Angela is in her 40s and lives at home with family. She has a disability and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. She was referred to The Advocacy Project following a safeguarding concern under Section 42 of the Care Act.
Angela’s doctor had prescribed medication to reduce symptoms of schizophrenia, particularly hearing voices. Angela was told she needed to take this once a day to manage her condition and enhance her mental wellbeing. Her family were responsible for giving her the medication, but were reluctant to accept her diagnosis. They didn’t like the idea of some of the possible physical side effects of the drug (such as drooling or tics) and decided to give Angela her tablets irregularly, and only then if she insisted.
Our Independent Care Act Advocate, Alyssa, was referred to the case. She spent time building up a relationship of trust with Angela, speaking to her regularly and sharing experiences they had in common.
Alyssa explained what her role was and that she was fully independent from doctors, social workers or other professionals involved in her case. She checked Angela’s levels of engagement throughout their conversations and established that she had a good understanding of what her medication was for and what she wanted to happen. Angela was clear that her priority was getting the voices to stop, which meant taking the medication. She agreed she didn’t like some of the side effects she’d had so far, but had the mental capacity to understand when she was due to take her medication and how to ask her family.
Alyssa arranged for a medical review meeting in which Angela, her parents, her social
worker, her doctor and Alyssa would talk about the medication and what Angela wanted. Angela confirmed she was happy to speak for herself, but felt reassured that Alyssa would be there to explain what they had discussed beforehand and to help her if she got stuck.
The meeting went well. Angela spoke about what she wanted, but Alyssa was able to elaborate on some of the things they had discussed together in more detail. The doctor confirmed that this was very helpful to understand the full context of Angela’s concerns and wishes and to answer the questions about her current medication and how it suited her needs.
Following the meeting, the doctor was able to suggest a different medication which could address some of the side effects Angela had been suffering. She was pleased to try this new prescription, as well as the doctor’s suggestions for what she could try at home to improve her comfort levels if some of the previous side effects continued.
Alyssa checked with Angela in private that she would feel confident to ask her family for medication if they began restricting it again, which she did. A follow-up meeting was arranged for 3 weeks later to check how the new medication was working.
Angela had shown that she was confident to speak up for herself about her needs and Alyssa thought it would be great to have her join one of The Advocacy Project’s user involvement panels, so that she could also speak up on behalf of other users. It would help Angela to integrate more into her community, and also continue to improve her confidence and ability to have a say in her future care.