"Just give us a chance"

I have been at St Andrew's for 5 years. I have been on Upper Harlestone, Lower Harlestone and Garden Cottage. I have been listened to by the staff but sometimes I feel my views don't always get listened to. It is also about trust and sadly I don't feel the staff always trust us. they say we have to trust the staff when the staff don't trust us. The staff are a bit over cautious. I have always wanted to get an animal as that is what I enjoy in life. I like reptiles and all the staff say is there are people who have allergies and that people don't like them. If it is in my room, only the staff who have to do the checks will see it. All they do is give me a list of why I can't have an animal. This has always been my hobby but even though the staff say they want to help me achieve my goals, all they do is say I can go to the reptile centre.

Having an animal would help my recovery. It would help with my motivation, give me a purpose. Take away a persons purpose and what is left? If you can bring up a puppy, you can bring up a child. If a patient becomes too unwell to look after the animal, depending on the seriousness of the person, I think it would be nice to encourage the person. Just because they are unwell and are struggling, you shouldn't remove it - they should be offered help. This could be something that a person can work towards. They say its in the policy. They should sit us down with one of the heads from higher up to consider this. I would like someone from higher up to come and sit down with the patients or me so I can put forward my own views on this. There are areas where we could have animals in the hospital which would broaden peoples horizons. There are therapeutic benefits of having pets which can be managed. Its very rare that people have allergies to reptiles. Its mainly feathers and fur. I've never seen a reptile with feathers or fur. The men's service have been talking about getting rabbits for umpteen years but no rabbits are here yet.

Staff have to trust us and give us a chance. As an example, my previous RC didn't believe I could come off medication but I have been off meds now for the last three years. I have proved it. It is irritating when you ask for something and it's a flat no and they just say its in the policy. I never see the policy but it shouldn't be the same for everyone and shouldn't I have a right to see the policy. I would like to see policies and what they say. They come up with things but not why and I have the solutions to some of the things they say. Just give us a chance.