Active Monitoring: Rachel’s Story

During lockdown I fell pregnant with my daughter. My anxiety was through the roof by the time I reached my last trimester and I struggled to attend appointments.

After my daughter was born, the first year was really difficult as we were isolated at home. I had also experienced a lot of trauma. My aunty died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage, I had also found out my brother in law needed a new kidney and pancreas and my father in law needed a liver transplant. All this had happened in a relatively short space of time.

I struggled going back to work and being separated from my daughter, and after a few months had to take time off as my mental health was suffering. This is when I saw the GP and asked for help with my mental health that did not involve medication. I was referred to Cwm Taf Morgannwg Mind’s Active Monitoring service. The service provides self-help tools in the form of booklets that include techniques for managing a range of mental health problems.

With the support of my practitioner I worked on confidence and self-esteem, loss and grief, and dealing with anxiety. My practitioner helped me to apply the techniques in every day situations and held me accountable by giving me little tasks to do.

We worked together a lot on where my low self-esteem comes from, and she really helped me to let out emotions I had suppressed. I felt my practitioner went above and beyond with her support, and really adapted the service to suit me and what she thought would work best for me.

It was my experiences of this service that led me to apply for a job with Cwm Taf Morgannwg Mind’s Active Monitoring service earlier this year.

I am now an Active Monitoring practitioner supporting people every week and I love my job.

From my own experiences I know how important it is to give people the help they need straight away, and provide them with reassurance. I like to give and make a difference to people’s lives and I feel my knowledge, I am still applying the resources that I learned through the service in my personal and work life, so I really do practice what I preach and lead by example in my work.

Active Monitoring has made me feel confident to cope with whatever life throws at me and has also helped me practice better coping strategies, and being able to empower people to do the same is so rewarding.

“I felt my practitioner went above and beyond with her support, and really adapted the service to suit me and what she thought would work best for me.”