I think the first thing to say is that I can’t imagine you getting things wrong here, though I do completely understand the concern. In large part, the reason I’m still here and doing fine is because you were such an amazing support. You never encouraged my odd beliefs at the time, but also never challenged them to the degree that I felt threatened, disbelieved, or alone, while still managing to help me think about things in more helpful or less frightening ways. I always knew that you were on my side, when it felt like the whole world was against me, and that trusting relationship was really vital for me. I know it’s unbearable when you can see someone having such a hard time, and you’re too far away to be there with them to make sure they’re ok. I can’t imagine how stressful it must’ve been for you dealing with me, and if you’re looking to support xxxxxx in the same way, please do remember to look after yourself too. But also remember that you’ve done this before and you were great at it, even if you didn’t feel sure of what you were doing, so there’s no reason to think that it would go wrong this time. Unfortunately (or fortunately??) you have a lot of experience with these things!
What do you know about xxxx’s situation so far? Do you know what sort of voices he’s hearing, or what they say? They’re not always a bad thing, unless they’re causing him significant distress or causing him to behave in concerning ways, which I suppose is likely to be the case given that he’s in hospital. Websites like Intervoice or the Hearing Voices Network might have some useful resources for looking at different things that might be useful. If he’s still in xxxx, there will be groups there that he can get in touch with for support, though it’s likely that he might not appreciate such things if he doesn’t see the voices as a problem (though HVN groups are supposed to be very inclusive of different people’s understandings of their voices and don’t seek to pathologise them). Do you know if anything specific happened that triggered his voice hearing? Obviously a global pandemic and lockdown is enough to tip anyone over the edge, but perhaps he had other things going on too. And do you know if he has any friends/family locally that know about his situation and might be able to check in with him when he’s back home? I’m sure that, at the very least, it’d give you some peace of mind to know that he had other people around him.
As for the book, it has 10 personal accounts of people’s experience with psychosis and therapy, what helped and what was difficult or uncomfortable, so it might be useful from that perspective in terms of gaining further insight into the experience and common things that might be helpful or unhelpful. It also has overviews of 10 different types of therapies and how they might be adapted (or are particularly suited) for people with experiences of psychosis, so getting some background on the psychological understandings of psychosis and the theoretical aspects of supportive treatment might be useful too.