A TRUE INSPIRATION FOR ORGANISATIONS: EVERYTHING WAYTHROUGH COMMS & MARKETING DO TO KEEP CO-PROUDUCTION AT THE HEART OF THEIR WORK | THE COMING TOGETHER MAGAZINE RE-LAUNCH

“There are people who make things happen, there are people who
watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what
happened. To be successful, you need to be the person who makes
things happen.”

Jim Lovell

I’m incredibly proud and very honoured to announce the re-launch of the completely refreshed Waythrough magazine; Coming Together (which you don’t have to be a service user or staff of the organisation to subscribe to, you can subscribe here: Sign up to newsletter - External or learn more about it here: Coming Together - our community magazine - Waythrough and if you have a story to submit: coming.together@waythrough.org.uk). I’m also very privileged and I feel incredibly fortunate to say that I’m now the Volunteer Lead Content Creator with the Waythrough Communications and Marketing team! In around 2023, I was given the opportunity to work with a local NHS Trust (Newcastle Hospitals) to create their Mental Health Strategy and in that partnership, I created a piece of content around why organisations should be following in their footsteps (you can read it: WHY NHS TRUSTS NEED TO BE FOLLOWING IN NEWCASTLE’S FOOTSTEPS!! | IN COLLABORATION WITH THE NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST | I'm NOT Disordered). The blog post proved to be fairly popular and so I wanted to take that sort of angle for this too and discuss the qualities that the Waythrough Communications and Marketing Department exhibit and use to ensure that co-production is at the heart of everything they do – a massive achievement for a ‘behind-the-scenes’ team to accomplish in mental health services…

THREE MILLION READERS!!!

“Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine.”

Roy T. Bennett

When I’m NOT Disordered reached around 2,950,000 readers I realised I should start deciding/planning/preparing to write a celebratory blog post and then I made a bit of a mistake of asking AI (namely Chat GPT) for ideas on a theme or angle for it… Why was it a mistake? Because I loved almost all of its ideas! So, in this post, I will be chatting through a whole mix of bits and pieces about this achievement; reasons why I started, reasons why I temporarily quit, reasons why I kept going and the lessons I learned throughout those moments...

A GUIDE TO REMEMBRANCE AFTER PET LOSS | EXCLUSIVE ETSY DISCOUNT CODE!!! | IN JOINT COLLABORATION WITH EVERELLE CRAFT & GRACIE’S WAY

“Tears don’t measure weakness. They measure our need to grieve and keep loving the one we’ve lost.”

Melvina Young

The Bracelet: EverelleCraft on Etsy

Code: type ‘AIMEE’ at the checkout for 50% off the bracelet

After losing my eight-month-old bunny; Evie on May 22^nd I found a bracelet on Etsy from the store; EverelleCrafts (EverelleCraft - Etsy UK). I added ten charms all together with five each having the name of the pets I’ve lost these past eight years (Dolly, Pixie, Emmy, Gracie, and Evie) and the other five were the birthstones for each of them! When it arrived, I was absolutely over the moon with the quality and the final result of my customisation, and I actually shed a little tear when I saw all their names! I loved the bracelet so much that I actually got in touch with the store owner and after a chat, they offered a discount code exclusive to my readers/followers and I customised and ordered another three bracelets with one for each of the pets I have now (Luna, Ruby, and Tillie)! To share the discount code (which is exclusive to the bracelet linked at the beginning) and publicise the Etsy store, I put this blog post together where I’m going to chat about remembrance after losing a pet with a bit about the benefits of it, ideas for all sorts of memorials and methods of remembrance, and also some details on the Gracie’s Way (my pet bereavement project) resource that is super fitting and useful for this topic…

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…

Welcome, Tillie

Tillie, you arrived so small,
With snowy paws and ears so tall.
A little grey nose, soft and sweet,
Like healing sent on velvet feet.