{"id":1513,"date":"2016-12-02T22:18:25","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T22:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/?p=1513"},"modified":"2016-12-02T22:18:25","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T22:18:25","slug":"guest-blog-post-from-tim-bennett-quality-improvementgovernance-nurse-with-mental-health-services-for-older-people-mhsop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/?p=1513","title":{"rendered":"Guest blog post from Tim Bennett, Quality Improvement\/Governance Nurse with Mental Health Services for Older People (MHSOP)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Summer House<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is the summer house? I can tell you what it means to me \u2013 it\u2019s not just one thing!<\/strong>
\n It\u2019s a school, a fear, a resting point, a home and playground too.\u00a0 A community, a smoking shelter and a sanctuary for who?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"mer<\/a><\/p>\n

The summer house outside Ward West 1A, photo taken by Tim.<\/p>\n

A School<\/strong>\u00a0 \u2013 I remember –\u00a0 warm sunny days, green trees, excitement at my new job and getting a qualification at the end of it.\u00a0 Some of my learning on placement took place in the summer house. Debates and discussion with different members of the clinical team, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, OTs and social workers.\u00a0 Books, pens and note pads \u2013 patients as case studies, illness and diagnosis, treatments with talking, with medication with ECT, psychiatry, psychology\u00a0 – a bewildering array of topics and subjects.\u00a0 What a place to learn! This was my classroom for a brief period of time.
\nA Fear<\/strong> \u2013 someone is missing from the ward or failed to return from leave \u2013 a search needs to be undertaken.\u00a0 If there was any suicide risk we were told to look up into the trees, just in case. Check the summer house \u2013 under the benches, around each corner, look up, and check on top also.\u00a0 Fortunately for me and gladly for the patients that were missing \u2013 I never did find anyone who had committed suicide.\u00a0 It remained a fear of mine until we left Whitchurch, the thoughts remain with me even now that I no longer work there.
\nA resting point<\/strong> \u2013 for the years I worked in Tegfan day hospital, in the grounds of Whitchurch, one of the summer houses provided a midpoint between both buildings.\u00a0 On our zigzag journeys, around the site, this was frequently a resting point for those with physical disabilities to stop and rest\u00a0 – for others it was a point to sit and have a cigarette.\u00a0 This was always a social occasion of those gathered \u2013 one thing in common, the hospital.\u00a0 Patient, staff or visitor, there was a draw to sit and stop.\u00a0 Was this truly asylum – inclusion, acceptance and safety?<\/p>\n

\"Summer<\/a>

Summer House between Whitchurch and Tegfan Day hospital taken in 2016<\/p><\/div>\n

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A home and a play ground<\/strong>\u00a0 \u2013 during my time on nights, I saw the summer house provided a playground for the wild life of the hospital \u2013 foxes, rabbits, squirrels, wood pigeons and magpies proliferate as do the bats and may bugs. At one time a place for the feral cats too.\u00a0 Moths and all manner of insects \u2013 making it their home, their living room, their bedroom, their dining room, their bathroom and their playground.
\nA Community<\/strong> \u2013 they have formed throughout my 33 years a community meeting place, not just for people of the hospital but for the general community too.\u00a0 Dog walkers, wanderers and especially kids \u2013 another resting place, a chatting shop, a play ground, a teenage lovers lane, a drug den for sales and use of illicit substances, a pub for underage drinking and smoking.
\nA smoking shelter<\/strong> \u2013 with the implementation of smoking bans the summer house became an illicit smoking shelter \u2013 staff would congregate, smoke, chat, catch up on the gossip of their own and especially others lives, arrange nights out, disclose personal achievements and failures, seeking support and kindness.<\/p>\n

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\"Summer<\/a>

Summer house from Ward West 1A, photo by Tim<\/p><\/div>\n

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A personal sanctuary<\/strong> \u2013 This is where through 33 years I\u2019d sit and contemplate life, and from this make life decisions and consider how to handle situations that weren\u2019t in my control \u2013 to begin with were my thoughts about psychiatry, personal issues of career plans, relationship plans and relationship ends, either of my making or those made by others.\u00a0 These summer houses know all my life secrets, and I trust that the details will never be shared. They were and still are my sanctuary, my friend and my confidante.
\nMy last resting point after my very last 12 hour night shift at Whitchurch, was the summer house.\u00a0 I sat, lit a cigarette and reflected on 33 years \u2013 I saw myself and my colleagues and friends, through the decades \u2013 some no longer with us \u2013 but they were there with me for that final resting point.\u00a0 Also came to mind my family, friends and relationships \u2013 they were present with me too.\u00a0 I could see and hear them; they along with my memories above are my summer house, my special place.<\/p>\n

Thank you to Tim Bennett<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Summer House What is the summer house? I can tell you what it means to me \u2013 it\u2019s not just one thing! It\u2019s a school, a fear, a resting point, a home and playground too.\u00a0 A community, a smoking shelter and a sanctuary for who? The summer house outside Ward West 1A, photo taken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,17],"tags":[94,80],"class_list":["post-1513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-post","category-photos","tag-guest-post","tag-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1513"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1534,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513\/revisions\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitchurchhospital.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}