Being a carer for a relative or friend admitted to forensic mental health services presents its own specific challenges.\u00a0 The role of \u2018forensic carer\u2019 can bring with it some significant impacts on life-course, identity, psyche, welfare and well-being, as well as social relationships and financial impacts. \u00a0Notwithstanding this, the term \u2018carer\u2019 did not sit easily with this group, with many rejecting the label or saying they were not thought of in these terms by significant others, including healthcare professionals, who had assumed that the major caring role had devolved to them.<\/p>\n
Official definitions of \u2018carer\u2019 often imply both a level of \u2018substantial\u2019 practical involvement on a weekly basis, and a level of dependency that this group do not easily relate to.\u00a0 For example, one person who did not relate to the term \u2018carer\u2019 did not do so because she considered her spouse to be \u2018self-reliant\u2019 and \u2018self-controlled\u2019.\u00a0 Poignantly for one survey respondent, being told by a member of staff ‘of course you care, you are her mother\u2019 was a telling moment of validation which had not always been forthcoming in other relations with forensic mental health services staff.\u00a0 Interviewees used a range of alternative words such as ‘supporter’ or simply referred to the nature of their relationship with the person:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s my job as his mother (mother)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
When supporting someone in hospital for a long period of time, forensic carers might deny that they are a carer, preferring instead to see their role as ‘visitor’, for example:<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s taken away from me now. I\u2019m not a carer\u2026 I found that really strange going into the State Hospital and saying \u2018carers\u2019 you know but you\u2019re not caring for them anymore.\u201d \u00a0(mother)<\/p>\n
However, as \u2018visitors\u2019 they still clearly took an active role in the support of their relative, and were likely to continue supporting them in some way after discharge from hospital in the future.<\/p>\n
Being a friend rather than a relative was a factor in whether or not interviewees referred to themselves as carers.\u00a0 It should be remembered though that the majority of people we interviewed were relatives or partners rather than friends.\u00a0 This could be because very few friends identified themselves as carers sufficiently to engage with our study.\u00a0 Friends who were visitors did not give the same accounts of\u00a0 emotional turmoil that close relatives described, nor did they consider a need to be kept more informed about the person\u2019s care and treatment.<\/p>\n
Some interviewees had only come to call themselves a \u2018carer\u2019 as a result of the role being thrust upon them when their relative entered forensic mental health services, as the following extract from one interview illustrates:<\/p>\n
Interviewer: Would you have described yourself as a carer before he was in forensic mental health services?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Mother: No, definitely not, I mean because I mean he was very much his own person, I mean he was 21 when this happened you know (mother)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Others used the term \u2018carer\u2019 to denote the change in their status from family member to having a distinct role and responsibility as a carer:<\/p>\n
Yeah I do<\/strong> use the word (carer), I probably wouldn\u2019t have before\u2026 I\u2019m his sister, so I would have just, you know, sister, that goes hand in hand, you\u2019ve to support your family. But carer, yeah, because I\u2019m dealing with everything yeah \u00a0(sister)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For some, the trauma of the initial reason for admission to forensic mental health services, mixed messages from their relative, a lack of involvement in services, and isolation from other family members and sources of support, combined to make being a forensic carer an extremely trying situation. \u00a0To describe how they felt about being a forensic carer, interviewees used terms like ‘anxiety’, ‘upset’, ‘frustrating’, ‘very scared’, ‘in a dark place’, ‘sadness’, ‘bleakness’, ‘fear’, ‘draining’, ‘a real struggle’ and ‘duty’. \u00a0It sometimes felt like no-one was on their side:<\/p>\n
Not only can you be up against [relative\u2019s name] who doesnae always have her own best interests at heart \u2013 and she can tell ye: \u2018aw, ye don\u2019t care, ye don\u2019t love me, you\u2019re no doing this for me\u2019.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got carers, nurses saying tae you, \u2018well, why are you making this decision?\u2019 and you go, \u2018because she\u2019s unable to make this decision\u2019. You know, I find that quite hard\u2026(sister)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0<\/em>They had mixed feelings about how much to get involved.\u00a0 The experience could result in them feeling powerless and institutionalised:<\/p>\n
Sometimes I\u2019ve been guilty of laying off for a while, I feel guilty about it. \u00a0I didn\u2019t talk to him for maybe a month at a time but it\u2019s because he does get very ill at times you know and very hard to handle you know. (father)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Being a carer for a relative or friend admitted to forensic mental health services presents its own specific challenges.\u00a0 The role of \u2018forensic carer\u2019 can bring with it some significant impacts on life-course, identity, psyche, welfare and well-being, as well as social relationships and financial impacts. \u00a0Notwithstanding this, the term \u2018carer\u2019 did not sit easily … Continue reading Being a \u2018Forensic Carer\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":114,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/139\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/forensic-mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}