Servico social e leraning desadd

GMC Learning Disabilities Website
Video transcript

Page reference: Patient perspectives / Case study stories

Video 1: Johnson’s story: Peace of mind
Johnson Alphonse

My name is Johnson Alphonse.

Ian Carpenter

My name is Ian Carpenter and I work as a case coordinator for East Thames in Stratford, which is a housing association.

Johnson

At first I was really diagnosed as having no disability. And as I was sectioned over the many years of being in hospital, they slowly diagnosed me as having schizophrenia. I mean, I’ve been in and out of hospital, oh, considerable times… I’ve really lost count of how many times I’ve been in hospital.

Ian

My job as case co-ordinator is to support people with mental health issues to maintain their tenancy and to live as independently as possible in the community. And so, I met Johnson about two years ago when I first joined East
Thames and I was asked to support him to live independently. Johnson

The reason I got sectioned was because I was very violent. Ian

When someone is about to be sectioned, it’s a very, very difficult and intense time, because it’s extremely difficult to decide when a person has the ability to make the choice, and do we take that choice away from them and

section them? Or do we allow them to continue and try and work with them? And I’m more and more convinced that, if people have the support and if they have advocacy within the community and within their own lives, then they have much more choice of staying out of hospital and living independently.
Johnson

When I got sectioned, it made me feel inadequate. Like they’d taken my responsibility of my own, my own being, my own mind and controlling me. And I…it was just really horrible. I just felt so, so inadequate. I felt like a right baby, to be honest with you.

Ian

I think Johnson’s experience is very varied. He will tell you himself that, when he was in hospital, he didn’t have
a