Users of the occupational therapy services at Mount Carmel Hospital yesterday found the courage to open up about their mental health problems. Fiona Galea Debono listened to their stories.

John, 62, has only just started living life after a mental health hiatus of 25 years.

He was comfortable in Mount Carmel Hospital, was afraid of the outside world and needed to be persuaded to leave his ward.

It was a camping experience that changed his life and the support of the hospital’s Occupational Therapy Department that went back to basics to help him relearn the skills needed to live in the community.

“I had grown accustomed to life in Mount Carmel and almost feared the outside world,” he wrote.

His words were read out during a talent show at the hospital’s Occupational Therapy Department yesterday. It was organised to raise awareness about mental health and to celebrate last month’s World Occupational Therapy Day.

Today, John finally lives in his own flat and feels the joy of life is in the little things – washing when he wants, trimming his beard, cooking alone, wearing the clothes he likes, fixing things around the home. After years in a maximum security ward, they mean a lot to him. It is about gaining independence, which is what the hospital’s Occupational Therapy Department works on.

The healing process took a while but the department offered him the opportunity to start a new life, he wrote.

In 1999, with lots of support and encouragement, he was persuaded to start taking some leave from the ward.

The next step was a move to the halfway house to relearn certain skills to be able to live in the community. “I learnt how to look after myself again.”

During yesterday’s event, other service users plucked up the courage to go on stage and talk briefly about their personal experiences at the hospital and how they were managing to cope, thanks to the department.

On any given day, about 60 patients use its service, run by 25 therapists and assistants, who also work in the hospital wards and the community.

The role of the department was to support carers and empower service users to be independent, explore and learn skills, said its head, Catherine Galea.

Among other things, they learn how to budget and divide their time properly; crafts appear to keep them going and help in their recovery as they go back to basics and learn to take care of themselves.

“People with mental health problems have a potential to learn, be creative and even return to work,” she said.

“Our role is to assess their functional difficulties and address them so they can lead a better quality life.”

• While Antonia Baldacchino’s husband was undergoing a bypass in hospital, she was crashed out on her sofa at home, oblivious to his life-saving surgery. When she stirred from her drunken stupor and asked about his whereabouts, her son informed her that he was being operated on.

Mrs Baldacchino, now 65, then started crying, aware of the suffering and pain her alcoholism had been causing her family. Her ordeal lasted 30 years, during which time Mrs Baldacchino was in and out of Mount Carmel.

Today, she visits its Occupational Therapy Department three times a week and has not been able to even “smell” alcohol for about six years.

“One day, something just told me I had to stop. I punched the table with my fist and told my family that was it! I had wasted 30 years of my life locked indoors.”

• When Saviour Agius’s disabled son, whom he doted on, died six years ago, he turned to the bottle and found himself at Mount Carmel.

Since April, he has been an outpatient at the hospital and visits the Occupational Therapy Department every single day.

“I cannot imagine my life without attending. It helps me feel better about myself and overcome my problems,” he said.

During his stay at Mount Carmel, he eventually got fed up of pacing up and down the corridors and asked if he could have some chores. He opted for gardening or sewing, and landed the latter. Today, he is into his patchwork and other patients turn to him to mend their clothes.

Mr Agius, 65, admits he is not completely teetotal but, instead of spending the day in bars, he stays away from the bottle, bent over his sewing machine most of the time and only drinks in the evening.