August 2006

From Duck.

ok i will try and keep this brief. I greatly desire to be a mental health nurse and have applied to do an access course to try and get onto nurse diploma or degree course. I wish to apply this year but i have supposed post traumatic stress and have been inpatient for this in past year . I feel confident of coping with any issues i may come up against but i believe there is a medical to pass prior to starting nursing studies.Is this medical done through your doctor or just questions asked by staff. Any ideas what i should do ie wait a few years then apply or just tell them and hope they will allow me to study. Your opinions would be much appreciated…

Here are some older posts relating to people wanting to be mental health nurses.

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This is not Mental. This is an impostor. Call me Malcolm.

Its a bank holiday. Traffic outside is quiet, I’m sort of hoping that traffic to the site is quiet too, cos this is my first post proper - with its very own headline.

Just like at the beginning of the Blue Peter Annuals I got every year as a kid (and still have 1973 - 1984, someone make me an offer?) I need to say “Hello there”.

Mental has been hinting for some time in his posts that he needs to take a back seat on the site, and for some unfathomable reason he has asked both me and Oldschoolbaby to help keep the site going while he swanning about leading a life of luxury.

Quite frankly the prospect is terrifying.

Firstly, because Mental does such a good job of writing about Mental Health Nursing in such a refreshingly honest and personal way, I’m worried that I’m going to bore everyone and reduce his site to an internet wasteland, and secondly, because Oldschoolbaby wastes no opportunity to take the piss out of me.

Hopefully the latter will at least be amusing.

I imagine that regular readers will be wondering “so who hell he – to be pontificating to us when he’s not Mental…..”

It’s only fair to tell you.
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Have a post from a newly signed up member of the site:

hi!

I’ve just been referred to my local mental health team via my GP after suffering from depression for at least 6 years. got my appointment with CPN in October and not really sure as to what will happen when i go.

Would be really grateful if anybody could tell me what will happen when i go (facts, not fiction please!)

Any CPN’s in the audience wanting to explain what happens next …

This is nothing to to with work, or much to do with mental health.

I was thinking about labeling people and terms like the ‘happy demented’. I was mentally composing a post about nurses use of verbal shorthand (shorthand ? hand, verbal ?) when I noticed something.

I had just been shopping for facial wipes and was standing around clutching my Body Shop carrier bag to my chest. I was nervous as I was in a somewhat … bad part of the city. I was looking around trying to look really tough and not like a mugging waiting to happen. The rain was pouring down and water was dripping down the back of my neck.

I saw a man. He was pulling on the door of a small car. He stared in through the driver’s side window. Tried the handle again. Took a few steps back. Tried the handle again.

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For roughly the last year I have been working with the elderly. Specifically the elderly suffering from dementing conditions. Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, alcohol related problems etc. etc. Now I am off to a new job and can discuss some of my thoughts and feelings about the Mental Health and Care of the Elderly. I am uncertain if there are any new politically correct terms for this area, psychogeriatrics has probably fallen out of fashion, so I will just use the language as I’ve heard it.

Psychogeriatrics would make a great title for a horror movie though. Makes me think of glowing red eyed, hatchet wielding, flesh eating zombies on a Saga holiday cruise. Probably eating holidaying teenagers. Never mind writing a book, I should become a script writer. How many A’s does aaargh have ?

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Just found this, sorry for being so slow. Remember how the Government bottled a major reform of the Mental Health Act 1983 ? Here is what they are up to instead.

The Mental Health Bill: Plans to amend the Mental Health Act 1983

As part of its comprehensive strategy to reform and modernise mental health care, the Government plans to update the Mental Health Act 1983. The amending Bill will ensure that legislation reflects the modernisation of services and the move towards more treatment in the community. It will improve safeguards and increase the safety of individual patients, and protect the wider public from harm.

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Just a quick link while I am waiting for a contribution from someone, you know who you are !

Audio feeds from the Institute of Psychiatry

Welcome to the Institute of Psychiatry audio feeds. We aim to bring to you all public lectures and events at the Institute of Psychiatry, this includes, the popular Maudsley Debates series

Have not got round to listening to them yet but I look forward to doing so.

Site news below the fold.

Read below the fold for site news if you’re feeling helpful.

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