Action Plan for Mental Health Patients - Preventing Symptoms of Anxiety

On the next page, write an action plan that you think will help reduce your symptoms when they have progressed to this point. The plan now needs to be very direct, with fewer choices and very clear instructions.

Some ideas for an action plan are—

• call my doctor or other health care professional, ask for and follow his or her instructions
• call and talk for as long as necessary to my supporters
• arrange for someone to stay with me around the clock until my symptoms subside
• make arrangements to get help right away if my symptoms worsen
• make sure I am doing everything on my daily check list
• arrange and take at least three days off from any responsibilities
• have at least two peer counseling sessions

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• do three deep-breathing relaxation exercises
• write in my journal for at least half an hour
• schedule a physical examination or doctor appointment or a consultation with another health care provider
• ask to have medications checked

As with the other plans, make note of the parts of your plan that work especially well. If something doesn't work or doesn't work as well as you wish it had, develop a different plan or revise the one you used—when you are feeling better. Always look for new tools that might help you through difficult situations.

Crisis Planning

Identifying and responding to symptoms early reduces the chances that you will find yourself in crisis. It is important to confront the possibility of crisis, because in spite of your best planning and assertive action in your own behalf, you could find yourself in a situation where others will need to take over responsibility for your care. This is a difficult situation—one that no one likes to face. In a crisis, you may feel as if you are totally out of control. Writing a clear crisis plan when you are well, to instruct others about how to care for you when you are not well, helps you maintain responsibility for your own care. It will keep your family members and friends from wasting time trying to figure out what to do for you. It relieves the guilt that may be felt by family members and other caregivers who may have wondered whether they were taking the right action. It also insures that your needs will be met and that you will get better as quickly as possible.

You need to develop your crisis plan when you are feeling well. However, you cannot do it quickly. Decisions like this take time, thought, and often collaboration with health care providers, family members and other supporters. Over the next few pages, information and ideas that others have included in their crisis plans will be shared. It can help you develop your own crisis plan.

The crisis plan differs from the other action plans in that it will be used by others. The other four sections of this planning process are implemented by you alone and need not be shared with anyone else; therefore you can write them using shorthand language that only you need to understand. However, when writing a crisis plan, you need to make it clear, easy to understand, and legible. While you may have developed other plans rather quickly, this plan is likely to take more time. Don't rush the process. Work at it for a while, then leave it for several days and keep coming back to it until you have developed a plan you feel has the best chance of working for you. Once you have completed your crisis plan, give copies of it to the people you name in this plan as your supporters.

On the fifth tab write "Crisis Plan" and insert at least nine sheets of paper. This crisis plan sample has nine parts to it, each addressing a particular concern.

Part 1 Feeling well
Write what you are like when you are feeling well. You can copy it from Section 1, Daily Maintenance Plan. This can help educate people who might be trying to help you. It might help someone who knows you well to understand you a little better, for someone who doesn't know you well—or at all—it is very important.

Part 2 Symptoms
Describe symptoms that would indicate to others that they need to take over responsibility for your care and make decisions on your behalf. This is hard for everyone. No one likes to think that someone else will have to take over responsibility for his or her care. Yet, through a careful, well-developed description of symptoms that you know would indicate to you that you can't make smart decisions anymore, you can stay in control even when things seem to be out of control. Allow yourself plenty of time to complete this section. Ask your friends, family members, and other supporters for input, but always remember that the final determination is up to you. Be very clear and specific in describing each symptom. Don't just summarize; use as many words as it takes. Your list of symptoms might include—

• being unable to recognize or correctly identify family members and friends
• uncontrollable pacing; inability to stay still
• neglecting personal hygiene (for how many days?)
• not cooking or doing any housework (for how many days?)
• not understanding what people are saying
• thinking I am someone I am not
• thinking I have the ability to do something I don't
• displaying abusive, destructive, or violent behavior, toward self, others, or property
• abusing alcohol and/or drugs
• not getting out of bed (for how long?)
• refusing to eat or drink