Coping to look after people with mental illness

A man who runs his own training company, educating staff in private care and nursing homes about mental health issues has written his first book.

Stuart Townsend, 56, of Claricoates Drive, Coddington, began writing Asylum Bound in 2011 based on his own experiences while training to be a psychiatric nurse.

While all the stories in the book are true, the name of the hospital has been changed, to protect the staff and patients he had met over the years.

He originally read theology at the University of Wales. After graduating he decided against going into the church and moved into pyschiatric training.

He trained at a mental hospital and became a qualified psychiatric nurse just over three years later.

Stuart said: “Most people have had interesting experiences in their lives and I have had many. After deciding I didn’t want to be a priest I saw there was a place available in the pyschiatric section, joined and stayed within psychiatric nursing for 30 years.

“The book is about my training and coming to grips with people suffering from mental illness and schizophrenia.

“Asylum Bound follows this very peculiar journey with a mix of odd characters, many of whom could only be explained by the disturbing treatments prescribed by 20th Century psychiatry.”

The book is set in St Paul’s Mental Hospital and has a number of Hogarthian characters.

The paperback took Stuart three months to write but six months to get printed, through P And B Publishing.

It is available from Amazon priced £6.99, in Kindle version, from Stray’s Books in Newark or from Stuart’s website at www.asylumboundthebook.com