08 BOB SAVAGE summary

DVCPro Tape 01 of 04 – VHS Tape 01 of 01                      01:01:28 – 01:58:06
 
Early life
Born 1940 an only child, his father worked for the Evening Standard. Mother was in the shadow of the father who was quite strict. Evacuated during the war to Slough, Buckinghamshire. He can remember bombed out London.
 
School
He can’t remember much about school. He got in to trouble and mother was called to the school several times. He passed the 11 plus and went to a Grammar school. But he didn’t like it there as there was too much pressure and corporal punishment. He was transferred to a central school called Barnsbury Boys, which is between a secondary modern and a grammar school.
 
Childhood pastimes
He had various hobbies. He played sport in the street, went trainspotting in King’s Cross Station. Went to matinee films.
 
More on early life
After father died Grandmother looked after him and Mother worked in a Chromium Plating Factory. Was difficult child, very up and down. No contact with mental health users during childhood.
 
Teenage years
Left school at 16 worked in various jobs and then went into the Navy. Career as a Navy boxer ended through damage to arm.
 
First breakdown
Invalided out of the navy on psychiatric grounds. Put on a course of Purple Hearts. Did not stay long in hospital. Then went into a high. 1st marriage was breaking up during this time.  He moves to London with the kids (he got custody) and moved in with his parents. His wife was called Yvonne and she was from Australia. He was on a submarine when he had a breakdown. 
 
Naval hospital
Other seamen in the hospital are amusing but very macho. Hospital was staffed by the Navy. The psychiatrists were ranking officers. (Mentions that he has problems with remembering things as currently a bit low). Discharge from Navy is recommended. (Chronology is confused.) People cannot believe that he had mania on a submarine.  His ship mates are not very understanding.
 
Life After Navy
Lives with parents, drifts away from wife and meets Bernice who he eventually marries. He has never been out of work for long. He wishes that he had been diagnosed manic depressive earlier. Describes becoming high and going in to hospital. He spends lots of money when high. When he is manic he is very convincing.
 
Overdoses
He has taken overdoses on various occasions. Once he jumped off a nine-storey building but somehow ended up on the balcony below. He thinks this might be the result of taking too many pills against medical advice. Another time he slashed his wrists and was found in Epping Forest.
 
Diagnosis
St Ann’s hospital is where he is first diagnosed as manic depressive in ‘88 or ‘89. Relieved to be diagnosed - before that he thought it was just a natural thing. He is then prescribed Lithium. He is now on 1200 mg of Lithium.
 
Chase Farm hospital
Some detail about personnel at Chase Farm. His fiancee is there at the moment. He met her when they both lived in a group home. Praise for Chase Farm - nice building and garden. There are about 25 beds. He has been in and out of Chase Farm since 1980.
 
Experience of Treatments
Never had ECT, had counselling once but was too high to take it seriously.
 
Activism in Hospital
Bob and his friend Tom acted as shop stewards on the wards. Making complaints to the management and trying to represent patients’ interests. They never gave the management names of bad nurses.
 
 
DVCPro Tape 02 of 04 – VHS Tape 01 of 01                      02:01:19 – 02:39:20
 
Activism in Hospital (continued)
Most patients don’t feel like complaining. Bob became their representative. He did the groundwork for setting up Enfield Mental Health Users (EMU). Lately Bob has dropped out of EMU activities but the organisation has grown. Bob also tried to cheer up other patients on the ward by asking them if they were all right.
 
Attitude to Nurses
Some nurses were lazy so Bob would tell them what needed doing. They would listen as they knew Bob had the ear of management. If nurses were hostile Bob would follow them around and complain more. Bob and Tom used to dress up the same way and Tom carried a case full of law books. Bob remembers all this fondly.
 
Chase Farm
Bob talks about the mental health unit which is part of a general hospital. There are 3 mental health wards. Most of the nurses are good. The decor has improved recently. Bob thinks poor care is all down to money. The NHS is under- funded and Health service staff badly paid. Chase Farm is better than St Anne’s.
 
Mental health services experience
For a while Bob stayed in the Claire Project - an old house with individual rooms. Bob had counselling briefly when he was high. He did not take it seriously. Bob has had 20 or 30 admissions to hospital. When he overdosed he sometimes did not end up in mental hospital just treated in A and E. Bob thinks being put on Lithium or Carbamazine earlier might have helped him.  The only treatment he has had is drug treatment.
 


Interests in Politics
First became after leaving the navy. He was a union official for SOGAT. He borrowed an issue of the Morning Star from a colleague and then joined the Communist Party. He was paid a small fee by the union out of Chapel funds for the union work. He still takes a keen interest in following politics. Being a socialist made him realise that bad mental health services were all down to funding. He always tried to work out the politics of his psychiatrist. If psychiatrists gave him any trouble he would report them to the Health Authority.
 
Job application to Friern Barnet
Bob has been an outpatient at Friern Barnet Hospital. He remembers the long corridors. Later in 1991 he went for an interview there to be a nursing assistant. After the medial he was turned down. Complains about use of agency staff in hospitals.
 
Ward rounds
Bob noticed that a lot of patients are frightened of ward rounds. He tried to help other patients by writing them lists of questions to ask. Bob thinks most patients do not have enough information about their health and the drugs they are on. He feels it is very important to stick up for yourself in the system.
 
Bob’s fiancee
Bob met her on a visit to Chase Farm Hospital. He likes hospital and often visits. They might get married soon. She has been in hospital 2.5 years. They are both Irish and like Irish culture. He has never experienced anti-Irish racism in the system. He does not think that nurses are racist.
 
 
DVCPro Tape 03 of 04 – VHS Tape 01 of 01                      03:01:12 – 03:58:06
 
Working at Daily Mirror
He was union financial secretary for 3 years and then drove a van. The union ran the show in those days and were tolerant of his time off. He was a union official during the Wapping dispute. He was a secondary picket. The leader of the rank and file was a communist called Mike Hicks eventually he was jailed for assaulting a police officer. Bob witnessed the police beating pickets. He thinks the charges against Mike Hicks were false. Bob hope that the unions will be back.
 
Changes in psychiatry
Bob thinks mental health care has slowly improved. But capitalism and cutbacks are preventing real improvement. He thinks the psychiatrist’s workload is too  great. He thinks you should have choice of having a ward round with lots of people in it or just having a one-to-one. He prefers to have lots of people. He thinks that he knows more about mental health than some nurses as they have just learnt it from a book. He does not think patients get enough attention. He thinks nurses would do a better job if they were paid more. He thinks the working class should strike on their behalf.
 
Denied a cup of tea in the night
Bob relates an incident when he wanted a cup of tea at night and a nurse refused to get it for him as an example of mistreatment. Bob got his tea but only after explaining to the nurse that if he did not get it he would keep the nurse up all night. It is unclear whether the police were called to deal with the incident.
 
Patient activism
Bob was on good terms with the boss of the hospital. He found out from him what the nurses should be doing. Bob thinks it is important to know your rights. He thinks that both nurses and patients should organise collectively. One time he told the manager about nurses sleeping on the night shift and he suggested that if he wanted to know who was doing it he should sneak into the ward at night. Bob thinks it is terrible that mental health staff get paid so badly.
 
Attitude to psychiatrists
Bob is very firm with psychiatrist and will complain about them if he believes they are messing him about. He says that some of them don’t read the medical notes properly which he thinks is important. He thinks that he should have been diagnosed sooner. He has had about 15 psychiatrists in his life. A few times he has refused to be interviewed by a psychiatrist he considers too young.
 
Experience of private hospital
One time Bob was put in a private hospital on the NHS. He was very impressed with the cuisine. He had a private room. He spent most of his time writing letters to his fiancee’s family.
 
Incident at Butlins
Bob enjoys being high. Him and Tom and Geraldine went to Butlins for a laugh. Bob posed as a nurse. Geraldine won an Irish dancing competition. Tom tried to sort out Butlins security arrangements. An ambulance picked them up to send them back to Chase Farm. Tom began to get DTs so the ambulance drivers stopped off so they could buy drink.
 
The lawn mower shop
In the late seventies, for a few years, Bob ran a lawn mower repair shop. 
 
Manic Depression
Bob says he is finding the interview difficult as he is on a bit of a downer at the moment. Has been in trouble with police when high in the past. Bob hit someone in a dispute over money. Bob talks about the difference between feelings of depression and mania. In court, Bob defended himself and got off with a fine. Bob goes down but always comes up and gets back on his feet quickly.
 
Current accommodation
Likes were he lives at the moment. The staff are nice and make sure he takes his medication. The only problem is, you only get £14 spending money. One of the residents brings him his tea in the morning and in exchange he takes her out in his car.
 
Social Workers Party (SWP)
Bob is a member of the SWP. He enjoys going to meetings and feels good among like-minded people. He believes that lots of people will leave the Labour party and join far left parties. He would like to know what is happening on the shop floor these days. He is very interested in politics but he does have other interests.
 


Children and Parents
Bob has a son who lives in Hastings and a grandson who is 18. He also has a daughter He is not currently on good terms with his mother. His son is an instructor at a technical collage and his daughter is a hospital manager. They have not suffered from mental health problems. His father died when Bob was 38. He was close in his later years to his father. He has a good relationship with his son. He thinks his son is pleased that Bob is living in his current home.
 
More on the Navy
Bob got tattooed when he was in the navy, he also boxed.
 
Advice to others
Bob says that if you are having mental health problems you should seek help early and not be scared of psychiatry. But he says it is up to the individual what they do.
 
Wives
Bob has had three wives and he is still on good terms with all of them. He is very happy with his current fiancee Geraldine. She is very pretty, 34 years old and Irish from Belfast.
 
 
DVCPro Tape 04 of 04 – VHS Tape 01 of 01                      04:00:30 – 04:18:50
 
Lawn mower shop
The police got their lawn mowers repaired at Bob’s shop. The other shopkeepers thought that the police were arresting Bob but they were just collecting their lawn mower. Bob and his friends had a lot of fun from running the shop.
 
Attitude to money
He technically lost money over the lawn mower shop but most of it got written off. Bob uses his mental health status to get debt deferred. He uses his psychiatrist to write letters on his behalf. Bob thinks this is one of the advantages of psychiatry and mental illness.
 
Drink problems
Bob formerly had a drink problem. He has now realised that it is no good for him and he does not get any pleasure from it. If he is high and he drinks it is an explosive mixture. 
 
More about money
When high Bob has nerve and will over charge people and get away with it. He would not do this when he is down. He still makes a bit of money doing up lawn mowers.
 
About this video
Bob asked if the film will be edited. He is concerned about some of the long pauses. He is pleased to have got his life story on tape. He is interested to see himself on tape.
 
More on wives
Bob’s third wife is called Jackie. He met her in a park when he was drinking. She was 20 years younger than him. She could not cope with Bob’s mental health problems. He talks more about being happy with Geraldine. They might get married. Another couple staying in Bob’s house are allowed to sleep in the same bed. Bob thinks this is good. Bob is well-known at the hospital were Geraldine is staying. Bob praises her psychiatrist. He is hoping that Geraldine will get out of hospital in a few months.
 
Bob’s message
Bob hopes the tape will give people a better understanding of manic depression and despite some disasters Bob has had a happy life.
 
 
End of DVCPro Tape 04 of 04 – End of VHS Tape 01 of 01
 
 
INTERVIEW ENDS