WHY I’M SPEAKING AT ANOTHER EVENT WITH CUMBRIA, NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNE & WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST | AN AD FOR THE WOMEN’S MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE

“When it comes to improving care for women and girls with mental health problems, there is no substitute for listening to those with lived experience. Not only about the complex life problems they have faced, but also their views about what has helped, and hindered their recovery. That’s why I’m so pleased that Aimee will be joining us, because she has lived and written about her life and has a very powerful story to tell.”

Linda Gask, Emerita Professor of Primary Care Psychiatry at the University of Manchester

Earlier this year, on February 27^th, I gave a speech at the Emotionally Dysregulated Young Person: Neurodevelopment, Mood, Trauma and Personality CPD Event for Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW). The Trust’s Deputy Medical Director; Doctor Hermarette Van Den Bergh was also at the event and as a result of my input, she contacted me afterwards and asked me to speak at the upcoming Women’s Health Conference at the end of June. It was such an honour and filled me with pride at the thought I must have done a good job at that first event! So, I wanted to discuss the main reason why I’m going to speak at the event – to share experiences that professionals may not often hear…

HOW TRAINING, EDUCATION, & RESEARCH HELPED ME TO PREPARE TO WORK AT A HUGE NHS EVENT

"Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning."

Thomas Edison

On a bi-monthly basis, Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW), host a Service User and Carer Reference Group (which you can read more about on their website; here). For October’s, I attended as a Lived Experience Reporter for the first time and with the idea that I’m NOT Disordered probably has hundreds of readers who attend big events, I have put together this blog post, where I’ll talk through all the ways – emotional and practical – in which I’ve prepared for this NHS event, as well as some advice…

DAY FIVE MHAW | HOW MY LOCAL NHS MENTAL HEALTH TRUST ARE TACKLING ‘COMMUNITY’ WITH AN ‘INVOLVEMENT BANK’ | MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK 2025 WITH CUMBRIA, NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNE & WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

The Involvement Bank - Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust

“Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.”

Henry Ford

I can’t believe Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) 2025 is almost at an end; with today being the penultimate piece of content for the Week! Today’s post is in collaboration with my local NHS mental health Trust; Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW) and we’ll be looking at the largest points of discussion around this Week’s theme of ‘community’ in particular relation though, to the Trust’s genius creation and incredible operation of their Involvement Bank…

DAY ONE MHAW | LAUNCH POST | MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK 2025

“Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.”

Horace

I can’t believe Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) 2025 is finally here! It feels like forever ago that I was looking at an Awareness Dates website (this one!), saw MHAW was in the next few weeks, and made the on-the-spot decision to create content for it. As you will know if you’ve seen the Content Agenda graphic on my social media (and at the end of this post), a lot of the other pieces are in collaboration with organisations and another blogger, so I decided to use today’s content, to chat through my decision to do MHAW, my ideas for the actual content I’ve put together, and some advice on coping with the things you may find yourself reading about throughout MHAW…

DISCHARGE AFTER 35 DAYS ON THE CRISIS TEAM’S CASELOAD

“The power we discover inside ourselves as we survive a life-threatening experience can be utilised equally well outside of crisis too. I am, in every moment, capable of mustering the strength to survive again – or of tapping that strength in other good, productive, healthy ways.”

Michele Mosenthal

Having had a horrific psychiatric hospital admission in February this year (which resulted in filing a complaint to CQC and discovering the ward I was on ended up on the news because they had actually been put under ‘Special Measures’ in their most recent inspection) I found myself briefly under the care of the Crisis Team before being transferred to the Step-Up Team. However, I quickly established the realisation that they were actually making things worse – I felt that I was almost feeling pressured to be poorly so as to not waste their time and to feel deserving of their efforts! Apparently upon discharging me, the Step Up Team told my Mum that I self-refer back to them so when – a few months later – I found myself struggling again, I gave them a call, and on August 23^rd I had an assessment with someone from the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT). She validated that my current symptoms and the reasons for my lack of safety are completely different to those when I struggled with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and said she would be recommending I go under the care of the Crisis Team. Two days later – August 25^th – I was put on their caseload…

WHY THERE’S DIFFERENT ANXIETY WITH DIFFERENT SERVICES | MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK 2023 | IN COLLABORATION WITH CUMBRIA, NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNE & WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

This post is aimed at really highlighting the chosen theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week; Anxiety and talking about how this can look different depending upon the situation and those involved e.g., my anxiety in seeing the Crisis Team can be completely different to that which I experience in speaking to inpatient/ward staff. As a result of the fact I’ll be concentrating on each of the NHS mental health services who were involved in my recent relapse/admission, I thought I’d collaborate with the Trust providing all of them: Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW). And so, throughout the post there’s information on each of the services that led to differing types of anxious thoughts and then, at the end of this piece, there’s a lot of links that include some of the very helpful resources CNTW provides around Anxiety…

BLOGMAS 2022 | DAY TWENTY-THREE: CHRISTMAS WITH… CNTW COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR; DEBBIE HENDERSON

Welcome to Day Twenty-Three of Blogmas 2022

 

Today, I’m teaming up with Debbie Henderson who is the Communications and Corporate Affairs Director for my local mental health NHS Trust; Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW), to bring you a bit of insight into her Christmas…

 

 

Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions? 

Me and the hubby go to our friend’s house on Christmas Eve every year to spend a few hours with our goddaughter – needless to say, we don’t have kids of our own – so she gets spoilt rotten!!

 

Who will you be spending this year’s Christmas with? 

Me, the hubby and our hairy daughter (Shelby – our Staffy) – she’s 13 in November so we’ll be making it extra special! My mam is spending it with family in Wales this year, so we’ll be spending the day with my in-laws…. lots of food, beers, chocolate….and falling asleep to a cheesy Christmas movie – just perfect xx

BLOGMAS 2022 | DAY ELEVEN: CHRISTMAS WITH… CNTW CEO; JAMES DUNCAN

Welcome to Day Eleven of Blogmas 2022

 

Today, I’ve teamed up with the Chief Executive of Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW); James Duncan to bring you a bit of insight into his Christmas…

 

Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions? 

 

Yes loads. I used to always go for a pint (or two) in Sunderland but that is long behind me. Now it’s a long walk with my wife and the dogs, a Chinese with the family, starting Christmas dinner prep and sort of helping fill the living room with presents

 

Who will you be spending this year’s Christmas with? 

 

 Morning with Dena and the boys, then with my brother and sister and their families. I’m on dinner duty this year

BLOGMAS 2022 | DAY NINE: CHRISTMAS WITH... CNTW MEMBERSHIP & ENGAGEMENT OFFICER; JACK WILSON

Welcome to Day Nine of Blogmas 2022!

Today, I've teamed up with Jack Wilson, Membership and Engagement Officer for Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW) to bring you a bit of insight into a typical Christmas in his life...

THE IMPORTANCE OF RECOGNISING SKILLS, ASSETS, & QUALITIES | THE STAFF EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2022 | IN COLLABORATION WITH CUMBRIA, NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNE & WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (cntw.nhs.uk)

Instagram

Twitter

Facebook

Today I’m collaborating with my local NHS mental health Trust; Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW) to bring to you a post about how much it means to recognise skills, assets, or qualities. This theme is based on it being the Trust’s thirteenth Staff Excellence Awards on Friday 23^rd September – you can keep an eye out on their social media (links above and below the post) and mine (@aimes_wilson on Twitter and Instagram), for some live posting and photos at the event…

HAVING MY CONFIDENCE ANIALATED

Growing up, I was always encouraged and taught that I could do anything I put my mind to, so I had a fairly decent amount of confidence – mostly in my creative abilities… Until I got to High School when I was a teenager, and I took Textiles as an optional GCSE subject. The teacher was so incredibly overly critical of all the work, assignments, and projects I created and submitted. Initially, even though this was a kind of alien attitude for me, I thought that maybe it was a helpful act and that she had good intentions. That she was giving me constructive criticism. Then, though, I began comparing her treatment of me to her responses to the work of other pupils in the class and had a starkly blunt and sad realisation that there was no genuinely kind meaning behind it. She was being so incredibly spiteful!

Q&A WITH CEO JAMES DUNCAN | MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK: DAY THREE | IN COLLABORATION WITH CUMBRIA, NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNE & WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

 

Welcome to Day Three of Mental Health Awareness Week, today I’m collaborating with my local NHS mental health Trust: Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW). A while ago, the previous CEO; John Lawlor, retired and now James Duncan is overseeing the Trust, so we had a meeting and I asked him a few questions on loneliness and how the Trust are supporting those who struggle with it. I also thought it’d be kind of good to see what my – as an ex-service user – answers would be to the same questions…

James’ Answers

Can you list five of the most important people in your life?

1. My wife, Dena

2. My 3 boys      

3. My Mam, Dad, brothers, and sisters

4. My Grandpa – huge influence on my life just by being him

5. My friends

Have you ever felt lonely?

I don’t think I’ve felt lonely. I have felt alone – as though no one can help or no one can understand. I think there’s a difference between being lonely and being alone… maybe that’s just me…?

THE TRUTH & ADVICE ON RESTRICTIVE PRACTICES | IN COLLABORATION WITH CUMBRIA, NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNE & WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

A little while ago an opportunity came up with Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW) for someone to speak at a Positive and Safe Conference about their experiences of restrictive practices… 

Now, considering I’ve been a mental health Blogger for almost nine years, I think it’s totally reasonable to assume that I’ve talked about my entire mental health journey by now. In all fairness, I think even I thought that was true; until this opportunity came up… So when I was chosen to give the speech and first met with the lovely Lauren (who you’ll be hearing from later in the post) from the Trust’s Positive and Safe Team, I almost immediately realised two things:

1.     I have a lot of experience and a lot to say about the topic

2.     I actually haven’t talked a whole lot about it all before

In acknowledging these two points, I had a decision to make: did I want to change that? Did I want to change the fact that I didn’t talk about these things?

THE INS AND OUTS OF GIVING A SPEECH | MY EXPERIENCES, TIPS, & RESOURCES | IN COLLABORATION WITH CUMBRIA, NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNE, AND WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

So, I delivered a speech to some of the Peer Support Workers from Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS FoundationTrust (CNTW) and decided to upload videos of clips of my twenty-minute speech to social media. I received a lovely response and was sent a few private messages asking more about the bits that you don’t see – the behind-the-scenes parts of giving a speech, so I thought it’d make for a good blog post…

My first speech:

I think that my first real speech was for a Time To Change event named Story Camp in 2015 (you can read about it here) – and it was requested after I had volunteered at one of their events in 2014 (which you can also read about here).

With it being my first opportunity to do something like that, I obviously had a lot of nerves and fear at the thought of standing before a ton of complete strangers and talking about my mental illness and other experiences that most people would deem ‘personal’ and ‘private.’

I think that the fact my first speech had been requested could have had a negative impact on me and cause me stress if I felt as though there was pressure on me to do it. But actually, it really helped me in providing motivation to do it because I felt sort-of obliged. As though if Time To Change (a big organisation centred around challenging mental health stigma) could go through the process it would have taken to choose me, the least I could do was take them up on their offer!

WHO I’M TURNING TO FOR SUPPORT DURING THE LOCKDOWN | IN JOINT PARTNERSHIP WITH BRIARDALE HOUSE & CUMBRIA, NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNE & WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST | AD

For the first time in forever

I finally understand

For the first time in forever

We can fix this hand in hand

-          Frozen

I’m very proud to say that this blog post is in partnership with TWO amazing organizations who are doing some incredible work in supporting vulnerable people through the Coronavirus Lockdown; the mental health NHS Trust; Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW) and Briardale House.

After having received a letter to say that I’m listed as ‘extremely vulnerable’ and at a greater risk of being hospitalized should I contract the Coronavirus because I have Asthma, I was advised to isolate completely for twelve weeks from the day of receiving the letter. Up until that point, I’d been following the Government’s Lockdown instructions in only venturing from my house to do my weekly food shop and collect my medication. The thing I’d really struggled to do myself was with the food shopping side of things because I usually do my shop with my support worker from Richmond Fellowship, but unfortunately those appointments had all been turned to phone call sessions after the Lockdown was announced. I find it useful having someone with me when I have to do my food shop because otherwise, I always feel really pressured to get everything I need and pack my bags and pay as quickly as possible. When there’s someone else there, though, I am reassured that there’s less expectation and having someone to talk to when I start to stress is really comforting.

WHY MENTAL HEALTH IS TAKING A BEATING WITH THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC | IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CUMBRIA, NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNE & WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

This post is in partnership with the wonderful mental health NHS Trust for my area; CNTW (Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust) so at the end I’ll be including all of their links and one of their most important articles produced during this Pandemic.

I’d like to think I’m a pretty fair and balanced kind of person in that I can usually see a disagreement from both sides, so when I write blog posts and posts on social media I try to imagine the other side to it… You know, in my last post: ‘WHAT I WANT YOU TO KNOW DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC,’ I talked a little about how people are feeling that they can’t talk about how the pandemic is affecting them because they’re sure that there’s someone ‘worse off.’ And I absolutely get it; I mean, there’s tweets about Grandmas dying alone because visiting in hospitals is suspended and people having their lives genuinely turned upside down to coincide with the UK lockdown regulations (which you can read here).

I think that the one common impact that the Coronavirus Pandemic is having on at least the majority of people, is on our mental health. People often make the mistake of thinking that to be struggling with your mental health, you must have some sort of diagnosis, but this isn’t true. Everyone has mental health in the same way that everyone has physical health, and you can struggle with your thoughts and feelings without it being you must have an official ‘label’ or disorder. Someone can feel sad without having a formal diagnosis of Depression. You can feel anxious without it needing to result in a panic attack for it to be worth talking about. And you can struggle with your mental health without needing to feel suicidal for it to be deserving of asking for help and support.