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…

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…

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)

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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!