PART TWO: BEHIND-THE-SCENES OF CREATING A COLLABORATION BRIEF | WITH ST OSWALD’S HOSPICE

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.”

Stephen King

*This is the second part in the two-part series, you can read part one here *

Earlier this year, I spotted the new St Oswald’s Hospice (SOH) store around ten/fifteen minutes from my home, and having volunteered for the Hospice as a Digital Volunteer for around four years (including a couple of temporary contracts; with one being Kickstart Project Coordinator and the other being Communications and Marketing Assistant), I got in touch with the lovely Head of Communications and Marketing, and pitched the idea of collaborating. When she said she liked the sound of it, she introduced me to the Retail Communications and Marketing Officer, and after a few more emails, I was asked to write a brief for the collaboration…

PART ONE: BEHIND-THE-SCENES OF CREATING A COLLABORATION BRIEF | WITH ST OSWALD’S HOSPICE

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.”

Stephen King

*This is part one of a two-part series. Keep your eyes peeled for the second post!*

Earlier this year, I spotted the new St Oswald’s Hospice (SOH) store around ten/fifteen minutes from my home, and having volunteered for the Hospice as a Digital Volunteer for around four years (including a couple of temporary contracts; with one being Kickstart Project Coordinator and the other being Communications and Marketing Assistant), I got in touch with the lovely Head of Communications and Marketing, and pitched the idea of collaborating. When she said she liked the sound of it, she introduced me to the Retail Communications and Marketing Officer, and after a few more emails, I was asked to write a brief for the collaboration…

BLOGMAS 2022 | DAY TWENTY-FIVE: LESSONS LEARNT, BEHIND-THE-SCENES, & A RE-CAP!

Welcome to Day Twenty-Five of Blogmas 2022

As if this is it – Blogmas is over! To mark the end of one of my absolute most favourite and most popular blog post series’ I’ve ever created, I put together this post full of links to the different forms of posts, little explanations of them, the lessons I’ve learnt from creating and publishing Blogmas 2022, and there’s even a little behind-the-scenes reel! Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

BEHIND THE SCENES: CHRISTMAS ON A PSYCHIATRIC WARD

Even with the startling statistic that one in four people in the UK will experience mental ill health at some point in their lives, the chance that someone will be in a psychiatric hospital at Christmas, is minimal and I’d like to think that my blog is largely about providing insight into aspects of mental health that lots of people might not really comprehend. I hope that in doing so, it will help people to be a lot more understanding for those of us who do have these experiences. So, I thought it might be interesting to give readers an insight into what it’s actually like to spend Christmastime in a psychiatric hospital…

For new readers and to give a bit of background… 


Two years after being abused from 2006 until 2007, I began hallucinating and within ten days I became suicidal and took an overdose. I was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and spent the following three years in and out of hospitals – both medical and psychiatric. Finally, a Psychiatrist recommended that I be admitted to a long-term, specialist hospital and I began undergoing assessments with some such hospitals. The first two hospitals weren’t secure and wouldn’t accept my flight risk but when I heard that the third operated on timetabled day with intensive therapy, I refused to go. Then, in July 2012, I attempted suicide again and refused to have the lifesaving antidote to the overdose I’d taken so I was detained under the Mental Capacity Act and sedated to be put on life support for the duration of the treatment. When I woke up, the first thing I was told was that I’d be going to the psychiatric hospital I’d refused to go to, over 100 miles from home.

When I was sectioned under the Mental Health Act (1983) within twenty-four hours of being in the hospital, I realized that there was little chance of me being discharged before Christmas. Then, in November 2012, when I was recovering from an overdose I’d taken after going AWOL, I realized that there was equally as little chance of me managing to kill myself before Christmas too. So, I began preparing for my first Christmas away from home.