Susie update

Sue seems to be going pretty well. The staff are saying she is not having as many outbursts. They have set up a phone link for her so she can call me at an arranged time each week. It gives her some responsibility but she is also free to not call me if she doesn't want to. I think that's really important, she shouldn't have to talk to me if she doesn't want to. So far though she has called me every week.

Some calls she is more cheerful than others. last week she sounded very morose. Only managed to make her laugh once, usually I can get her giggling. She tells me that she is assigned the job of folding the washers for her ward. She sounds like she really enjoys that, it's good for her morale to be doing something constructive and with some amount of responsablity as well.

She is now in ward 3 so she has moved out of her own unit, into one with other patients. She says she sometimes gets scared of them and when I ask her why she says she’s scared of them hitting her or of her hitting them. I give her suggesting such as if they hit you don't hit them back go to the staff and tell them. Also if she fells like hitting other patients that she should go for a walk if she can or if she can't tell the staff she fells like hitting this person. The staff will talk to her and calm her down. I also remind her that the staff will thinks she great if she tells them she's angry enough to hit rather than just hitting someone.

She tells me she has used all of my suggesting and that when she told the staff she wanted to hit someone they told her they were really proud of her for not hitting the person and for coming and talking to them. She said it made her fell really good to be told she did the right thing. Praise for doing the right thing is really important to Sue.

I'm hoping my health will be well enough to go see her around her birthday. I know she is missing seeing me and I miss seeing her. it just isn't that easy to get up there with not being well. Time will tell about that one, I need to get someone to drive me up that way as I can't drive that far. You think it would be easy to organise that but it has proved rather elusive. I might have to make it a week round trip and take a slow drive myself, do it in stages.

I'm just relieved she is with people who know what they are doing.

She seems to be coping well with the knowledge of her daughter having the same condition she has. I tell her how much easier ti will be for her daughter as she has been diagnosed early unlike her who was 35 before she got diagnosed. And I tell her about all the options that her daughter will have, special education tools, support at school etc, all things that she never had. I tell her that her daughter is with a good family and that will only do what is right for her daughter. She has some very normal concerns for her daughter which some of her DADHC workers have been surprised by, not me or my partner, we expect Sue the react this way, the way any parent would to a child with needs. Some DADHC just don't get it, she is a human being with very human frailties, needs and concerns.