Physical distancing is impossible, we have no PPE, patients aren’t allowed to go out, and violence and anxiety are on the rise
On the frontline of inpatient psychiatry in the UK we are used to the complex and challenging, but Covid-19 has completely changed the way we practise and how our patients experience care. We meet patients where they are and often those who are severely distressed will hold our hands. It is not customary for staff to hug patients, but we do sit alongside them. That is difficult to do from two metres away. At other times, patients will fist-bump us to show appreciation, acknowledgement, affection. We can’t do that anymore, and inevitably some experience it as rejection.
Many patients lack the emotional regulation to process why last month we seemed present, and now we are distant. Those who are floridly psychotic lack insight; add a global pandemic to entrenched belief systems and you have a perfect storm. Some believe coronavirus is a conspiracy; some think it is biological warfare; some are convinced it is staged. Some see messages in news broadcasts meant for them. In psychosis, beliefs are so fixed there is no shifting them. Patients do not believe what we tell them is real, they believe their version is real.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RDRc4G
