"What a team, and system they have"

My husband has had Bi- Polar since he was a young adult, and has had many crisis times over the years.

After our most recent crisis, the G.P. got us help from MHAATS within Forth Valley Royal Hospital. They came out to help us from that very 1st day. I cannot express how caring, helpful and supportive they were to both my husband and also to me as his full time carer. As my husband has other co- morbidity illnesses, I was desperate to try keep him out of hospital because of all the other stuff going on with him. And, you know what, this fantastic team made that happen. I had 24 hours access to speak to someone and we had a visit every day from the nurses, and 2 home visits from the consultant. How special is that! And that is for every person they are looking after. What a team, and system they have.

I cannot tell you how much pressure they took off me  as the only carer, as well as making my husband feel safe and listened to at all times. He was treated as a person, not a patient (if that makes sense), and was shown respect at all times. Although, they were aware that his situation could change very quickly, and would not have hesitated to hospitalise him if it became necessary.

I have never in over 30 years of being with my husband, ever had the support I was given as well. Past experience has taught me that although the patient is getting care, and help, too often the carer is just left to get on with things on their own. That is an enormous amount of stress and anxiety on top of the worry we have about the person we are looking after. We cannot thank, or praise them enough. And, although he's still having to take the 'emergency' meds as we call them, he is in a far better place and routine than he was before.

I don't have the words to explain how much their positive involvement has been, but they were fantastic. Hopefully it will be a long time before we need to engage with them as well. However, if/when the need arrises again, we will gladly welcome them with open arms. Please tell them to keep up their brilliant work, as for people with whom they are engaged with they are worth far more than their weight in gold. So often nowadays, we hear only the bad stuff about the NHS, so it's about time we all started talking about the good stuff as well.