Sarah's story
Background
When Sarah was referred to Care Principles, she was already diagnosed with a mild learning disability and borderline personality disorder. The most pressing concern was her tendency towards severe, persistent self-harm. At the time of her referral, Sarah was being cared for by two members of staff during the day, and one throughout the night. Her existing hospital felt that this level of attention was unsustainable, particularly as they also needed to address the needs of their other patients. This made Sarah’s referral all the more urgent.
Assessment, admission and treatment
Sarah was assessed by senior clinicians from Care Principles, and was offered a place in one of our women’s units.
From early childhood, Sarah suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse, resulting in extremely low self-esteem, and deep-seated mistrust of other people. The programme that Sarah and her team developed encompassed psychiatric and psychological therapies, along with anger management, social skills and assertiveness training.
Progress
Such was the severity of her trauma, that even despite careful observation from the Care Principles team, Sarah persisted with self-harm for some time after admission. Progress was slow but, gradually, the frequency and intensity of her self-harming behaviour began to diminish. As her needs changed, the composition of her treatment programme was adjusted, and Sarah began to engage in more educational and therapeutic work. With decreasing observation requirements, Sarah was placed on normal supportive observation, where she has now stabilised as she continues to make positive steps.
Throughout her time at Care Principles, Sarah attended regular CPA Clinical Review meetings, which enabled her community team to discuss her care requirements with her. At the time of writing, Sarah and her team plan to continue the good work that is currently underway, with the hope that she may develop even greater self control and, ultimately, reduce her impulses to self-harm to an absolute minimum. She is slowly developing trust in her care team and is developing other skills as a consequence of her educational and skills development sessions.
"The biggest challenge for Sarah was for her to begin to trust us. That took time, but the benefits are now being reaped. As a consequence, Sarah is developing educational and social skills that I think even she has found surprising."
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