Encountering Mental Illness Within a Physical Health Profession | My Experience & Advice

Background

I have been working within a mental health clinic as an Exercise Scientist for roughly 8 months now, providing exercise rehab for inpatient clients dealing with varying mental health conditions from PTSD, anxiety, bipolar, depression etc. It was not my intention originally to be a part of an organisation that deals heavily with mental health patients, however nonetheless it has made me realize how incredibly lucky I am. Numerous times along the journey so far I have been surprised by clients who are willing to share their stories, shock me with what exercise they can do and generally have a good laugh together along the way (exercise is just on the side, enjoyment comes first).

My Role

I currently have designed a fall prevention/ general strength program aimed to improve functional capacity, health and well being and prevent current conditions from becoming worse. Additionally, this has helped clients to takes their minds off of the difficulties going on in their lives and provides the opportunity to talk to someone who is not trying to assess their emotional problems but instead discuss everyday things that can help them be seen as “normal” people not just someone struggling with mental health in a hospital. I run exercise groups or 1:1/ 1:2 depending on clients needs. I try to have a laugh and make the clients as relaxed as possible by sharing my own ridiculous stories and not being afraid to have a laugh with them now and then.

My Hardest Day

Probably the most difficult day/s I have had were at the start of my employment and another a month later. Prior to working within a hospital specialising in treating people with mental health disorders, I had not had any experience dealing with clients presenting with complex emotional issues. Therefore this served as both a challenge and learning experience for me.

The first challenging day for me was when I met a man within the ward who was dealing with a lot both physically and mentally. He had the courage to out of the blue share his story with a complete stranger (me) and felt comfortable enough to discuss further areas of his life with me. He had lost his credibility, he had chronic pain, he had attempted, he felt he meant nothing. I simply sat there and listened. After he finished he said, “Thank you. Thank you for listening it means more than you know”. It was difficult to hear about his pain, however, his courage and strength to persevere was amazing to see first hand and I was glad he was finally getting help.

The second time was about a month into my employment. As usual I rocked up to work and had nine patients to see that day - three new ones approached me for exercise and there were another six previously who wished to continue completing exercises with myself and had enjoyed the conversations and laughs we had previously. These people were all interested in being involved which was great, especially since a lot of them struggled with motivation.

Unfortunately, halfway into my day, I was told to go home as my hours were being cut. After I had spent half my day sorting out a program expansion, I was left with the daunting task of telling patients that the exercise session they were looking forward to had been cancelled. I met with them individually and explained what had happened and apologised for it. After I expressed my disappointment to the social worker there, not over hours being cut for me but the fact that I had people come to me of their own free will who were willing to be involved despite how hard it might have been for them to open up and ask or even feel motivated. I was left angry and annoyed at letting these vulnerable people down after all that they had been through.

My advice for working with clients with poor mental health:

• Don’t force it: you can’t force people to do what you want them to do, suggest alternative ways or different activities to be involved in.

• Enjoy it: make the alternative activities enjoyable and make it a stress-free environment and talk about day to day things outside of mental health, you’d be surprised what you hear and learn.

• Listen: as much as it can involve patience and awareness sometimes to listen to someone’s whole story, you may not realise how much it can mean to them. Simply listening with the intention of understanding their situation can lift a weight off their shoulders and help them to cope.

• Be open: it’s all well and good to be the health professional but you need to bring yourself down to their level and not stand above your clients they appreciate being seen as equals and as someone you can have a chat about life or footy or travel with it encourages them to be involved as they are not being talked down to.

• Share experience: as hard as it was for me to share my own pain, clients do appreciate you sharing some personal stories with them, it shows your human and can relate to people. My case it was chronic pain, but it can be other things and clients can feel more comfortable sharing stuff to you instead of other professionals which you can pass on if required

• Finally, the last one, leave the client with some subtle positive reinforcement and leaving with a smile: exercise can be hard for even the everyday person, so applaud the small achievements and give them some confidence and self belief that they are doing very well. The usual thing I like to do is to come down, it takes strength to get up and come down and I like to recognise that. Finally, leave them with a joke or a funny experience you’d be surprised how good it makes clients feel after it and how they always seem to return to learn more about you and enjoy being taken away from how hard their life/day has been.