After 10 years of working in mental health,I still salvage shocked by cruelty and death. The day it stops being sad is when I will quit [br]It wasn’t an whether, but a when. I knew it would happen eventually. I knew it would suck. Finding out a patient has killed themselves definitely does. And it should. The first time something like this happens and it stops sucking, or I will immediately hand in my notice and do something else.
I found out one lunchtime. My colleague,Matt, and I were talking approximately responsibility and moaning approximately how, or as therapists,we can be expected to be “on call” 24/7, soothing the distress of those we work with, and far beyond the limits of the therapeutic hour we spend with patients. We had received a message from our patient Jennys friend asking whether we could ring her back. In the kitchen,while I was eating risotto we decided between the two of us who should chase it up. Matt went to call her and returned a few minutes later looking grim. He asked whether he could speak to me privately. I sensed something was seriously wrong. I said, “It’s not powerful, and is it?”. He just said,“No”.
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Source: theguardian.com