Mr Unpopular

Another day, and last day of the week. Probably not get down to see Sophie today as Alison’s mum is very ill and Alison has become full time carer for her. If its not one thing its another. Someone is definitely trying to pull this family in four different directions.

Had a family forum meeting with the home on Wednesday, which was OK, we were the new kids on the block, didn’t really like our ideas but I suppose the other parents (who have been there a long time) are in a comfort zone.

One thing that came up was security and got me a bit heated. they operate a closed door system where you have to wait for permission to be let in, which I personally think is great. the others wanted the key codes so they could let themselves in. I didn’t agree because of a number of reasons which are:

1. Who is responsible if a patient accidentally wanders out.
2. Who will monitor the coming and going of potential strangers.
3. If someone comes in and says they are going to see Sophie, who monitors that, and can we be assured that they are monitored whilst they re with Sophie?

For those three reasons we said a resounding NO, but we were not well liked after that. Reason being, why should Sophie get special treatment, I replied “What special treatment,  is not the basic premise of a parent to ensure your child is safe and secure?” The problem being is Sophie is the youngest patient they have had, and I think that is half the problem. To us she is still our baby and we will wrap her up in cotton wool until she comes home and then we will wrap her up some more. I think a lot of them think we are strange as they have left their youngsters (23+) in the home, and there maybe perfectly good reasons for this, but we can’t!

On another note we have made contact with Putney Hospital and the consultant there in charge of SMART, and we are going to try and get together to take Wake Up forward. It is really difficult to know what the right thing to do is, but I am sure we will develop a plan. The website is coming on and we should have a beta up and running soon. The celebrities are very responsive at the moment so I will attempt to not go into name dropping mode, but Kylie is fab…

Another person that brings a smile to my face every now and again is Mary Lamont, read her blog and follow her @m4rylamont, she can drive you nuts but does make you laugh, which is all you can ask really.