An idea that comes from the death of a friend

I used to know this guy called Millie. I got to know him because he got good cannabis. More than he could smoke so he'd sell a little.

I knew him through one of my pub friends but he never came down the pub. He stayed at home smoking cannabis.

One day Shaun phoned me up and told me Millie was sick. I have no idea why he called me. Perhaps it was because Millie trusted me. Perhaps it was because my parents are doctors.

Millie had been to see the doctor. He was have trouble breathing and was in pain. The doctor did the usual thing. Take two tablets and come back and see me in a few days.

He was clearly getting worse. It's why his sister called Shaun I guess. The local community near where I used to live had a lot of poor people and still had good community values. Millie lived with his sister and Shaun was one of those lovable rogue types.

Anyway, I went to see him. He was in a state. He was clearly in pain. There's a lot more to the premise of this idea but basically I knew things were bad because he couldn't puff. He could barely breathe.

He was a tough bastard and was in severe pain. It was so bad he couldn't smoke cannabis. Even he agreed with me once I pointed this out.

The doctor didn't know any of this. This wasn't something he could discuss with a doctor or at least that's how he felt.

This is a really long ramble to give a background to an idea I'm sort of rethinking. Its based on the idea of training people to be community therapist. Sort of like community support police officers. This is a system we have in the uk for people who want to volunteer as police officers. They have very basic powers and a little training. If ever there's anything serious then the real police have to get involved. But the police can't be everywhere. It would cost too much.

So part of this idea comes from the idea of community therapists. They're not fully trained nor have the professional responsibilities of proper therapists but they'd be cheap and they'd be people in the community rather than sitting in their posh offices.

In fact there's a very woman who's turning this idea into a product. She wrote an article on psychminded.co.uk. it's an idea she's testing for a therapy which gives ordinary people basic training in listening and talking. It's far cheaper a way to get results for a large population and common mental disorders than the improved access to psychological therapies program in the uk.

So there's an idea for mental health but what about physical health? Through a confluence of circumstances I played the role of a quasi-doctor. It doesn't take any medical training to see how sick Millie was. Frankly I should have pushed him harder to go to accident and emergency. After I got him to agree to see the doctor he never woke up from his sleep the next day.

What I had was knowledge of the individual. This is only possible because I bought drugs off him and I understood him. I was no threat to him and I did not place any judgements upon him. He knew that too. We had a high level of trust and it was me, not any of his mates or his sister, who he finally listened to.

If i'd had any medical training perhaps I could have done more. Perhaps I could have worked out he was bleeding internally in his leg and got him straight to accident and emergency. I should have seen from his very pale skin and the amount he was sweating that he was very unwell.

in the uk we have a service called nhs direct which is basically telemedicine. But what I'm talking about is just like community support police officers but for doctors.

The skills they need are the skills to recognise the symptoms which individuals present with with they're ill. I'm not talking about an army of half skilled physicians. I'm talking about giving friends and carers the skills to recognise the signs of physical illness.

The simple stuff. Like if you see a person getting their head kicked in then afterwards make sure they remain conscious and phone for an ambulance first, not the police. There's sod all anyone can do except that but that sort of knowledge is usually only the purview of health professionals.

Equipping the people with these basic skills may do more to save lives than an army of community police support officers.

Clearly the medical profession can't be trusted to look after people like Millie. But then the real police can't be trusted to stop doctors killing people with antipsychotic drugs because of their behaviour. It's a fucking shitty world and in the end Millie was the lucky one. He died.