 I'm Adam Drayge. I'm a senior social work practitioner and approved mental health professional in the Assertive Outreach team. The Assertive Outreach team is a service for people who suffer from psychosis and have long and enduring mental health needs as a result and can present with significant risks to themselves and other people if they're not engaged in mental health services. So it's up to us to do what we can to work with them to make sure that they are receiving the support that they need to stay well. We've got about eight or nine people in our team. It's a combination of different professionals, nurses, doctors, social workers and a couple of support workers. Although we're a small team we do have a relatively small case load so we can all help each other out to make sure all the work gets done and everyone's needs get met. So we're doing a mental health act assessment today. The gentleman that we support in our team has become increasingly unwell over the last few weeks. He's stopped accepting his medication. His engagement with mental health services and the community has become increasingly difficult. But actually our team, we really like to work closely with the family, with the nearest relative, with the next of kin because supporting the family and keeping them informed is absolutely crucial to ensuring that the person gets the best care possible. By the nature of it being a mental health act assessment this is a crisis that most people don't reach in their life. We're deciding whether somebody is somewhat well that they need to be in hospital against their will. So a really difficult time for the person and everyone involved. So I'll be going round with two doctors to do this assessment to see whether he needs to be in hospital. It was a really difficult and complex assessment and we felt that he didn't need to be in hospital right now. We wanted to help him to stay in the community. So I'm going to go and discuss with the team the outcome of that assessment. Put together a plan, make sure everyone's signed up to what we just agreed that we were going to do which is increase our support and give him his medication. So we're a seven day a week service. We work every day of the year, Christmas, bank holidays, New Year's Day will be here. They know that actually any day of the week they can contact us and seek out the support and reassurance that they may need. I finished university and I saw a job come up as a support worker for adults with mental health problems. I was interested in social work, spoke to a few social workers and they encouraged me to go to undertake the training and I did and I've never looked back. So we're about to go into a rehabilitation unit for people who have come out of an acute psychiatric ward but still have some skill development to go before they can go home. So Jack was in hospital for a good few months once he's finished here which he's almost ready to do. He's going to a community placement where there is going to be support available 24 hours but he'll have the freedom to come and go. The support is there to help him to get back to some sort of normality in his life. It's been a very very positive experience since Adam's been involved with Jack and Adam has been there and supported us and made us feel that actually there is light at the end of the tunnel. Social work is about empowering individuals to take control of their own circumstances. If social workers are seen as interfering I think that's a misinterpretation of what it is that we're doing. I can't imagine what would have happened really if they hadn't been any intervention but thank God there has been and it's gone well. You know mental illness can be very very cruel and it doesn't just affect the person who's suffering from it, it affects their families, their loved ones and actually these guys can be such a useful resource for us in order to support the person by working with their carers, families, friends. We can provide a much more tailored personalised care and support for these individuals. Generally I go home feeling that I have helped to make a difference and to enable people to live a better life than they would have been doing without our support.