I was the first mental health nurse to be brought into the psychological medicine team at CUH and have been here since May 2021. There is a huge need for mental health support for patients but it is not a role that is found in every hospital. Before joining CUH, I worked in an eating disorder ward for young people. The referrals for patients with eating disorders has gone up 80% since COVID-19 and often these patients wait in hospital for a bed in a mental health facility to become available. Being in hospital for prolonged periods is an intense time for a patient with an eating disorder. One of the ways the psychological medicine team helps is to be there at meal times and to open up channels of communication.
There is such an important link between mental and physical health.
Georgia
Being in hospital can be so stressful and we provide support for all kinds of circumstance, including a new diagnosis, hospital procedure, managing the emotions of a difficult admission, procedural anxiety and medically unexplained symptoms. Support for parents or a young person can be different for each family depending on their need. I remember a young boy who was going for an operation said goodbye to everyone when he left the ward as he thought he was going to be put to sleep in the same way his family cat had been, and he wouldn’t wake up afterwards.
I will also support children and young people who present in mental health crisis on the wards and support the nursing team with managing distress and encouraging de-escalation techniques. The liaison side of our job means we are constantly in contact with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, NHS teams, schools and GPs to ensure effective multidisciplinary working and continuity of care.
We also offer teaching sessions to hospitals across the region and have recently taught on adverse childhood experiences, the Mental Health Act, psychosis and challenging behaviour. We were pleased to deliver a workshop at the Paediatric Mental Health Association conference in Oxford at the start of the year about managing challenging behaviour in an acute setting. The paediatricians in attendance said how useful it was to work through a situation with a patient together. Support works in both ways – I have supervision once a month which is really helpful. Nurses are very good at looking after everyone but not always ourselves. There are things I do if I have been affected by something, like go for a walk around the campus or talk to my colleagues. We manage our mental health as a team. We have to practice what we preach.