WHERE IS MY MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK CONTENT? | IN COLLABORATION WITH LEAPS, NATIONAL TRUST, & ENGLISH HERITAGE | AD

We all want quiet. We all want beauty… We all need space. Unless we have it, we cannot reach that sense of quiet in which whispers of better things come to us gently.

Octavia Hill, Co-founder of the National Trust

Happy Mental Health Awareness Week!

This year is a bit different; I’ve been so busy recently that I honestly didn’t have the time to dedicate to producing an entire week of content for I’m NOT Disordered AND for LEAPS (the support group for the unwaged which I am Chair of). So, when I managed to secure a bit of a last-minute collaboration with National Trust and English Heritage, I decided that rather than add to my blog’s huge roster of collaborations(!), I would use the collaboration for LEAPS. To keep you interested in still paying a little visit to www.leapsonline.co.uk I thought I’d use this blog post as a chance to tell you my favourite bits of each section of my Mental Health Awareness Week post for LEAPS (which you can read here: https://www.leapsonline.co.uk/2021/05/a-chat-about-nature-mental-health.html )…

‘Children & Nature’ – Favourite Bits:

Anyone who has read I’m NOT Disordered before or who knows me personally, will know how much I dote on my godchildren so it felt sort of obvious that I would somehow manage to incorporate them into the nature theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week.

So honestly, just having the opportunity to talk about my godchildren is thrilling; but I think my favourite part of that section was when I got the chance too do a bit of research into different locations under the care of English Heritage and National Trust which are child-friendly. Finding these places has given me a lot of inspiration for activities with my godchildren.

 

‘Nature with National Trust’ – Favourite Bits:

In writing this section about National Trust, I went through their website to create a little overview of the organisation for any readers unfamiliar with them. I also went on to look up the National Trust sites I’ve visited and then listed them alongside the places I’d love to go to.

COPING WITH GRIEF | REST IN PEACE DAVE, PREVIOUS CHAIR OF LEAPS

I’ve never written a post like this so you’ll have to bear with me as to whether it makes sense or is even what you would expect for this kind of post…

I’m incredibly sad and broken to say that the previous Chair of LEAPS, Dave Taws, has passed away on the 27^th November. I’ll not go into details, but I will say that it wasn’t a huge shock to the group; but that fact hasn’t made it actually happening any ‘easier’ to hear or to cope with.

I first met Dave in 2017 when I interviewed with him and the founder of LEAPS; Amanda. I’d found a voluntary job with LEAPS on https://do-it.org/ as an Advertising Assistant and decided to apply. At the time, it was my first long-term voluntary job and the first one in the industry that I’d ultimately like to work in, so I was really hopeful that I’d get the position!

Obviously, I got it and attended my first meeting with the group… one thing about Dave was that he was incredibly passionate about politics – something that I try to steer away from because of how controversial it can be – and he spent pretty much that entire meeting completely taking over and talking non-stop about politics! I ended up leaving and crying because I’d been so excited to start there and was so disappointed that it wasn’t what I’d been told it would be. I ended up ringing Amanda and she explained that Dave was known for monopolising meetings and said that hopefully my tears would be motivation for that to stop and for everyone to have the opportunity to speak up about issues that were affecting them.

LEAPS CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE FOR YOUR COLLEAGUES & VOLUNTEERS | IN COLLABORATION WITH LEAPS

BY AIMEE WILSON, CHAIR OF LEAPS

www.leapsonline.co.uk

www.twitter.com/leapsonline

With it almost being December, everyone at LEAPS are trying to get into the festive spirit… But with our previous Chair being very poorly right now, this is an extremely difficult and challenging thing to do.

So, to highlight our appreciation for the previous Chair, and for everyone on the Committee and the group members, I’ve put together a little Christmassy gift guide full of the ideal presents to give to your colleagues or volunteers…

 

BLOGMAS 2019 – POST SIXTEEN : LEAPS CHRISTMAS DINNER | LISTENING EAR AND POSITIVE SUPPORT | AD

Thanks to a poll on my Twitter back in November, my wonderful followers decided that I should publish a blog post and film a vlog every day for the entirety of December! 

So welcome to December 16th…

“How can you write an entire blog post about a Christmas dinner?” I hear you ask. Well I’m going to talk a bit about the organization I had the Christmas meal with; LEAPS (otherwise known as Listening Ear And Positive Support).

I still remember my interview with the previous Chair and the Founder of LEAPS in 2017; I’d found the vacancy for Advertising Assistant on Do-it.org  and wanting more experience in the marketing industry, decided to apply. Having my blog for four years (at that time) had really taught me a lot about marketing, advertising, and communications and I enjoyed that side of it so much that I decided I’d like to go into that industry as a career. I wasn’t (and still aren’t) ready to do full-time work so I thought that having a voluntary job one day a week would be a good start to gaining experience to ensure it’s definitely the right career path for me.


I was obviously successful with my interview and started working with LEAPS in April 2017. I was a bit unsure after the first meeting because whilst I felt completely welcome, I was very aware that everyone had been going there and had known one another for around eight years (the group was founded in 2009). It wasn’t long before I felt fully part of the team though and two years later, LEAPS are like a second family for me!

TEN THINGS I BELIEVE IN

I recently had a mental health crisis and in it, a Paramedic said that they believed that in the moment I felt suicidal and they believed that so much that their job was to make sure that I didn’t take away the possibility of that feeling going away. That their job was to make sure I didn’t kill myself. I told them that the suicidal thoughts were much more powerful than the hope that those thoughts would go away.

Having such a strong belief that dying was the best option for coping with life, made me think about all of the other, very negative beliefs that I used to have. Before psychology in Hospital, I held the belief that I was destined to die young; I honestly believed that I’d been put on this earth to commit suicide. I also felt – and occasionally still feel – that I deserved what had happened to me. What had been done to me. The Psychologist, and many other professionals, told me that if I’d never say that to another person then why should I be any different? These two firm beliefs spurred on my self-harm and suicide attempts and for a while (about four years) they were all I believed in. So, I thought that it might help to talk about the positive, healthy beliefs that I now hold…

BECOMING CHAIR OF LEAPS

http://www.leapsonline.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/leapsonline

Around two years ago, I was scrolling through the voluntary jobs on do-it.org when I came across a position of ‘Advertising Assistant’ for an organization called ‘LEAPS.’ I’d not heard of them before and was surprised to find that when I tried to research them, they had no website or social media. Their bio on do-it.org said that they were actually named Listening Ear And Positive Support and are a support group for those who are unemployed; and that they were looking for someone who could publicize the group. At that point, I’d been blogging for four years and had attended quite a few events where I’d been in charge of social media so I felt like this position would give me more experience in doing that. 


I remember getting the interview with the Founder and Chairman in Costa in North Shields and I wore a new skirt that ended up being way too short and tight and I could barely cross my legs! The actual interview (obviously) went well because I have a lot of confidence when it comes to talking about my ‘job’ with blogging and social media, so it was quite easy to tell them about my experience and achievements. They told me right there and then that I’d got the job and the excitement began for my first weekly meeting, which all of the Committee Members and group members attend.

We always joke these days about my first meeting with LEAPS and when I pointed out that I’ve been with them for almost two years, our Secretary said; “we didn’t think you’d last two minutes never mind two years!”