WRAP me up – Keep me safe

For further information on WRAP © (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) go to suicideorsurvive.ie/wrap

Before I had a Crisis Plan™, I was detained (sectioned) because I couldn’t communicate properly with health staff while at crisis point. When I’m well, I am soft spoken and articulate. When unwell due to an episode of mental health illness, I can be anything from loud to incoherent to catatonic. All of these are emotional reactions to being completely terrified as a result of being in major health crisis. This is the one time in your life (as many people reading this will know) that your voice does you no favours at all.

What is a Crisis Plan? Also sometimes known as an Advance Directive. You learn how to start developing your own through the process of WRAP ©, the Wellness Recovery Action Plan™. This originated in the States via Mary Ellen Copeland and was developed by several people with lived experience of mental health illness. I was lucky to find out about it five years ago through peer support. My WRAP, (Wellness plan) helps with my general wellness on a day to day basis and lays the groundwork for preventing crisis in the first place. You write and develop both your WRAP and Crisis Plan when you are well.

You chose who you wish to support you (your supporters) with your Crisis Plan. If a time of crisis comes, the very time when you cannot help yourself, this plan gives you back your voice via your supporters who can communicate your wishes to health staff on your behalf.

Due to the experience of the mental health services mentioned above (before I had heard of WRAP), I consequently put myself out of the reach of those close to me when I became unwell again. This was highly dangerous because while in the throes of an episode I experience horrific suicidal impulses which I have tried to act upon. The panicked need to ‘escape’ was an attempt to avoid the mental health services which those close to me would want me to access as soon as possible.

Since developing my own Crisis Plan, however, a lot of the fear I’ve had about accessing services has gone. In my plan I make it very clear that I need and want to be in a place of safety at a time of crisis and ask not to be left on my own. It is my wish to be admitted to a Treatment Facility and this is detailed in the plan. Most importantly for me is that I access this treatment voluntarily and not via detainment. My supporters know this.

You do not develop a WRAP or a Crisis Plan overnight, they both take time and commitment. It is also fair to say that the Crisis Plan can involve some real effort when it comes to working out who may be best to support you (and who may be best not to) as well as then having the necessary conversations with these supporters about your care.

After having to activate my own Crisis Plan a few years ago, I believe this effort is well worth it. I am sure having one saved my life as my supporters had my permission to stop me from trying to put myself out of reach of those close to me (and the mental health services).

The Crisis Plan includes a part which lists the signs that you are becoming unwell (which you have written while well) and gives permission to your supporters to take over at this stage. You can also choose (while well) to give relevant sections of this to your GP, psychiatrist or any other relevant member of health / social care staff.

I am writing this piece anonymously because of the still very taboo subject of suicide and detainment. I have managed to keep secret my own suicide attempts for years from many friends, most family members and work colleagues.

I hope by writing this that it may encourage others to explore WRAP and having a Crisis Plan as an option. I know others who have and are still on this planet as a result.

I was very lucky that one of the Facilitators of my WRAP group (there should always be two Facilitators if it is being run properly) included someone with lived experience of mental health illness. Because they had their own real life WRAP and Crisis Plan they were able to share them with the group. This can really help you start developing your own.

Having these plans has greatly lessened the chaos in my life and I now believe recovery is possible – I do not say this lightly. I trained as a WRAP Facilitator myself so I can share my story with groups and advocate to others to develop their own Plans.