Good people.

Hi.

Today I was meant to be posting part three of 'Moving' but I thought I'd take a day out from that to talk about some of the fantastic people that have helped us; if for no other reason that to provide a bit of balance and show that not everyone in the service is a complete and utter jerk!

The first person is the psychiatrist that we dealt with from the early days of diagnosis right up until my son was transferred to Adult Services. Quite a remarkable man who managed to both be on our side and tell us home truths at the same time. Always available to us and willing to answer absolutely any question I do sometimes wonder if our dissatisfaction with Adult Services is partly down to him being so good. At a time when everything was new to us all he guided, advised and chastised as needed. Also I should really mention the receptionist there who took a genuine friendly interest in both patients and their families.

Secondly is the OT (Occupational Therapist) that was assigned to Jr before we moved. A man of extraordinary patience and dedication who spent so much time and effort with my son. Although his remit was to get Jr out more for the first few months they never left the house; in fact it took nearly that long for Jr to speak to him but he built a strong relationship through music (my son is a fantastic guitarist). Although Jr suffered a big setback before we moved the progress made with this OT was remarkable to the extent that he was taking Jr out to group discussion sessions.

Thirdly is a local service provider who do 'classes' to help in various ways. This was the only thing that was arranged for Jr down here for a very long time and whilst it was very repetitive for him the staff there are superb and really bent over backwards to enable Jr to attend despite his phobias. Rooms were realigned and chairs reserved for him so that he could feel safe. These people (I really can't narrow it down here because everyone there has been so helpful) have shown themselves to be the exact opposite of the local mental health service and have shown genuine care.

Lastly (and I'm jumping ahead a bit in the 'Moving' story) is the psychologist we fought for him to see. There was supposed to be one assessment appointment and then a 20 week course but she knew immediately that wasn't going to be enough and she stretched the assessment process to 14 weeks! When he was 10 weeks into the course she extended it by another 10 weeks and now has agreed to continue the sessions as long as needed. All of that is fantastic but the remarkable thing is that she's got my son to talk to her, and not just talk but talk about his deepest feelings which I don't think he's ever really done before.

All these people have shown themselves to be exactly what people in the service should be and can be. In fact these people being so dedicated makes the behaviour of others even more disgusting.

xxx