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A Carer,s Perspective
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Poems By
Georgina Wakefield
‘PROUD’
This
30 year old that you see suffers from schizophrenia
He
suffers each day in silence with a kind and gentle demeanour
Look
deeply beyond his label to the baby I held in my arms
To
the cheeky mischevious 4 year old who captured the world with his charms
To
the bright intelligent 10 year old who excelled at school in his study
To
the 12 year old football fanatic who’d come home exhausted and muddy
To
the carefree handsome teenager Who would greet me each day with a kiss
To
the son I would lay down my life for
To
the man I was destined to miss
He
waded through the torment hallucinations and angry voices
Robbed
of so many pleasures stripped bare
of any choices
He
suffered the cruel isolation in a world filled with futility
The
lessons he learned along the way provide new found humility
The
pain inflicted by ignorance all too often was too much to bare
The
Stigma that lurked in the media
unjust inhumane and unfair
THE
JUDGE AND JURY passed their sentence without even knowing his name
If
they had any idea of his journey they would hang their heads in shame
Because
my son was sent on a journey there were demons that he had to face
Along
with horrific memories that he struggles each day to erase
A
journey so long and relentless that we can never measure his pain
So
many times he would stumble and fall and rise to his feet yet again
Now
he’s quiet and unassuming but to me he stands out in the crowd
He’s
the son he was always destined to be and 1 word describes my feelings and
that’s proud
Georgina
Wakefield - spotlightonschizophrenia@yahoo.co.uk
He will get better though?
Her eyes are large and pleading
she
craves my reassurance, this mother’s heart is bleeding
I
try to find the right words ‘recovery is slow’
She
doesn’t seem to hear me, he will get better though?
He will get better though?
This won’t destroy his life?
He’ll
go to work, socialise, one day he’ll have a wife?
Lets
take things very slowly, I try hard to make things clear
He
will get better though? Yet again she doesn’t hear
He will get better though?
He was such a lively lad
She’s
searching through their happy past
For
the son that she once had, she so desperate to find him
The
lad she’s known for years, though she tries hard to control herself
Her
eyes fill up with tears
I pat her hand and comfort
her, recovery is slow
But
deafness hangs on in there, ‘he will get better though?’
Georgina Wakefield - spotlightonschizophrenia@yahoo.co.uk
Training
Sessions/ Guest Speaking with a difference-Leading The Way- In Service
Improvement –
…The
carer’s voice is still not being adequately heard. Based on my experience as a
service user for 20 years and a carer for the past 17 years, and using material
from the 3 books I have researched and written, I can offer mental health trusts
and voluntary organisations the opportunity to redress the balance. Looking from
the perspective of the whole family, and with the experience of other carers and
service users, I provide a unique, in-depth understanding of the carer’s
journey – which many carers feel is all too often underestimated.
Using
work from my books allow me to take you into the world of the mental health
carer exploring the huge impact that this tragic life event has on the entire
family, the 2 books about mental illness are currently in the process of being
condensed into values based training manuals for mental health professionals
with support from The Sainsbury Centre For Mental Health also in the package
will be a 50 minute documentary broadcast on BBC 2 last year ‘My Family Loving
Christian’ to bring you up to date with how life is for all of us today, the
book about Dual Diagnosis contains 7 true case histories and has again been
written from the whole family perspective with support from Nimhe this will also
be used to train staff with, I have trained staff from Nhs Trusts, The Voluntary
Sector and The Institute Of Psychiatry for the past 4 years.
Some of
the comments from staff
‘I
have learned more in the past 2 hours about the Service User/Carers journey than
I have from any weighty text books’
‘This
training session has helped me to totally re-evaluate the work that I do’
‘From
now on I will focus far more on the carers that come onto the ward’
If
you are interested in talking to me about how I can help you to improve the
services you provide for service users and carers, please do not hesitate to
contact me.
Georgie Wakefield, Fellow For Carers, NIMHE Eastern Region - spotlightonschizophrenia@yahoo.co.uk
Source:
www.scbnetwork.org
