For World Mental Health Day, Monday 10 October 2022, we’re talking about mental health and how important it is to look after this, to talk about things and to get help if you are struggling.
Andrew works at Nottinghamshire Healthcare as Senior Peer Support Worker at Arnold Lodge. Before joining the NHS, he worked as a management consultant specialising in grant funding and IT management. Andrew shares his story about his personal experience of mental health difficulties, his recovery journey, and his role as a Senior Peer Support Worker.
“I've suffered for over 20 years with my own mental health battles. I got diagnosed in my 20s with bipolar and in my late 30s with a dual diagnosis of bipolar and personality disorder. Managing my mental health has never been easy and has as such involved many ups and downs in my life. I have had several admissions to hospital and spent nearly all of my adult life connected to some form of mental health service either community based or inpatient care.
“I spent my late teens feeling very unstable but not being able to understand why. I made it through my school life without any interventions but struggled on a daily basis. When I went to university, I suffered my first trauma which resulted in me being hospitalised in Birmingham. A few years later I moved to Derby in my 20s to be near a support network, where again I have received now nearly 20 years of support and interventions from the community teams and hospitals.
“I decided to come out of the corporate world and go into helping people with mental health difficulties as I felt it was it was more of a vocational calling than a work call."
“Having gone through my own recovery journey from my last bout of illness in 2017, I decided to come out of the corporate world and go into helping people with mental health difficulties as I felt it was it was more of a vocational calling than a work call. So as part of my recovery journey I was working, doing some recovery work, volunteering work and did my peer support foundation training. I came across the job online through Trac jobs, I applied for the role and got an interview and was successful. I’ve been at Arnold Lodge for nearly two years now and a few months ago was successfully appointed to Senior Peer Support Worker, a first in forensic services, supporting a team of Peer Support Workers and helping with a wider recruitment programme for forensic services.
“The most rewarding thing is working with patients every day.”
"The most rewarding thing is working with patients every day. I feel that I can do it with compassion and I can do it with conviction. I work by four Ws which is: what does it do for the patient? What does it do for Arnold Lodge? What does it do for Nottinghamshire Healthcare? And lastly, if left over, what does it do for me? And if I can answer with something positive for all those four Ws then I think whatever I’m doing is a good thing.
“If you've got experience of either a mental health condition personally first hand, or through caring for someone with a mental health condition, I couldn't recommend highly enough coming to work at somewhere like Arnold Lodge and working alongside patients that are battling their own mental health condition, where you'll get a chance to make a real difference to someone over time.
“Having reached my 40s I realised not only did I need to take my mental health seriously, in order to give me a healthy mind I needed to have a healthy lifestyle part of which is physical exercise. Earlier this year I took up playing football and try and cycle whenever I can having spent my teenage years being a keen cyclist.
"I have been treated with dignity and respect again and most of all I have learnt to value myself again and not consider myself as a person who can no longer hold down a stable job and support their family."
“Having had my last breakdown I honestly thought there was a chance that I wouldn’t be able to work again, but working within the NHS has been such a blessing to work in an organisation that prioritises wellbeing and health over profits and has allowed me to build a whole new career in my 40s. Through becoming a Peer Support Worker and then a Senior Peer Support Worker I have found a wonderful new vocation and career. I have been treated with dignity and respect again and most of all I have learnt to value myself again and not consider myself as a person who can no longer hold down a stable job and support their family.
“It has been wonderful to walk alongside other service users in their recovery journey. The staff are so caring and compassionate both towards fellow colleagues and the service users who access our services. It is a privilege to be a small part of this and I feel extremely lucky and supported for the first time in a multitude of careers.”
For information about mental health services provided by Nottinghamshire Healthcare visit https://www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/a-z-of-services or for information about help in a crisis visit https://www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/help-in-a-crisis
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