Assessment done. Next challenge is funding.

At last I am on a waiting list for treatment, but will the treatment be funded?

Yesterday, I had an assessment at the Anxiety Disorders Residential Unit, and it was agreed there and then that if I wanted to be treated there, I would be added to their waiting list. Excellent news. And better still, the waiting list is a little under three months. Wow! It can be as much as one year. Three months is almost within grasp.

Just e one major hurdle remaining. I had the impression that this treatment was centrally funded. Yesterday I learnt that it has to be funded locally. It seems reasonable that the local trust, that referred me, know that they have to fund this treatment, but they did not say anything when I mentioned central funding in conversation with them. On the internet it talks about central funding for this treatment, and that is where I got the idea from. So I am a little confused. I will feel better once I have confirmation that funding is in place.

After the assessment I was shown around the accommodation, and it was fine. It is better than the accommodation I had when I was at college two years ago. So I was pleasantly surprised.

It was a long day. Leaving home at 10.00 am and returning back at 5.00 pm. For a year or more I have not been more than a few miles from home, and have not been to anywhere unfamiliar. So yesterday was a huge challenge in many ways.

Travelling home I went to sleep in the mini-cab. Since then I have been so, so tired, and have slept lots. I still feel really tired now. But I just wanted to update you. Will write more in due course.

My Winning Poem about OCD

Hi everyone

I've won a prize - a book. And here is the winning poem. It is about OCD. I wrote it five years ago. If you would like to use it, please state that it came from this blog by 'Forever Learning'. Thank you

I couldn't get the formatting right in this confounded Blogger - I love it really - honest. So I have taken photos of the poem - it does not look too good, but it is a means to an end.

It is called

Tired

Well that's it!

At the moment the OCD is running my life. I'm not so much tired of it, but just resigned to it.

At last ...

After waiting for what seems an eternity, the assessment is almost here, and I am starting to feel anxious over it - very anxious.

I have a quantity of questionnaires to complete, that will form input to it.

> One is my history of medication and therapy for OCD; I've had six courses of therapy; over two hundred sessions across about twenty years.

> One is personal information - reasonably simple excepting 'Closest Relation'. This has a very specific meaning in the world of mental health. The 'Closest Relation' will only become involved if I am considered incapable of making decisions for myself, and if the 'plan' is to section me! (That sounds great, doesn't it - the good thing is that my care co-ordinator has never considered this as relevant for me.) However, this information is now required. You can not choose who you want. There is a list of relations, from which you have to identify the first relation that you come to that exists and that resides in England. If that relation is not deemed to have the capacity to represent you, further rules come into play. If the circumstance arose, this person would represent me in discussions with consultants, and ensure that all other options for treatment have been fully considered.

> The rest of the questionnaires are multi-choice; approximately two hundred and fifty questions.

A mini-cab has been arranged to transport me, and a support worker will come with me. The assessment is approximately 3 hours, and I think that I have the opportunity to be shown around the residential unit. I will let you know how it goes.

At the moment, just thinking about it, gives me the type of feeling that I associate with returning to school after the summer holidays, and for someone who was literally terrified of school, it was hell!

ps I haven't forgotten about the promised post on:

What things can people do that would help or demonstrate love to people with OCD?

At the moment my mind is just a little bit pre-occupied - no prizes for guessing what with!