Linda has been a patient with her local NHS crisis team for a number of years. She struggles with her mental health and has a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder with suicidality. Linda regularly accesses daycare services when she can and is pretty good at liaising with her mental health team and GPs.
However, sometimes Linda feels really vulnerable and anxious and struggles with face to face contact. She finds the evenings most difficult and is most at risk of self harming behaviours at this time as a way of managing her emotions. Linda can become reliant on others and tends to reach out in many different directions when highly anxious which is not always helpful for her.
She found out about Qwell from her GP and appreciated having an individual named counsellor who is careful to respectfully provide the consistent, boundaried therapeutic relationship that she requires.
Alongside regular planned check in appointments, Linda chooses to use the messaging function to work with her counsellor to develop coping strategies to reduce self-harm or other risky behaviour, e.g. safety planning and harm minimisation techniques. She uses her online journal to record how she is feeling in the evening and remind herself of the distraction and mindfulness techniques agreed with her counsellor.
Within planned chats, the counsellor works with Linda to gently explore her experiences without too much digging to prevent retraumatization whilst they work collaboratively to build Linda’s self compassion and esteem.
“In Linda’s case we have managed to de-escalate risk a number of times and this has resulted in a reduced requirement for emergency interventions such as police, crisis team/inpatient admission.
Linda has shown a real improvement in her outcomes working with us and through the self esteem building and local signposting work, Linda is now involved in more social activities and has begun applying for part time roles as she feels confident enough to take up regular employment. Linda is a great example of how we can support ongoing recovery through our service and alongside other external providers” Dr Lynne Green , Chief Clinical Officer