Severe mental illness: Olly’s Story

Olly, aged 19, has been struggling at university. He can’t concentrate and has started to feel uncomfortable with friends and family. He spends most of his time alone in his room – going online and listening to music. At times he can hear whispering and thinks he hears people saying bad things about him. He uses cannabis to help him sleep and relax. The one person he feels safe with is his tutor at university, who is worried about him. 

Treatment in the past 

Olly could have self-referred for help, or his GP could have tried to persuade him to get help. Because he didn’t trust anyone, Olly didn’t ask for help. He stopped going to his classes. When his parents realised he was self-harming, they spoke to their GP, who contacted the crisis team. By that point, Olly was very unwell, and needed to stay in hospital for several weeks. 

New treatment in the psychosis pathway 

The Access service accept enquiries from anyone – so Olly’s tutor could get in touch to report his concerns. This could help link Olly in with mental health services more quickly. Evidence suggests that early intervention and support can help recovery.  

The outcome could be like this: 

A mental health clinician meets with Olly. The meeting goes well, and they agree on the main goal of helping him stay at university. Within two weeks, Olly has a physical health check and appointments with a psychiatrist and a psychologist. He is introduced to Stefan, a peer support worker. Stefan has had similar mental health problems, and he uses his experiences to support the patients he works with. 

Olly and the clinician talk about which treatment pathway is best for him. They discuss Olly’s recovery goals and the best way to meet them.  

Olly is still worried about university and still thinks that people are talking about him. Meeting regularly with the psychologist helps him understand his thoughts and gives him strategies for concentrating better when reading and studying. He gets lots of information that helps him realise it is not so unusual to have thoughts like these. Olly’s tutor is involved, so he can offer well-informed support to Olly at university. 

To help relationships at home, Olly’s clinician arranges family therapy. For the next year, the clinician and Stefan meet with Olly at least every three months to review how he is doing. Using ‘outcome measure tools’ (like questionnaires), they can show him how he is making progress.  

When everyone agrees that Olly is ready to move on, he leaves with a clear plan for staying well. He knows what to do if he starts having difficulties. Part of the plan includes his parent and tutor being able to make contact for him if needed.