MY SPEECH AT THE NORTH TYNESIDE WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY 2024 EVENT IS NOW LIVE!!

 

ALL MY THOUGHTS ON BEING ‘THE BOSS’ | WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY 2024

This year, the theme of World Mental Health Day is ‘it’s time to prioritise mental health in the workplace.’ Because of this theme, I decided to prioritise the news article for the Shake My Hand Campaign website before writing one for I’m NOT Disordered. Over on Shake My Hand, you’ll find a piece full of advice on managing your mental health in the workplace, and if you scroll back through the Campaign’s social media (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) from Monday (the 7^th), you’ll find daily quotes from my Volunteers about how they manage their mental health alongside their volunteering. So, I wondered what was left to write about for I’m NOT Disordered, and realised that my blog is really all about providing insight into my life and perhaps into mental health in general sometimes too, so I thought I’d write about all my thoughts surrounding me being ‘the boss’ at the Campaign and give you some thoughts and tips on managing your mental health when you’re in a senior role…

MENTAL HEALTH & APPLYING FOR A JOB: FROM HOURS TO INTERVIEW TIPS | MY NEW STAFF ROLE WITH ST OSWALD’S HOSPICE

“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value”

Albert Einstein

If you’ve been reading, I’m NOT Disordered for a while you’ll know that whilst lots of things go on behind-the-scenes, you guys get a huge amount of insight into my life (and sometimes the lives of those who I collaborate with!), so imagine how hard it was when I had to keep something a secret for OVER A WEEK!!!

On the 4^th February, a member of the lovely Communications Team; Emma, told me there was a vacancy for the position of Kickstart Project Co-ordinator. She told me straightaway that it was neither heavy in mental health nor communications (the areas I’d like to work in) but wondered if I’d be interested. I read the description and some words stood out to me and I thought; ‘this could totally work!’

The Importance of The Hours:

The other aspect of the job which stood out to me was that it was for just 15 hours a week. For a while now, I’ve been saying that getting back into work is going to be so difficult because I knew going from nothing to part-time or full-time would be a huge shock to the system! Which is why I’ve been taking on various voluntary roles – such as my Chair position with the support group, LEAPS, and my role as a Digital Volunteer with St Oswald’s Hospice. I wanted to get used to having a commitment like that, to having some sort of regular routine to my days, to aid my mental health in getting ready for employment. I mean, I’d like to think that from my recent content and especially my social media posts (Twitter and Instagram: @aimes_wilson), it’s obvious that my mental health recovery is very stable, and it has been for a while now (almost six months of no self-harm).

Five Ways to Manage Your Time:

1.      Set yourself deadlines where possible

2.      Utilise the alarm app on your phone to remind you when to switch tasks

3.      Create a routine