10:10 on a Friday Night

10:10 on a Friday night and the door bell goes. I turn on the CCTV to see a man I don't recognize.
on opening the door he quietly informs me "get me an ambulance". A quiet and nervous conversation slips by. He can hear the voices, what voices, the voices in my head he tells me. Does he not know i am not on duty for the Mental Health Trust i work for! He is quiet but internally focused as he tells me of his past experience in mental health institutions. His internal voices are encouraging him to kill himself. My concerns for him and me rise, I call the ambulance as he is clearly poorly. The police come (thank you ) the ambulance comes. And my caller becomes agitated by the laughter of the professionals, paranoid, they wont take him seriously. He fears. He seems sure they will take him away and just drop him off somewhere. I try to reassure the calls the professionals have made and the wards they have mentioned seem correct. I don't leave him as directed by the police because he seems lost and unsupported, childlike. So i wait. he willingly gets on board his ride towards mental health care. Its about 11:00 and i go and finish watching the Big Bang Theory.
another night in the parish encountering people with mental health illness. I hope and pray the voices did not succeed in their plea and threats.

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