"My wife and her travels through the mental health minefield"

All of a sudden my wife was making crazy statements, she thought we had people in the loft, the neighbours wanted to kill her and our cat? I did not know where to turn or where to get help from, we had an incident where she went missing so I had to get help, and quickly! I was told to contact the mental health crisis team and seek their help, this I did and they told me to put down the phone and ring the police, this I did.

Everything turned out fine but this was the very beginning of my adventure with the Nottinghamshire NHS Mental Health Support Team. I do now know after eighteen months of turmoil and dread that this was a pivotal moment in my wife and me coming to terms and dealing with my wife’s Illness.

I and my wife have met some lovely people who have helped immensely since the early onset of her mental psychosis. I honestly thought my wife would not return to normality and our life going forwards would never be the same. We had dreams and plans for our future that seemed a million miles away from us now. And sometimes alone at night I would have a little cry over this as I felt robbed of our future.

All I have said though with the right care and support from the mental health teams I was assured everything would be alright. I was not convinced because with every step we took forwards something unforeseen would come along and push us back again. But now eighteen months from the start of all of this we have a massive tunnel with a world full of light shining through it and allowing us to see our future again.

All of this due to the efforts of so many people, the guys at Kings Mill Hospital for all the help they provided because we could not see our own GP, the Mental Health Crisis Team who became like an extension to our family, they helped us in ways too numerous to mention and they were so patient with my wife I can’t thank them enough.

Then when our care was transferred to North Gate in Newark, into the wonderful hands of Louise the nursing care coordinator and the psychiatrist things started to change. They tweaked the medicines my wife was on and this was amazing. I now got to see my wife with a smile on her face again.

She now rides again (horses) her passion since the age of eight, and slowly we are emerging into our world again the one I thought I would lose for ever. I now take part in the Newark Carer Support group with Laura E, Alice & Laura R this has given me an extra insight into the problem We have had and the way we can support each other.

My wife also has joined Rob the CBTp Therapist Supervisor which my wife says has been a major breakthrough for her regarding her agoraphobia. All of the carers support and the new course I have just started Carer Education and Support Program were overseen by Andrea and Laura from the Family Interventions Team at Bassetlaw Hospital Worksop.