's acutely ill really ill and you and after to say sometimes 6 to 8 weeks especially on an ad Mission W he goes out again and he's well I think this is this is the real war when you shake his hand and say Cheerio and and you know that he's going out and he's well and he's not going to come back and you know you you get a tremendous satisfaction of think that you were a small part of of the big team you know just doing something for somebody you know another human being is is going and living life and enjoying life you feel great satisfaction of [Music] that how old are you Mrs Axford H how old are you I told you didn't you here no 88 come July the 6th can you remember the names of all your children or your grandchildren of course I can I got one 45 years of age one my first grandchild good and he's got five children five how old are they been oh that I told you then come step after step but that's what I'm telling you great grandchildren that is that's five of them any really baby ones you know all them coming on just the same now and still carrying on the game do they come to see you oh yes they come to see me some of them known again I can be bued with all that lot it's a bit bit much all it was better enough to come there so many as that have a party all on your own oh my dear I should say so how would you like to cut sandwiches for all that lot it can't be no different they got to behave themselves when he comes to see me this afternoon I want to demonstrate doing pass a place bed for you I think the rewards of uh mental nursing is that the variety in the work there's always something going on something different uh a new form of treatment or a new type of patient or something that you haven't come across mental nursing is still in its infancy and the whole field of Psychiatry is still very new compared with nursing in other fields and it's very rewarding at times for the nurse to feel that he has been on in on the threshold of a new treatment or a new form of therapy EXT bone formation and you'd see this marked up here and you can also see the shift the pineal gland you can't see it on the lateral so well we have a very strict training program but it's it's so well put out that unless you're not interested then you can't help but learn right the way through your training forward at the end of 3 years when you become a sness I hope and all this experience and all this learning has produced um a good nurse from there on sky is the limit you can is there any amount of Roads open once you've reached the stff I want to become a tutor whether I'll ever get it or not I don't know I shall try very hard Morning Sun looking bright I guess that you don't [Music] [Applause] [Music] know because during the day staff carry considerable responsibility it's important that off duty they can relax and enjoy good social life most hospitals have their own Social [Music] Club good morning goodday I guess that you don't know my way I guess that you go by the way sing a song there I expect some of you know it that's most of you do have been a very popular folk song for quite a long time this is called 500 miles if you miss the train I long you will know that I am gone you can hear the whistle blow 100 miles 100 miles 100 miles 100 miles 100 miles you can hear the whistle blow 100 more Lord I'm one Lord I'm two Lord I'm three Lord I'm Lord I'm 500 miles from my home away from home away from home cold and tired and all alone yes I'm 500 miles from my [Music] I think mental nursing is making relationships with patients this is the biggest thing in my opinion we mentioned you know the textbook things about having tact and persuasion and the ability to to councel and listen and reassure but these are things that really come with practice it's the ability to to get on with people to have an interest in human Affairs and to have something to offer uh it's important to have some sort of skill whether it be a skill in in just talking or a skill in being able to converse and and uh relate to other people it's just a a question really of being an ordinary person this this is this is the thing being an ordinary person and wanting to help other people sympathy understanding kindness [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music]