** * * * * * * * * * * * The dreams of death and dying. The emptiness inside. This place in which I’m hiding, whilst life carries on outside. That love and life and meaning, with which I just can’t coincide. When all I have are these dreams of death and dying…
Category: Mental Health
2021 – What a hell of a year…
It’s been a while since I posted here, not because of a lack of good intentions but simply because there was barely enough time to breathe last year, let alone find the time to update my website. I returned to work at the end of 2020 to begin a PhD at the University of Nottingham…
My United Kingdom travels
In amongst all the Brexit anxiety and heightened awareness of the climate damage that air travel causes I have tried to spend more time exploring the United Kingdom this summer, rather than relying on the old fall back of a cheap package holiday. Time away this summer break has been particularly important. Last summer, most…
The ethics of ethics
So I have to make my position very clear here. I am in no way denying the need for an independent ethics approval process, within either the academy or the NHS. The need to ensure absolute protection for vulnerable groups and individuals is paramount. Ethics reviews also ensure research methodologies and rationale are robust. As…
DLINKS library logo
Derbyshire is a large county with a diverse spread of population and geography. Much of this is covered by the Derbyshire Community Foundation Trust, whose staff can struggle to reach a medical library in the course of their work, given commuting time. Collaborating to solve this problem, the three library services across the different trusts…
People are more than their diagnoses.
“It was this prognosis of doom, this life sentence, this death before death that I instinctively rejected when the words “You are wrong” formed silently within me. With the wisdom of hindsight I understand why this moment in the psychiatrist’s office was a major turning point in my recovery process. When I rejected the prognosis of doom…
The latest…
Things have been a bit quiet on my blog for the last six months. A lot has happened, mainly positive, and with some challenges. The main change has been a house move. We still live in Derby but the house we were in had to be sold because of being owned by my partner and…
My mental wellbeing: a visual reminder
Tomorrow I facilitate a workshop in which women with perinatal mental distress will be asked to explore their health journeys visually. This caused me to remember a similar collage that I created at the request of a wonderfully supportive nurse to represent my own health and well-being needs and challenges. it is an honour…
Mindtech MinD workshop – 8th March 2018
Dementia is an area of mental health that I have not had so much awareness of, and so the chance to co-facilitate a group specifically designing for the memory problems associated with dementia was a really positive opportunity. The brief for the MinD project worked across several areas that I have professional interest and experience…
NHS England ‘Act, Listen, Do’ event – March 19th 2018
Today I attended the first meeting with the wider NHS England Autism team, which I would describe as small but perfectly formed. I had already spoken to Sarah Jackson on Twitter, and also met Aaron Oxford after speaking at Skipton House in London but this was my chance to meet the rest of their colleagues…