severe and enduring mental illness

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Aliveandrunning March 17 2014

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Following last weekend’s Cambridge half marathon when I ran a good time and then made it memorable by becoming dehydrated and requiring medical assistance (see blog dated March 10), I am now back to form. I ran with the club during the week and parkrun on the weekend. The Cambridge parkrun run director and her partner, who have bright red hair and a Mohican respectively, were stepping aside after four years. Dozens of regulars wore convincing wigs in celebration (see pic above). I think I should have spent more time finessing my coiffure. My lush Mohican came rather low and I had difficulty seeing my way around the course. I was also carrying a placard so my time was slow. Still, we had a lot of cake afterwards and everyone was very appreciative of the hard work they have put in since parkrun began in Cambridge.

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Here I am modelling my tattoo sleeves after the race. Generally I am anti tattoo but these sleeves are hardly distinguishable from the real thing (as long as they are viewed 20 metres away with sun glasses). I am now scouring the internet to acquire a whole body lycra  tattoo stocking! How cool would that be in Cambridge Central Library or a Tesco super store.

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It’s curious how many runners revere cake! Very few of them seem to worry about the sugar or fat or calorie content. Anyway, it was a very enjoyable, OTT morning.

I attended a funeral last week and had yet further proof that, all to frequently, there’s nothing less Christian than a practicing Christian. I’ve heard examples from family before and also seen it with my own eyes. The genteel, comfortable middle classes Church goers don’t seem to be able to welcome anyone who doesn’t conform to their particular norms. This is very clear when their services are attended by individuals whose behaviour may be loud or inappropriate or if they look different. They simply get ignored or sidelined or frozen out. I witnessed the good church folks in action against a women who probably has a borderline personality disorder in the reception after the funeral service. They really should have been able to accommodate her and make the effort to respond and make her feel comfortable. But they didn’t. And haven’t done on other occasions. I don’t like being around such hypocritical people. I don’t like to see such displays of prejudice and unkindness. They don’t take their own moral teachings seriously. They are self righteous nitwits!

Hot news! Scientists have found evidence of the signal left by the super-rapid expansion of space that occurred fractions of a second following the Big Bang, leading immediately to the creation of the Universe. That fraction is estimated to be a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second. Wow!! That’s even faster than the Tories took to start dismantling the NHS by letting the for profit companies take over services. That’s why we need health union leaders of the calibre of Bob Crow who very sadly died suddenly last week, aged 52.

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Aliveandrunning March 1 2014

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Cambridge parkrun today, albeit 4-5 minutes slower than I would  normally hope to do it in. Why? Because I enrolled on the If You Have An Injury, You Too Can Make It Worse Course For Idiots earlier in the week. Having strained my intercostal muscles (rib cage – my diagnosis) by throwing stuff onto a skip, I went road running with the club after first doing some painful stretching exercises. The following day I still continued chucking stuff on the skip. I despair of myself and will administer a severe reprimand when I’m in the mood to accept it. The end result is that it will take possibly weeks to heal. Certain movements are quite painful, like vacuuming, getting from sitting, lifting, leaning forward and breathing deeply. The good news is running doesn’t seem to make matters worse although speed is capped by increasing discomfort. Tomorrow I’m doing a 5 mile race and next Sunday it’s the Cambridge half marathon. 

Actually, because focus wasn’t on speed and effort today, I enjoyed the run more. I was also lapped by several runners. It was rather sobering when the winner swept past me with an eventual time of 15 mins 53 secs, nearly twice as fast as me. I’ll have to up my game. I usually place myself mid way in the 250-350 strong field, among the sturdy squires and minor landed gentry which are behind the running royalty and aristocracy. Today I moved back a bit further and mingled with hard working tax payers and no nonsense types not in receipt of benefits. And very enjoyable their company proved. Lorna volunteered again, as official photographer on this occasion, and took around 400 great snaps.

The top photo is the start of Cambridge  parkrun. The weather was overcast and misty this morning and the course is still very muddy. 256 runners took part which is a small for Cambridge. I seem to have successfully seen off any adjacent runners at this point and came in at 28 mins 7 secs.

This link takes you to an article in the Guardian concerning the tragic death of a mentally ill man whose benefits were stopped following an ATOS assessment which found him fit for work. He starved to death four months later. Who cares? Not the coalition government, surely, otherwise they wouldn’t award contracts to mercenary for profit companies only too willing to find any grounds to stop the benefits of the most needy people. It’s a many pronged attack on vulnerable people experiencing serious mental illness. The contraction in community services and support will ensue more incidents like this will occur. At the very least we’ll be entertained by tabloid stories of mentally ill people eating tins of dog food. Thanks David, Nick et al.   http://bit.ly/1mNinpU

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Aliveandrunning2013 October 8

I decided to do a little research online regarding my calf problem and found that I almost certainly have “calf strain”. It described symptoms of mild ache at rest to moderate pain on using the affected muscle, swelling, discolouration, redness or bruising and difficulty rising up on your toes or pushing off with your foot. Calf strain is a common injury and often caused by overstretching or by putting excessive force through the calf muscle at the back of the lower leg. In this injury the muscle fibres are stretched and weakened, resulting in bleeding into the muscle. Well, there was mild swelling and a discoloured/bruised area and pain but two days after it feels much better. Therefore I have mild calf strain. The website prescribed rest, ice, compression and elevation. Yeah, yeah, yeah ! I’m a very mild case, mate. I’ve blogged a 140 words and my calf feels appreciatively better than it did at word 1 ! So I will rest for a few more days then do 2 miles and if that’s OK I’ll do the 5K parkrun on Saturday.

Yesterday, the Guardian carried an article, on page  4, concerning the Metropolitan Police ordering officers not to respond to calls from mental health units and emergency departments for help to control and restrain patients unless there is a “significant threat to life and limb”. There followed a sensible and reasonably balanced  discussion which mentioned that research by Victim Support indicated that people with mental health problems are five more likely than the general population to be victims of assault, with 9% of those questioned saying they were victims of crime in a psychiatric inpatient context, by other patients or staff. By contrast, the Sun’s front page headline screamed 1200 KILLED BY MENTAL PATIENTS with a smaller line below explaining “Shock 10 year toll exposes care crisis”. A classic gutter press headline for consumption by foolish people, the credulous and the pathologically prejudiced. It’s the UK’s biggest selling daily national newspaper (current daily circulation around 2.4m). God protect us from this paper and the people who read it.

Paperboy.com provides comparison of newspaper headlines in the UK and other countries. Today, the Guardian ran with Hope of Malaria Vaccine Within Two Years After Successful Trials, The Daily Express had MADDY : “WE’LL FIND HER ALIVE”, The Mail – Human Right to Make a Killing which concerned UK taxpayers footing the bill for European Court “payouts to murderers, terrorists and traitors”, the Daily Star’s (Princess) Diana’s Secret Baby. You can compare daily headlines for up to 12 past issues. Read and weep.

 

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Aliveandrunning2013 October 2

No available car to drive to Cambridge and Coleridge AC, so no road running for me with the club yesterday evening. Instead I went for a routine 47 minute run which took me to the banks of the River Cam at which point I turn around and run back. Calf feels normal but will it hold up for 2 hours when I do the Hoo Haar half marathon on Sunday, October 6 ? Should I do an hour’s run  tomorrow ? And what about parkrun on Saturday ? Good sense suggests I should cut out at least one of them. I’ll definitely do parkrun, however.

The media is reporting a meta analysis finding in the British Medical Journal which looked at 304 research papers concerning the role of exercise and medication in heart disease and stroke. The conclusion identified exercise as on a par  with medication in terms of continuing good health outcomes. It identifies diuretic drugs as most important for heart failure and exercise as important , or most important, in stroke recovery. It looked at trials involving nearly 340,000 patients to assess the merits of exercise and drugs in preventing death. Such was the extent of exercise in reducing death rates, the findings suggested that exercise should be added to prescriptions. This is good news and will encourage people to take some responsibility for their own continuing health. Unfortunately so many of us seem determined to sleepwalk into substantial health problems by willfully ignoring sensible eating patterns, not sleeping sufficiently, drinking too much alcohol and not taking any regard for the nature and quality of the food we consume, particularly the refined stuff.

At Birmingham Crown Court, a 23 year old man pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a 16 year old girl on a bus by stabbing her, He has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, a severe and enduring mental illness which when appropriately treated and care supported, can be well managed. He was previously assessed by a psychiatric service in prison where he was serving a short sentence for threatening his mother with a knife. On discharge there was no treatment or care plan presumably because they didn’t identify a treatable mental illness (although prison staff had identified a number of problem behaviours). That’s the most charitable explanation. Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust have Assertive Outreach teams, a medium secure forensic service and a contract to provide a psychiatric service to the prison system. I find it difficult to accept that the assessing personnel didn’t identify an illness that their services could successfully treat. Paranoid schizophrenia was apparently diagnosed after the fatal stabbing which occurred about 3 months after his discharge from prison. Are their specialist Assertive Outreach teams working at full capacity? Have there been cuts in the provision of such services ? How could he not meet the criteria ?

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Aliveandrunning2013 September 9

A great Grunty Fen half marathon yesterday. I ran it in 1 hour 47 minutes which is 8 minutes faster than last year and 3 minutes faster than I ran a similar flat half 14 years ago. As usual I was exhausted  when I passed the finish line but recovered quickly. I was so focussed at the end I failed to see or hear family friends screaming support. Lorna asked Isobelle to meet up and take me back to where they were cheering the other runners coming in. Lorna said that it worries her too much when she sees me bent over and totally drained and my rival Mike said he had concerns as well when he ran with me. Oh dear! Next time I’ll run straight into bushes, recover and then present myself to polite society smiling, relaxed and exuding surplus energy like a newly coiled spring.

The course was flat, windy and open with fields on either side. The recent hot weather has subsided and was just right for me on the cool to warm scale. I drank at water stations on two occasions (at 7 and 10 miles), walking while drinking for around 30-40 seconds. When I started running again I felt refreshed and less tired. In the past I’ve not taken on water during a race (unless it’s been really hot or I felt thirsty) and I’ve not stopped. I now  think taking short drinking breaks works best for me. I’m running another half in a month, not on a road surface like Grunty Fen but on trail, grass and undulating woodland. This will be more demanding and depending on the steepness of the hill, I will revert to walking for short periods.

Good news regarding Lorna’s ankle injury which has stopped her running for around 5-6 weeks. She had a telephone assessment by Physio Direct, a PCT funded free service which was thorough, used internet images to identify the injury and lasted 50 minutes. This was followed up by an emailed treatment plan including videos of remedial exercises and correct running form. Lorna has previously seen a physiotherapist and her GP and is currently waiting for a rheumatology out-patient appointment. It’s thought she has insertional achilles tendonitis. Thankfully it is treatable (and preventable with changes to running form and particular exercises). I miss running with Lorna and she misses running. We have a shared interest now and lots of running events to chose from. Hopefully, Lorna will be back to health in 2-3 months and will quickly regain her fitness. She is highly motivated so this won’t be a problem.

I watched two TV programmes this evening. The first one, Panarama, looked at the problem of mentally ill persons in a state of aggressive disorder being taken to police stations and placed in a cell prior to assessment by a mental health team that might take several hours to arrive. The police stated that they didn’t have sufficient mental health training despite estimating that 20% of the persons within their remit fell into this category. Various CCTV footage showed individuals self harming in cells or needing to be restrained by police officers. The problem with the 30 minute format of this type of “revealing a scandal” programme is that they emphasise the drama and aggressive behaviour as shocking entertainment  and neglect reasonable and objective discussion concerning the reasons and solutions to the problem. Clearly the police need much more basic mental health training and to  work more closely with psychiatric liaison staff. There needs to be recognition of the consequences of the loss of so many psychiatric beds and the frequent inadequacies and under funding of community based interventions and treatments.

The second programme was Motorway Cops, unbelievably broadcast, not on Dave or ITV 4, but BBC 1. It contained the usual video record of a car taking off and being pursued at high speed by police through traffic and suburban roads thus demonstrating that both the chased and the chasers are as stupid, criminally reckless and dangerous as each other. The programme started with a serious crash with injuries to another motorist following a police pursuit. There was no discussion about the high risk of police chases which are almost always not commensurate with any known risk that the offender might pose should he not be apprehended. The police tend to revel in this kind of behaviour and take the moral high ground to suggest that they act heroically to prevent harm to the public. It’s a load of bullshit, of course. The programme did have a genuinely moving element within another storyline. Unfortunately, overall, these reality police shows are entirely self serving and obsequiously take the view of the officers they are showcasing. It’s enough to make you puke!

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Day 7

Went into Cambridge today but didn’t buy trail shoes. I’m uncertain what I need. I’ll just keep looking and thinking. Ran two miles after my evening meal and finished one second slower than yesterday.

It’s very difficult to reach conclusions from limited newspaper coverage of the Cardiff hit and run rampage by the mentally ill man, Matthew Tvrdon. But in today’s Guardian it is reported that despite a long history of severe mental illness including previous detention under the Mental Health Act, he was advised to phase out his medication over the course of a year. Given that he had a severe and enduring mental illness, paranoid schizophrenia, this makes no sense to me, particularly since there is no mention of continued community support to monitor  progress/level of wellness. This suggests that care in the community has been deemed unnecessary probably because the emphasis is on short, not long term interventions and at the point of his last outpatient appointment, he appeared well. Wishful thinking borne of cuts to the mental health services.

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Day 6

Another two mile run, this time in relative heat, mid afternoon. Not very exciting but able to do it easily enough.

Two high profile mental health incidents in the news at the moment. The Cardiff van driver and diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who killed a mother and injured 17 others, including children , by deliberately running them over, has been indefinitely detained under the Mental Health Act. Stephen Fry, the actor, comedian, writer, presenter and Tweeter who has publicly revealed his struggle with bi-polar disorder, disclosed that he attempted to end his life last month.I’m not sure how they are being reported in the media. I suppose it will depend on what media you read or hear and whether you are  motivated to consider the issues objectively and compassionately or want your prejudices confirmed and strengthened.