“Jen agreed to be filmed to talk about her lived experience of a personal health budget. Jen not only articulated the positive outcomes of the experience, but was able to provide some valuable insight into how to make the process better. Jen comes from a marketing background and was also able to review the film…
Category: Mental Health
I hear voices, I just didn’t ever realise the significance of it.
Today was the section of my research module that detailed the experiences of voice hearers, via a person-centred construct that applied meaning to their experiences, moving it away from a pathologised symptom of illness. Instead, voices are expressed as a natural response to traumatic events, often appearing at times of high stress and when reframed…
Coming up for breath.
The last few weeks have been completely crazy and I’ve barely had enough time to sleep, let alone take stock and write. I have been involved in so many things, so many amazing pieces of work that it’s a bit tricky to know where to begin, so I’m going to start with a few highlights….
Living life through the cracks
Cracks are funny things to talk about when you are autistic and have mental health problems. People who are mentally ill are referred to as crackpots, or just cracked. As individuals and increasingly as a society we talk about the cracks that people fall into as we become more complex individuals and block contracts become less…
To my amazing friend
One of my friends is a very special person, who is beautiful, kind and hides her ability, talent and light away at times. I read something when I went on retreat that made me think of her, straight away and although these aren’t my words, they say exactly what I want to better than I…
Guy Evans Artist
A great friend of mine (and amazing artist to boot) is a chap called Guy Evans. We met through life classes he ran in Derby several years ago, which I attended first as a pupil and then as a life model. I built Guy’s website for him whilst on a stay in the Crisis House…
Peer Leadership Academy – Days 5 and 6 (and some other thoughts)
My cohort spent the last 2 days of the Peer Leadership Academy together on the 19th and 20th July. I was feeling quite nervous because I was presenting my personal story and having been pretty busy, only got it finished the morning of the same day. Luckily for me, with all the presenting I…
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists – access to reproductive services for disabled women
The venue was the college itself in London, a building lined with rather magisterial portraits of former alumni and professors. The conference covered all aspects of sexual and reproductive health, from sex education in schools, through to family planning and contraceptives, via pregnancy, labour and birth, with some stop-offs around the menopause and also sex…
Introduction to Autism – Derbyshire NHS Foundation Trust
On the 22nd May I attended the first of several days training to be delivered by Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. I had approached the county’s Clinical Lead for Adult Autism, Gaynor Ward, a while ago to see if there was anything I could do to help progress awareness in the organisation. Gaynor, who is…
Current situation with mental health services
(Or just why I might discharge myself from everything in 2 weeks because the mental health system is traumatising me.) I’m currently supported by a complex team of multidisciplinary staff which include a Community Psychiatric Nurse in the Recovery Team, a specialist Social Worker in the Mental Health team, a Community Psychiatrist, a Talking Therapist…