insight into working with people with mental health problems



Common problems that people with mental health problems ( My / our clients) face is depression, loneliness and acceptance by people in the community where they live.

So my first priority is to entertain them to boost their moral and lift their depression.

i have lots of little songs that i sing for them.

i usually start by explaining that we are doing party show in near future and ask them if they would you like to see my ditties . That gets a Lough because i pronounce the word tities (as in breasts :)

When i visit clients at their home i have a bag with things in it that i can use to provide topics of conversation.



one of the problems some clients have is self harm ( they cut themselves) so i carry a little survival kit that i use for camping which has compass (so i know where i am and direction of where i want to go ), a wire saw (for cutting fire wood and making temporary shelters) and some water purification tablets in case i need drink dirty or contaminated water) and some pain killing tablets.

Quite a few of my clients are ladies so i carry a

ladies hat which i say is present for my girl fried . attached to hat is red rose and i ask if they think it is in right place. Usually they try hat on and make sugestions about position of rose.



I have one client who's house smells like very bad toilet because she has medical problems with her bowels. She live with it so long she not smell it anymore herself and off course people not like to visit her.

i cannot just start spraying house with perfume because i think it would offend her dignity so i sing song using my hat, my bag and sweaty socks which i soak with perfume before i visit

i sing my party ditty singing :

got my hat and my bag and a pair of sweaty socks

that's my life.

and wave my socks with the result that i leave her smelling sweet.

it is only first step towards her social inclusion and i still have a lot of work to do with her.



Another client is young black man (19 years old) who is clinically obese for medical reasons. of course he does not like to go outside because people think look at fat man so my solution was to change the context from people thinking look at fat man to there is sporting athlete. How ? easy i get t shirt and on tea shirt is sign saying Sumo Wrestling trainer that i wear when we are out exercising in street.

Now he is sporting world championship sumo contender :)

The other day i meet him on way to his house and he out on his own.

i was little worried because it was very hot day and really he should not of been out exercising because he has blood pressure problems that could be very dangerous for him. still i very much admired his effort.

Off course i need be careful as well, if he fall on me, i doubt that i get up again.

The hardest client i have is man my age . he was married 30 years and for last two years he look after wife with terminal illness before she die and then he become emotional wreck. he think his son and doughtier do not care about him or love him and his perceptions are wrong and at moment he thinks and sees the worst.

I am not social psychologist so i cannot help him very much but the charity i work for operates like team. if i cannot do it, we know someone who can. The poor man (not in money) is suffering and its my job to try and cut his suffering time down to minimum on the way to his recovery.

A lot of what i see is so easy to do

for example one lady sits watching one channel poor reception television and all she needs is one meter Arial . it make me very mad because she was left in this condition.

i get very angry about it and wanted to give person responsible for her care taste of her condition and force person to watch one channel television with bad picture for just one day and see how they like it.

for many people watching popular television programmes provide topics of social conversation as well as being pseudo societies . it is very important for good mental health.



sometimes you cannot begin to understand peoples problems unless you experience it yourself.

if i work with someone in wheelchair i want to use wheelchair for the day. then i find out how hard it is even to cross road or get access to buildings.

In the case Of fat man i buy pregnancy sympathy cushion. it simulate size but not weight of pregnant woman. wearing it showed me difficulties of moving around ,trying to walk between people in crowded places or even sitting down. Mothers will know all about such problems.

well that is my insight of the sort of thing i do and how i do it but off course there is so much more to say about it.

When i go to cafes many people think that i am the client

i love it, suddenly my clients seem very normal people and indeed they are. normal human reactions to life stresses and life crisis that will effect one in 4 people before there life is over.

ii love our clients they help me as much as we help them.

i will not say what company i work for but hope if you ever fall victim to mental health problems you find your way to companies that are highly professional in what they do, in the most relaxed way.

wonderful people, serving wonderful people.