Ruth’s Admission
Prior to her admission to Bronte Ward, Ruth recalls feeling extremely stressed and scared. She explained that she was “completely shut off from the world”. She was experiencing auditory hallucinations and felt confused about her symptoms, which only added to the distress she was feeling.
Ruth struggled initially with the new people and staff around her on the ward, they made her feel uneasy and building trust took time. She didn’t want to take her medications as she felt they were negatively impacting her mood and weight.
It became clear that Ruth also needed additional support with daily living skills such as housing, finances and rebuilding relationships.
Ruth’s care
Ruth appreciated being able to discuss her concerns about the medication with the ward consultant. She was able to work collaboratively with the medical team to identify a treatment plan that worked for her whilst also managing her symptoms.
Reflecting on her daily routine, Ruth shared that occupational therapy was hugely helpful in maintaining consistency and building confidence. She attended walks, groups and cooking sessions which all increased her independence. Ruth said “it was good to have distractions and stay busy while I was struggling, and then I was able to build on activities which were meaningful to me.”
The social work team worked with Ruth to alleviate some of the other concerns she had, she recalled “The social worker was very supportive about my housing and finances. She communicated with my mum to help me sort out my passport and helped me to develop relationships with my children again. The social worker saw what was important to me and helped me with my problems.”
During her stay, Ruth was offered and engaged with a number of different psychological treatments. Initially, she began to build therapeutic rapport by attending relaxation-based groups, which helped to increase her capacity for focus.
Ruth later attended an adapted dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT) skills group where she was introduced to mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and emotion regulation skills. She was motivated to practise these skills after noticing they had helped on a particular occasion over Christmas, where she was feeling uncomfortable being at home with lots of people drinking alcohol around her.
To further support Ruth to manage any cravings or difficult situations, she engaged in a substance misuse intervention which taught her about the impact of substances and explored positive coping strategies to manage urges.
Most recently, Ruth commenced eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) sessions to help her to process past experiences and improve her future quality of life. Ruth was understandably nervous about this, but with reassurance and support from the team, she engaged well.
Ruth described finding this as challenging at times, however, found it helpful to work through some difficult times in a safe space and not feel judged. She shared “although EMDR was distressing to start with, safe place imagery and body scan skills have helped me to cope. EMDR has helped me to put my traumatic memories into the right filing cabinet in my head”.
The Bronte team encouraged Ruth to boost her self-compassion; Ruth stated that “through therapy, I was able to develop a more understanding tone towards myself and my experiences”.
Ruth today
With Ruth’s confidence and independence building, she has progressed onto volunteering at the local charity shop, Community Gardens, and with a local church’s ‘Good Neighbours Project’.
Ruth has recently become a Ward Representative and expressed her enthusiasm for the opportunity, stating, “It’s good that they have this role for people who want to try and change things.”
Ruth is currently in the process of planning for her discharge back home in the community. The team are really proud of her and her progress on Bronte Ward. Ruth has shared that it is important for others struggling to “stick at it and things will improve”.
*Name has been changed to protect their identity
