Very bizarre afternoon and feel out of sorts

Years ago I worked in a MH hospital and we had a guy admitted under the mental health act as he was on a bridge stating he would jump off. He reported during assessment he'd been in the military in NI and was traumatised.

Days into his admission, nothing was adding up in terms of his presentation or what he was saying his past medical or MH history was and he mentioned lots of areas of the UK he had lived in or been based in in the military.

This was before the internet and electronic notes linked to an NHS number so we started looking up the psychiatric hospitals in the areas he'd said he'd lived in and making enquiries about him.

Turned out he'd been doing this for years, moving round the country, getting himself sectioned and giving the same story, none of which was true and once he'd outstayed his welcome or been rumbled he moved on to somewhere else. We did speak to workers in some areas who'd attempted to get him housing even knowing his lies but he didn't want it, he was choosing the life he was living.

We called him into a meeting to discuss and he obviously sensed he'd been rumbled as he instead called a taxi and left.

Thankfully, it's harder to do these days as more systems are joined up.

This young man sounds like he has a serious psychiatric condition. There’s people who hear voices, there’s those with psychotic breakdowns and there’s others who fall infront of ambulances because of x,y, z trauma. We don’t know what happened to this young man OP, he sounds like a sick individual and I’m so sorry you had to go through this. Paramedics deal with this so they’re quite accustomed but you’re not a paramedic so it must have been very shocking. This sick man took advantage of you and your families empathy and put you through quite a traumatic ordeal. This man is not fit to be walking around in public and needs to be institutionalised, he’s a danger to the community and he’s putting the real victims in danger by using our emergency services.

There is a young girl living near me who has been told she will be given a custodial if she doesn't stop ringing 999 for imaginary reasons.
She has diagnosed mental health conditions but there has to be a line drawn somewhere when ambulances are few and far between and REAL emergencies are being missed by such behaviour.
I have sympathy for her, there are needs not being met by living in the community alone.
But repeatedly calling emergencies isn't the answer.
Hats off to you OP, I would like to believe I'd do the same thing if the situation ever arose 🌸

OP you are a good person and we need more people like you. Not everyone is good and whether he was or wasn’t genuine, you did the right thing by him so don’t lose that. Enjoy your fireworks and try and put this guy out of your mind. His problems are not your burden.

@Serene135 and @WinterCoatsHelp I think your comments are also worth highlighting - while the man in this scenario is wasn't genuine, he is one of a tiny number and the overwhelming majority of people displaying these symptoms, whether of neurological or psychological origin, will be genuine and in need of emergency help. The OP did absolutely the right thing, and I really hope this unfortunate situation won't put her (or anyone else on this thread!) off helping again if a stranger is in need.

That's a really interesting take, and a perspective I'm not privy to in my job. We can put safeguarding, social services and mental health referrals in til the cows come home and some people respond fantastically and are able to move forward with their lives, and others do not. It is interesting to hear your insight on why that might be.

It's certainly true that it can be very frustrating to see the same person time and time again when the reason for calling an ambulance isn't genuine, that that can result in a poor attitude sometimes from the attending clinician. Regardless, I think it is right that measures have been taken to prevent this man from calling ambulances. The emergency services are under enormous pressure as it is, and my colleagues and I have all been to patients who have died while waiting for ambulances. The frequency of calls from people like this put additional pressure on already stretched resources and the risks to other patients because of this are very real.

Maybe house him at yours?
{Or perhaps not , as he will have been rigorously assessed many times by doctors to have Court orders banning him from calling an ambulance}

Women have been killed trying to ''help'' the antisocial whom they assume just need 'love and understanding'.

As PP have said , epilepsy fakers have exposed their genitals to nurses, and rubbed themselves up against nurses- a revolting sexual assault.

Some people just take and take and take, and are completely irredeemable.

He's an unpleasant pest who could have cost a life by deflecting an ambulance from someone who really needed one.

Instead he dribbled all over OP's daughter's coat and probably 'got off' on all the attention.

Exactly!
Plus someone could be having a type of seizure and still have some control of their limbs. Focal seizures and what not. For example, I could have a drop attack (sudden fall where my legs give way) followed by a non-epileptic seizure where I still have some control of my arms but can't respond. That would apparently look like I'd faked a collapse. And a sternum rub sounds frankly terrifying, imagine if you were ill in public and someone's reaction was to knuckle you in the chest?! Not to mention unnecessarily dangerous and painful, especially if you have other conditions going on. Just because there's the odd faker, doesn't mean anyone untrained should be starting seizure first aid by aggressively trying to work out if it's real.

I do agree with focussing resources on the youngest. But I feel a responsibility to all. Hard to know how to solve the problem of limited resources.

I agree, many people can overcome ACEs. I've overcome many myself including physical, sexual and emotional abuses of various kinds. However, in order to overcome ACEs and grow up balanced and ok ish, there needs to be some protective factors. If you only learn unhelpful messages, abuse, neglect and poor behaviour then there will be inevitable consequences. To behave well, or grow up to feel secure with no MH probs, the child needs to have been shown somehow, by someone, how to behave well. They need to have been given enough messages from someone/somewhere that they are lovable, worthy, ok etc.. in order to feel secure. Sadly, some children grow up with such extreme levels of dysfunction and abuse/neglect, with no protective factors or helpful influences, that I do believe certain paths become inevitable at some point for some children (if intervention is not provided)

This advice is absolutely awful! Why would you post something so inappropriate and unprofessional?! The “sternum rub”?! Let’s hope that you never come across someone having a seizure. Seizures can present very differently and need to be taken seriously. There aren’t many people out there who fake seizures.

@HalloweenYey I'm going to be brief because I think we might be high jacking the thread - but it's such an interesting discussion

I think to use limited resources to gain the best outcomes, you need to throw them at the youngest age groups (and their families)

After that I think there is a law of diminishing returns.

Also, many people with multiple ACEs manage to function well in adult life with little or no support/intervention - it's not inevitable that abuse begets abuse.

It is IME too. Not a doctor, but I used to work as a police despatcher. We had many people who'd ring in with similar things, one would call in regularly saying he had something stuck in his rectum. His most common tale was that someone had knocked on his door asking for a glass of water and as he'd turned to get them one, they'd stuck something up his arse, basically. Police had to call for an ambulance each time this happened and he was far from the only one, just the most memorable.

I Also briefly dated a woman who'd go off to A&E with anything and everything. We once went out walking my dog, who got stuck in a prickly busy, woman went in after dog and got a few scratches-wanted me to take her to A&E. That one stands out but she was always doing it when we weren't together too. Tagging herself in at the hospital and sending me msgs saying she was going to get blue lighted because she had a pain in her foot or something equally innocuous.

Well done OP, you did tbe right thing. Unfortunately these people do exist, and I doubt anything will ever be done about them.

You and your family were very kind and that's what we need. If it was me needing help, I'd have been blessed to have bumped into you lot.

I'm sure the slaver will wash out.
Man's a dick.

I've just seen your post, DowagerCountess, it really struck a chord with me. I attended a leaving do for someone going on maternity and I was watching the games. A woman, also watching, suddenly did this strange 'flip', landed on the floor and appeared unconscious. An ambulance was called, it was one of those medical 'cars' that attended. They assessed her and left.

She was driven home by somebody, helped to walk by several people.

I was chatting to the organiser of that event a few weeks later. The collapsed woman is well known for wanting attention. I think that sums it up but that need comes from somewhere and it's a shame that it's unmet. It must be a miserable existence to be known as a faker but still feel so compelled to keep 'trying it on'.

@Iwashopingnottobreakmyduck and all on this thread, if ever this situation happens, always try to find out if the person is present or former serving military.

If so there is ring-fenced government funding which can be accessed through SSAFA the Armed Forces Charity.

One never knows the person's background, they could have undiagnosed and untreated PTSD from military service. It's always worth asking the question. One less person to fall through the net of support.

*infra Ned patterns ...

Was meant to say *ingrained patterns ...

I sort of agree. We have limited funds as a society and infra Ned patterns are hard to change.

However, I feel that society has a responsibility to care for everyone. Especially those who were completely failed as children.

I often think of some of the children abused by their parents who died of the injuries inflicted (baby P for example, and countless others). How would they have turned out if they had survived the abuse? and the abuse continued undetected or not helped by social services. Not too well I'm sure. In prison maybe, on the sex offender register maybe, with severe.mental.health problems maybe

Society has a lot of empathy and compassion for abused and neglected children. But when those children grow up the empathy turns to hate for the behaviour they demonstrate.

Some children are never taught.compassion, only aggression and hate.

Some children aren't taught sexual.boundaries, respect, love, only abuse and inappropriate sexual contact, and love through sexual aggression

Some children are not given or shown love, only hate, hurt, criticism, abuse

We are sadly products of our environment. We cannot turn into well rounded adults if we have never been shown how to become that,and had no protective factors to enable it.

This is how I think also. There are some people who are just not able to 'find a fit' in society for whatever reason and if it's not a recognised medical condition that they exhibit, there really isn't much or even anything available at all for them.

That is sad; they are still people and still deserving of care. But there is none to be had with services being withdrawn and care in the community so underfunded.

OP, you did the right thing. This man could just as easily have been somebody in need of medical help which you and your family helped get, very quickly. Your husband shouldn't feel like a mug either, just because other people know this person and don't act or can't be bothered, doing the right thing is never wrong.

As PP said, discombobulated is just the word for how you're feeling; it will pass. Your brain will rationalise and set it aside. Good for you and your family for helping; never feel badly for acts of compassion.

I'm glad it wasn't your intention, but I read it several times before posting and still wasn't clear.

Sorry this was in response to@jasmine465

I forgot to quote

I don't doubt that, I have worked with someone on a court order for repeatedly calling a&e, crisis services and others.

However, this person's care was often shipped.from.team.to.team. noone wanted them and they were never given lengthy, 1:1, psychological intervention or offered a full assessment from a psychologist to establish a formulation and make working, useful, recommendations.

Yes, there were lots of meetings between professionals about this person, which led nowhere.

There were different care coordinators put in charge who were out of their depth, the client went to hospital for a week here and there, was often under crisis services.

Unfortunately what these people need is often not given for two reasons:

1. It's expensive. Most services are based on quick fix, cheap interventions ... (An antidepressant or 6 sessions of CBT won't help with a problem this big).

1. People are reluctant tooffer because they usually don't like the client and professionals often hate talking about them, speaking to them, showing any compassion so the client doesn't get what they actually need and continue to prove to professionals how 'bad' they are which reinforces professionals lack of compassion which compounds the problem.

@HalloweenYey Do you think that these lives can be turned around though after so much damage or are we throwing endless resources at something that will not change.

I think beyond a fairly young age the ability to change ingrained behaviours and rehabilitate people is beyond our societies resources.

What we need to be doing is helping families from even before conception and throughout early childhood.

I don't believe that the amount of help available (and there is a definite limit of resources available) will improve things for this individual and that they will continue causing harm to other people.

With the greatest respect, the court order will have been a last resort. This person will have had extensive support from multidisciplinary teams before getting to this stage. It is very rare for things to have escalated to point of criminalising the behaviour! There comes a point when this person's behaviour is having such an impact on the ability to effectively provide an area with emergency resources that it must be tackled from all angles.

*truanted from school (not trusted school!)

Yes I do feel that way about other criminals

Having worked in the criminal justice system my whole adult life it is clear to me that people who end up offending and in prison have been failed by multiple authority figures throughout their life, usually starting in infancy.

These are the kids from.care, from child protection plans, who trusted school, whose parents took them out robbing, who were groomed, who didn't learnt to read or write, who were abused, etc... etc

No 6 year old dreams of growing up to be an offender going to prison. If they do things have already gone vastly wrong for them.