STR - Support Time Recovery - Activity 2.1 - Describe a Service-User's experiences

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STR / Support Time Recovery Training course

VRQ Level 2 Certificate in Mental Health

Introduction to the service user.

The service user I interviewed had a very troubled childhood with very little stability and she has grown up to have problems with extreme feelings of rejection and vulnerability. Her parents were very rarely there for her when she needed them and her Mum in particular did not show much emotion towards her. She was severely bullied during both her school and college life both verbally and physically. She was also sexually abused on a few occasions by an older friend when she about nine years old. She is now in her early forties and still has many issues due to her childhood trauma.

I have tried not to include anything that will identify the woman I have interviewed, but anybody that knows her very well may by able to work out who she is. I do have full written permission from her to use the information she has provided in anyway I need.

Answer to Question 1

The main things that have led to her current mental health problems are:

Feeling of rejection as a child

Instability and neglect during her childhood

Sexual abuse

Bullying at school and college

Family problems

Answer to Question 2

Talking therapies she found were very helpful:

She has found it very hard to get access to free talking therapies, last year she had Cognitive Behavioural Therapy twice a week for a few months and she found that a big help and wishes that could have continued.

Medication made her feel worse:

She had been given a number of different types of anti-depressants and mood stabilisers, but all had reacted badly with her and made her feel much worse in many ways. Most made her want to sleep all day which made her feel even more depressed, others gave her hallucinations.

Answer to Question 3

She still suffers with severe depression and self harms on a regular basis, she has occasional thoughts of suicide, but says that she has no plans of ever actually doing it mostly thanks to the support from her Husband and Son.

Answer to Question 4

She had many ideas about what she would like to get from her local mental health services:

More talking therapies

More help out of 'business' hours, as people do not always get ill between 9am and 5pm.

Much shorter waiting lists when she tries to get help

More help for when she feels like self harming, not to basically say "come back when you have done it!"

Community Psychiatric Nurse's etc. to make sure they know about what support groups are available in the local area, she is a member of a few groups now, but all ones she has found herself without any help from them.

More stability in her care, not the ever changing doctors and appointments in many different places, she said that even just been seen in a different room can unsettle her.

Next: STR Activity 2.2 - Different perspectives

Please note: The contents of the Level 2 Certificate in Mental Health Students workbook are copyrighted, so I have not included any of the questions, purely my answers which are only copyrighted to me! If you have access to the workbook it will make a lot more sense to you. Please do NOT copy my answers and use them as your own, I have just put them here to give you ideas for any parts you may be stuck on.