Sunday 6 April 2014

Story Twenty Two - 22

I've been looking forward to this post. 22 is Steven's favourite number.

22 boxes in Deal or No Deal

Manuel took 22 rolls of toilet paper up to Mrs Richards's room in Fawlty Towers.

Steven changes the words of 10 Green Bottles to "22 Take That Songs" and we sing a line for each of their hits.

Coincidentally, day 22 of Steven's time in the Unit was the second time in those first few weeks that I got blocked from speaking to the outside world. I chronicled earlier, the story of how the social worker stopped me from speaking to the regular support workers.

On day 22, Steven had an appointment with the psychiatrist. I hadn't been allowed to speak to Steven up until then, so I was determined to go to the appointment. I wanted to let the psychiatrist know what had happened and hoped that his experience of Steven would make the social worker and the Unit see sense.

I arrived half an hour early for the appointment. After just five minutes of waiting outside the hospital, Steven, the Unit manager and two Unit staff emerged from inside it. They had brought the appointment forward but not told me. In 22 days, I was no longer able to speak to the doctor I had known for about 5 years.

They stitched things up very nicely at that appointment. It wasn't until the Court case 11 months later that I saw that the psychiatrist had been told that the reason Steven was in the Unit was because I couldn't cope with his behaviour.

It's very hard to convince someone nearly a year later that wasn't the case at all.

#107days #justiceforLB

1 comment:

  1. Sometimes all you can think is - how wicked. Even if parents are hopeless, they still deserve to be heard.

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