Ian Wyllie is a spinal injury survivor who is currently embarking on a solo sailing voyage around the UK and Ireland in support of the Andrew Cassell Foundation which helps people with disabilities like his own regain their independence through sailing. Here he details his recovery and sailing journey in his own words…
The recovery journey from a serious spinal injury today finds me sailing north from Galway Bay on the west of Ireland, on a solo sailing trip around Britain and Ireland supporting the Andrew Cassell Foundation.
Unfortunately, a large part of that recovery involved a pattern of mental and physical health, suffering repeated devastating declines, admissions to mental and general hospitals, and increasing amounts of psychosis and self-harm, including harm during sleepwalk-like episodes.
In order to manage these in a setting that didn’t complicate my physical care as a spinal injury survivor, and prevent falls and or other injuries, I needed to use mechanical restraints including mittens and a helmet.
The Andrew Cassell Foundation is a specialist charity that helps disabled people get independent on the water as sailors. Its work has been indescribably important in my rehabilitation; my solo sail round our islands is a punctuation mark in my rehabilitation and a way of thanking the charity for their incredible support during my journey.
Here I would like to reflect on what went well in my recovery journey, with a specific focus on the things that my placement in a nursing home were able to contribute to positively in terms of health and social outcomes.
Looking back on it, my placement at Kingfisher Court, run by Dolphin Care, was a matter of luck. I was blessed when a conscientious CCG [the NHS’ now defunct clinical commissioning groups] student saw that a bed was open – unusual enough in itself – and was willing to convert a respite placement to a permanent one.
I made the choice to stay there because it was evident that, at that point, I could experience better quality of life in a congregate setting [a care or nursing home] than I could at home.
The idea that congregate care can be enabling and a better choice than a home-based care package is not fashionable. In my case, however, it was true, because the nursing home offered consistency of staffing, better management of my safety, access to the clinical judgement of nursing teams, and a willingness to treat me despite the complex mix of physical and mental health issues.
My willingness to use products like mittens and a helmet allowed my safe care where otherwise I would probably have needed the kind of service offered in psychiatric intensive care facilities.
From the beginning of my admission the nursing team was focused on what improvements could be made to my quality of life and future. It was their careful observation and judgement that made the link between urinary tract infections or urosepsis and the rapid and uncontrolled worsening of my psychosis, periods of altered consciousness or dissociation, and self-harm too.
That understanding was the key to the start of my second rehabilitation. Rehabilitation can be slow and effective, and nursing facilities have a unique place in helping younger adults regain better health and quality of life.
Effective delivery, though, demands nursing and managers who are tenacious in pursuit of the best interests of clients with health and other services, and are willing to adopt person-centred strategies of proven effectiveness, even when these may run against current thinking or doctrine.
Slow-stream rehabilitation so often means maintenance and hope, but in some cases the added value that careful care, the right support work and nursing expertise can bring sees enormous improvements.
In my case the things that Kingfisher Court were able to do to maintain my social and personal contact with the outside world, even when I was at my lowest, were to ensure that I was able to get out into the community for, to continue my love of photography and to meet friends.
The home also very generously made space for a desk where I could do creative things appropriate to my skill level. These things contributed to maintaining my essential humanity, even as my care needs were met and my behavioural issues were managed.
When it came towards the point of taking my rehabilitation even further, the team at Kingfisher Court was generous and helpful, taking risks positively and encouraging my sailing, even when I think they perhaps didn’t entirely understand what attracted me about being out in the wet and the cold.
It is apparent to me, however, that in the UK there are not enough good rehabilitation services focused on helping people through that final mile back towards independence.
My experience of working with the Andrew Cassell Foundation shows that sometimes the clients’ previous interests or hobbies can be one such route towards progress, and that informal pathways can on occasion be as valuable as a formal therapeutic rehabilitation service.
For that reason I could not be more grateful to the Andrew Cassell Foundation or Kingfisher Court for facilitating my recovery through sailing.
Find out more
For more information about the Andrew Cassell Foundation head to acfsailing.org. Andrew Cassell is a disabled sailor and was gold medalist at the 1996 Paralympics.
For more information or to arrange a talk by or with Ian about his British and Irish sailing trip, please visit sailingtrillleen.org.
To donate to his fundraiser for the Andrew Cassell Foundation, head to Crowdfunder.co.uk and search ‘Ian Is Sailingtrilleen Solo Round Britain & Ireland’.
