Clare Allen: Out of the ward, and out of the control of others - The Guardian 5th March 2008

It's awkward and not a situation you'd seek out. But now and again, even in a city the size of London, it is inevitable that you run into a worker, outside the context of the psychiatric system, you've known when you were a patient. It happened to one of my best friends, Sam, when she came with me to puppy class. I've written in this column before about my relationship with my last dog, and how from the moment she entered my life she opened up a world for me beyond the narrow confines of my "mental health patient" existence. When I got a new puppy recently, I saw a chance to share some of this experience with Sam. And so we signed up, the three of us, to weekly puppy class.

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