“I was worried about how my team and our patients would manage”
Ashton Dublin, nurse and team manager at a north London mental health service
I had COVID quite early on, and so did my wife. She was six months pregnant at the time, so it was stressful. We were so wiped out. We had to take it in shifts to look after our two-year-old daughter. My wife is asthmatic, so she was quite short of breath at one point, and had a fever for longer than I did. We were ill for about nine days in total.
At first, I was very anxious, because I was worried about my team. I was worried about other members of staff going off sick and who would care for the patients if that happened. I also worried that I might have passed on the infection.
Then the tiredness started to kick in, and after a few days, I could hardly do more than sort out my daughter and make food. I had to trust that my colleagues would step up and take over, which they did really well. It was a horrible time, but it’s behind me now and it has had no lasting impact.
It has been interesting to see the impact that the pandemic has had on our patients. It has been very polarising. There is no doubt that some have really deteriorated. They have struggled without the usual level of support that the mental health services provide. There has been a lot of disruption, and they haven’t dealt with that well. There’s a risk that some will fall through the gaps. But others have done really well. It has helped them to focus on improving their mental health and actually made them more resilient and more determined.