Originally
written 2021- edited
A qualified counsellor, thirty plus years’ experience; having worked with
various Community Mental Health Teams CMHT I am now retired but to continue in
private practise.
My area of expertise and favoured way of working is psychodynamic - i.e bringing the unconscious in the conscious; helping clients find the links between their current situations/problems in relation to childhood experiences; which inform, influence our whole adult life including our choice of partners, career etc.
During that time of promulgated fear some clients became hermits, terrified of leaving their homes. One client, until a couple of months ago, had only left her home once in two years. This is an intelligent, humorous, feisty woman.
Names have been changed
The
situation which has affected me personally is that of John.
John has suffered from bouts of depression for years also a bit of a hypochondriac though continued with his social activities and even in retirement in March 2019, would have been busy organising tours and walks around the Essex coast and villages; driving a mini-bus, booking restaurants etc. John was also an active member of the University of the Third Age (U3A), sung in folk clubs and church; a voluntary worker with hospital transport.
That was until the campaign by the government to instil the fear of Covid-19 into the population, in order to force them to comply with draconian measures, was rolled out. John became anxious and depressed and around April/May 2020 he stopped socialising along with all his group and voluntary work. He was placed on medication but his mental state worsened; Tim, his son, was keeping an eye-on-him and popped in regularly.
Over a period of weeks John lost five stone in weight, was developing bizarre behaviours such as trying to sleep with his eyes open. Tim was doing all he could but John, refusing to be admitted to hospital, as suggested by his psychiatrist, finally had to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983. Due to what appears to be a ‘breakdown in communication’, he was discharged home a few weeks later with insufficient support and was found by Tim, in a confused state, still not eating and believing the heating was going to explode, he had switched it off so his flat was cold. He was distraught as he thought his whippet was dead but Tim had been looking after her, she was fine.
I will not go into detail of the neglect in discharging John too early with little support but thanks to an ethical and observant mental health practitioner, he was Sectioned again, placed on antipsychotic meds and offered Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT). He was terrified at the prospect and refused consent but due to his legal status he had no authority over his bodily autonomy and so, despite his terror, ECT went ahead.
John has since lost chunks of his memory, a known side-effect of ECT and psychotic drugs. He remained in that hospital until late 2021 when he was transferred to another mental health unit with a view to discharging him back home though he was incapable of adequately caring for himself now.
March 2022 John was discharged from hospital to a ‘care-home’ until such time as his flat can be sold and he can hopefully purchase a warden-assisted property. Tim says of the care-home environment, ‘It looks like they’re all just waiting to die. Dad just sits there, in the foyer, in an armchair, listening to the vending machine and staring out across the gardens’.
Words
are not adequate to describe my feelings - my rage. A clutch of out-of-touch government/world leaders - even after having already received information from the WHO in March 2020,
before the first lock-down, that Sars Cov-2, had been downgraded, never-the-less,
went ahead with their treachery and sacrificed the lives and livelihoods of millions,
the hopes of dreams of many young people and the mental and physical
development of children and babies.
It appears to me that those most severely affected are the elderly, in particular, those living on a basic income - and the 'working classes'. Many have lost 'everything' . A scene I am haunted by is of a man, fifty-ish, one
of the thousands attending a lock-down protest in London; collapsing to his
knees and sobbing at the loss of his business - 'built up over years'.
Those involved in this deception are traitors, in my opinion; conspiring and committing a most heinous crime and for justice to be-seen-to-be-done, must be prosecuted.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid#status-of-covid-19
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High consequence infectious diseases (HCID) -
GOV.UK Definition of HCID. In the UK, a high consequence infectious disease
(HCID) is defined according to the following criteria:acute infectious
disease; typically has a high case-fatality rate; may ... www.gov.uk |
