Mary was originally referred to us by a mental health occupational therapist and after being referred to us, she was discharge due to improvement in her mental health. Mary was allocated a volunteer on a permanent basis who is educated in mental health. Since being discharged, her mental health started to deteriorate again to a point where she had stopped eating, and taking fluids and would not get out of bed. The volunteer informed us that she was constantly in a severe depressed state. The Volunteer Coordinators referred her back to the occupational therapist who referred Mary to the service and Mary was informed that as she had been discharge, she would need to contact her GP for another referral into mental health or call the crisis team, however she was in no state to do this.
After a couple of week of gentle persuasion and patience and the trust that the participant had in the volunteer, the participate managed to ring the GP. A home visit was arranged straight away and the participant was taken directly into hospital. She remained in hospital for a few days, whereby the volunteer continued to keep in touch with her. The mental health team was also called in to see the participant in hospital. Upon discharge, the participant is starting to improve now.