Last Wednesday was a long and
busy day. I was at my NHS Trust most of the day, and it was a day where the first meeting started at 08.00. It was, however, a day of different meetings, and as a Board, we worked our way
through a series of discussions where we talked about finance, quality, patient
safety, partnerships, our A&E performance, demographic pressures and what at times, felt like the unfairness of the local press towards the hospital. By the time I got to
drive home in the late afternoon, I was exhausted, hungry and in need of
simply unwinding! However, after a mug of steaming Vimto, my drink of the
moment, I revived somewhat.
Just as well as that evening I
was having dinner with my long-time friend and colleague Karen. I have known
Karen for many years. I met her when both she and I were Governors at a local
School almost 25 years ago. We have worked together as teachers, researchers, and evaluators. She is the Editor of Nurse Education in Practice, a journal I have
supported through being on the editorial board, reviewing the work of others
and having my own work published. We both share a passion for education,
anthropology and sociology, and at one time, even shared the same PhD
supervisor.
Karen and I have travelled to
many places together, including the US, Canada, Ireland and to most of Eastern Europe. She is a great travelling companion as she is one of those people
who can talk for England. I have spent many an hour listening to her wonderful conversation. On
one occasion we travelled for nearly 3 hours between Brno and Prague in a train
carriage that was meant to be silent, before someone asked us to stop talking!
And so it was last Wednesday evening. We had not seen each other for a while and
had much to catch up on. Our meal took a long time to get through as we both talked
about what we had been up to over the past few months. It was a lovely way to
spend a few hours!
I count myself fortunate that I
have 3 or 4 people I can talk to, and talk to them about most things. There are
many others who are not in the same position. Last week was the #TimeToTalkDay2018 (which
runs every year on the 1st Thursday of February). The Time to Talk
Day is organised by the mental health project Time to Change. Backed by Mind
and Rethink Mental Health, Time to Change aims to improve people’s attitudes
and behaviour towards those with mental health problems. They want to help and support people with mental health problems to stigma and discrimination wherever this may be found. The Time to Talk Day provides an opportunity to have an open
conversation across the UK about mental health – to talk, listen and to change
lives.
It’s an important and an
increasingly successful campaign – but there is still more that can be done.
Last week Time to Change published the results of their recent survey of some 2,500 people.
66% of the respondents said they had no one to speak to about their mental
health, relationships or money. 36% said they had never found the right time to talk, and 28% said they hadn’t talked to anyone as they couldn’t find anywhere appropriate
to discuss their concerns. Sadly these findings perhaps reveal that many people
struggle with talking openly about their and others mental health problems.
When I started with my mental
health problems last year, it took me a long time before I went and talked to
anyone about how I was feeling. I even hid my despair from those people I described
above. Fantastic folk I've always felt I could go and talk to about most things with them. Even my GP,
who I have to say has been brilliant, filled the reason for being off work on the first couple of sick notes as
low mood rather than depression. When we talked about this, he felt he was
doing it for the ‘right’ reasons, protecting me from any possible work related
discrimination. I have said before in a previous blog, my University were
also extremely supportive, and I am proud that this was the case. I really
could not have wished for a better response from them.
As has been said many
times before, there is no health without mental health. The statement (easy to
say, not so easy to achieve), is a very powerful message of the need for the integration
of services and approaches. However, this is still just as difficult to realise
within and across the health and social care professions as it appears to be in
the wider population. Indeed the work of one of my successful PhD student’s
@SMYseham revealed the disturbing levels of stigma and discrimination amongst mental
health professionals towards the people they were there to serve and care for.
With this in
mind it was good to see the updated guidance from Public Health England,
published on the 18th January this year, looking at ‘wellbeing in mental health: Applying All Our Health’. The guidance is good, and easy to understand. It is
set out at the level of the professional, population, community and the individual.
At the heart of all these approaches are relationships. And
relationships are nurtured by trust, thoughtfulness and being able to talk and listen. One can never know, but such conversations could be those that change lives.
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