Are you being reasonable?

 Saturday Morning.

I wake up feeling mentally dragged through a prickly hedge, all scratched up.

My thoughts are fixated on the behaviours of these aggressive, demanding people.

The situation.

Its Friday, I am a relief nurse, and on this day I am sent to work a shift in an adult mental health, low dependency unit.

Background

After handover, I have 5 consumers allocated to me, I go to the room of my one of my allocated consumers.

In the room, there is a16 yr old girl, lying in bed appearing to read a novel, who, told me to  “F off, get out of my room.” She is refusing to eat or drink and has deep, self inflicted wounds. She is refusing to allow staff to look at the wounds. She stays in the bed for some six hours.

Later, at end of shift, she craftily comes out to the social area and sits with a real weirdo guy doing a jigsaw, and they have a happy little chat. More than likely she sneaks food while she is there. She makes it appear that she is not eating to prove her point. She wants attention or else she will kill herself. She is not underweight, and looks plump and healthy. She’s been in the unit for over a year. She knows how to work the system, and the same outcome occurs over and over.

The Incident.

Another consumer is a 50 yr old, realitively fit male with Schizoaffective disorder. He is allowed two hours leave from the unit. He approaches me and demands a  “signed piece of paper to take to the bank to get money out”. .When I look at him blankly and indicate that I wont do this, he begins balling his fists and setting his jaw. Beads of sweat break out on his brow.

I start to feel unsafe, i step away and backwards.

“What are you??” Yelling now.. “ HOW INCOMPETENT COULD YOU BE. AT YOUR AGE. LOOK HOW OLD YOU ARE AND YOU DONT KNOW THIS!!”

Further he demands:

“I also need a bus ticket to get to the local shops and come back!!” “ How do you expect me to do this? You have to give me what I want”.

He has no money he tells me as, “I cut up my credit card”.

His goal, he stated, was to get some money out, and go to the local cemetery to visit veterans graves. 

Its 1800, its very cold, windy outside, pouring rain, and its a Friday night. 

I am very suspicious about this. And sorry, I dont have a miraculous machine to print a bus ticket.

( Is the cemetery where they meet drug dealers? I think this is the case, as another returning patient said exactly the same at 1930 when he returned to the Unit. ” i just went to the cemetery to pay my respects to family, thats why I am returning 30 minutes late.”???)

Back to the 50 yr old.

The 50 yr old, rages on, and then incriminates himself with “I am really angry at my father, in fact, as soon as I get out of here I am gonna kill him.”

“My father went to my place and burnt my MJ stash!! I am REALLY angry about this. And you know what? Now I have to take OXY!! “

The Outcome

I notified the team doctors of the incident. A quick meeting with him was organised, a security guard, myself and another doctor, he repeated his threats about his father without prompting to do so, he continued raging about his MJ loss, and then, his leave was cancelled. 

Two hours later he had calmed down and apologised to me.

I retreat to an office, shut the door, and start writing some notes on paper. The computers were all malfunctioning. No one updates them so they were crashing on start up. I had no access to any useful information about the consumers as it was all filed on the computers.

I felt really frustrated.

More clients  came up to the window of the office. Banging on the window, asking for leave to have a “smoke”. I did not know who they were. They were not part of my allocation.

I refused to open the door. 

Finally another nurse came to the office and asked me why I wasn’t answering the door. She realised my frustration and gave me a hand in figuring out who, what and why. 

It was like trying to dig a hole with your hands tied behind your back.

And on, the night went, in similar style.