Your Voice Issue No. 86

Registered Charity Number 1113874

ISSN 2515-4907

YOUR VOICE In Sheffield Mental Health A magazine for users, carers and professionals www.yourvoicesheffield.org

Winter 2017/18

No 86

New Sheffield Mental Health Guide launched

Sheffield Flourish relaunched the Sheffield Mental Health Guide on 15th January in an event attended by 100 people. The website, funded by Sheffield City Council, provides information about services and community organisations spanning the city. The charity hopes to engage as many people and organisations as possible to make the website as useful as it can be.

“It was fantastic to be supported by so many people in the redevelopment of this important

website,” said Jo Eckersley, Deputy Managing Director.

“Now we need support in getting the message out. We’d want this website to become common knowledge across Sheffield, so that whenever someone is struggling they know where to go.”

The launch event, at the Workstation, involved speeches from Sheffield City Council’s Director of Public Health, Greg Fell, and the city’s Lord Mayor Anne Murphy.

There was also a speech from James Poulter, a member of Sheffield Flourish’s Mental Health Guide Steering Group, a volunteer group set up to help co-produce the website.

Although it is a digital offering, the Lord Mayor did a physical ribbon cutting using her prized Sheffield steel scissors, revealing the new website.

The event coincided with ‘Blue Monday’, known as the saddest day of the year.

Continues on page 3.

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YOUR VOICE 

New Sheffield Mental Health Guide launched Page 1

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Introduction

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Information about Universal Credit New Sheffield Mental Health Guide launched (continued) Page 3

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Improving Understanding of Service User Involvement and Identity Mind Influence and Participation Toolkit LGBT and personalisation resources New services to support health and wellbeing Page 4

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Film about a unique Sheffield project is runner up in national awards Ben’s Centre celebrates 21st anniversary Page 5

Your Profiles 

Pete Fleischmann, head of co-production at the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), on the unhelpful experience of psychiatry, the value of psychotherapy and engagement with the survivor movement Pages 6 & 7

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Life After Care

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Changing My Mind

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Your Reviews  

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Service user Steve on ‘Our Encounters with Stalking’ adventures in counselling: grounding critique Page 10

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Locally, there’s the news that the Sheffield Improving Access to Psychological Therapies service (IAPT) now offers specific support and treatment to people living with long-term physical health conditions who also experience common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety; Sheffield Flourish invites feedback on the new Sheffield Mental Health Guide launched in January; and Ben’s Centre celebrates 21 years of supporting vulnerable and marginalised individuals in the city.

Nationally, we include details of research on the experience of service user participation undertaken by Shaping Our Lives; provide a link to national Mind's newly launched Influence and Participation Toolkit; and highlight new resources developed by SCIE for LGBT disabled people.

Sadly, the issue after this one will be the last Your Voice as the organisation no longer has the funds to continue. We’d like to invite groups and individuals to share your thoughts about the mental health environment over the past two decades - what has changed? What’s remained the same? What are your hopes for the future?

Page 11 Disclaimer: The views expressed in Your Voice are those of

Your Noticeboard  

This issue features two articles that talk about counselling and psychotherapy. Pete Fleischmann, the subject of our regular Profile, identifies psychotherapy as one of the main ways in which he has come to understand and manage his feelings and live his life in the best way possible.

The author of 'Changing My Mind' questions the practice of counselling organisations before concluding that the experience of therapy was ultimately helpful. As well as the articles, It Snipped My Heart provides another illustration of an aspect of the therapeutic relationship that might otherwise escape our notice.

Justine Morrison

Your Artwork Your Verse

Introduction

Social care focus group for older people Join St. Wilfrid’s for an evening of live entertainment Mental health carers hub Sheffield IAPT Health and Wellbeing Event Mums in Need - Professionals Open Day SUN:RISE Service User Network Page 12

the individual contributors and do not necessarily represent those of the Editorial Team. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, we cannot be held responsible for alterations which occur during the publication process.

Articles are copyright of Your Voice and individual contributors.

In principle we are happy for articles to be reprinted in other publications provided that Your Voice is acknowledged but we would be grateful if you would contact us first so that we can obtain the writer’s permission.

Acknowledgements: We would like to acknowledge the input that the Sheffield mental health community makes to the ongoing success of Your Voice. Our greatest debt of gratitude is reserved for all of our contributors and readers – we wouldn’t exist without you.

No. 86

YOUR VOICE

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Information about Universal Credit Derbyshire OCD Group alerts medical professionals to how changes to benefits could affect their patients

New Sheffield Mental Health Guide launched Continued from front cover.

Changes are coming to the benefits system, with Universal Credit (UC) replacing a host of benefits, including Employment and Support Allowance, which are currently claimed by people who are incapacitated and unable to work.

Derbyshire OCD Group would like to highlight three elements of UC of particular concern: the continuing use of the sanctions system; the use of work coaches; and the importance of the letter supplied by a medical professional used as evidence of symptoms and illness.

As currently, if a person is unfit to work, a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) will decide if that person has ‘limited capability for work and work-related activity’. If the person ‘fails’ the WCA, in order to qualify for UC, they will be expected to meet certain workrelated conditions, known as ‘requirements'. Failure to meet these could result in sanctions.

There are numerous reported cases of people failing a WCA, despite having an ongoing incapacitating health condition, and seeking recourse in the appeals procedure.

People waiting to attend a WCA will be required to meet a 'work coach'.

Mental health charity Mind is concerned that this approach will leave many people: "who are unable to work, subject to inappropriate conditionality and sanctions…and that work coaches will be asked to make judgements about whether someone is well enough to look for work". They also highlight that "the move to generic work coaches with mixed caseloads will lead to a lack of mental health expertise within the employment support system".

Criticism by mental health charities, such as Mind and Rethink, and by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, on the continued use of sanctions in Winter 2017/18

UC highlights concerns about the heavy focus on this element, including that: "this will be ineffective and potentially damaging for people with mental health problems".

“We know every day of the year can be difficult for a whole load of reasons, but we hope the Sheffield Mental Health Guide will make things that little bit easier,” said Jo.

The letter requested and provided as medical evidence by a healthcare professional is key in this process.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists acknowledges: "It is important that clinicians provide good quality, clear and accurate evidence that is appropriate for the purposes of assessing their capacity for work," and its website offers guidance on providing such evidence. Medical professionals are in a key position to outline the complexities of a mental illness and how it impairs.

The charity has spent the last nine months redeveloping the website in partnership with Sheffield people, which has included public meetings, the Steering Group, online surveys and user testing.

They have asked for Sheffield people and organisations to give feedback and information to help improve the website.

To conclude, claiming a benefit, while trying to live with a mental health condition, can be an extremely important part of a person’s life. It can mean the difference between worrying or not about meeting bills and travelling to medical appointments; and being isolated or seeing family and friends, and feeling part of the community. Failure at a WCA could mean being ‘mandated’ to look for work for a set number of hours. This process raises questions about potential stress, worry and anxiety and even, consequently, the possibility of relapse.

In some cases, there may be positive outcomes for those who would like to return to work. But is it reasonable to expect work coaches to understand the complexities of a mental health condition: about ruminative thinking; how unwanted thoughts can suddenly overwhelm and disable; how hearing voices can arrest attention; about anxiety, worry and fluctuating conditions? And is it reasonable to expect patients and potential claimants to be able to articulate it, or the day-to-day reality of living with a mental health condition?

For the next six months the Sheffield Mental Health Guide team will be focusing on fine-tuning the content and promoting the website.

The Sheffield Mental Health Guide is supplemented by a phone line, Twitter and Facebook where people can ask questions to help find appropriate services. Although the phone line is not always attended, people are encouraged to leave messages and will get a call back.

There are also links through the website to the charity’s other website, Sheffield Flourish, a website where people can read and share stories about their lives and mental health.

The website was originally managed by Sheffield Mind, who built a brilliant resource from the ground up, inspired by the Smooth Guide booklet.

The Sheffield Mental Health Guide website can be found at: www.sheffieldmentalhealth.co.uk Anyone who would like promotional materials or to give feedback please contact: Email: mhguide@sheffieldflourish.co.uk No. 86

Page 4 Improving Understanding of Service User Involvement and Identity Shaping Our Lives, the National Network of Service Users and Disabled People, has produced a report which aims to improve understanding of good and bad experiences of service user involvement in the commissioning, design, delivery and evaluation of public sector services and the challenges faced by service users in negotiating their dual role of both being a service user representative and recipients of services.

The report will be of interest to Disabled people who are service users and for people who design, manage and evaluate services in the public sector.

The report is the result of a user-led piece of research designed and carried out by Disabled researchers.

It arose directly out of a Disabled person’s own concern and was undertaken by a Disabled People’s Organisation.

The findings reveal a range of conflicts for Disabled people when they use services and are also a service user representative. Most representatives got involved because they wanted to share their experiences of being a disabled person and make services better for others.

Although there were some positive experiences more people had had negative experiences of involvement. There were practical access issues, a breadth of communication problems and poor attitudes from professional staff.

Many participants did not experience being regarded as experts in their own conditions and impairments, but for those who did they felt they got better outcomes from their treatment.

The report is available from the Shaping Our Lives website at: https:// www.shapingourlives.org.uk/ Winter 2017/18

YOUR VOICE Mind Influence and Participation Toolkit

New services to support health and wellbeing

National Mind has developed an Influence and Participation Toolkit for anyone whose organisation or workplace wants to engage with people with mental health problems in a meaningful way. It aims to enable individuals to meaningfully involve people with lived experience in the development of their work and organisation.

Sheffield’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Service, which helps people overcome common mental health issues, now offers specific psychological support and treatment to people experiencing health conditions such as cardiac and noncardiac chest pain; musculoskeletal conditions; chronic persistent pain; the psychological consequences of cancer survivorship; diabetes; chronic fatigue syndrome/ME; irritable bowel syndrome; skin conditions; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and health related anxiety.

Mind believes that the importance of people with lived experience influencing work is as important as complying with regulations, properly managing budgets and delivering high quality projects. Services will only be effective if they truly hear and understand the needs of people and then plan and deliver accordingly.

The online toolkit is organised in different sections, which define what influence and participation means; explains why ensuring meaningful involvement of people with lived experience is important and how it can benefit organisations and those taking part; provides guidance on planning effective participation; and explores how to overcome the challenges and barriers that can stand in the way of influence and participation.

The toolkit also contains case studies and links to other resources that will enable you to learn from the experience of others.

The toolkit is available at: https://www.mind.org.uk/ workplace/influence-andparticipation-toolkit/

LGBT and personalisation resources The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has just released new resources about personalisation for LGBTQI+ disabled people. These are available on the SCIE website at: https://www.scie.org.uk/lgbtqi/

The new services offer evidencebased talking therapies to people living with long-term physical health conditions who are also experiencing anxiety and/or depression.

Toni Mank, Head of the IAPT Service, said: “We know that living with a long-term physical health condition such as diabetes or COPD can have a negative impact on how someone feels. Approximately 65% of people with common mental health problems also have a long term physical health condition. We firmly believe that neither physical health nor mental wellbeing should be treated in isolation and we are delighted to be able to offer these new services to the people of Sheffield.”

Dr Steve Thomas, Sheffield GP and Clinical Director for Mental Health at NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “If you feel that you could benefit from this service please talk to your GP or practice nurse to see if IAPT could be right for you. You can also search online and refer yourself to local IAPT services via the website or by telephone.”

For more information about IAPT Service visit: http://iaptsheffield.shsc.nhs.uk No. 86

YOUR VOICE

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Film about a unique Sheffield project is runner up in national awards

Ben’s Centre celebrates 21st anniversary

Medical students and people with lived experience working together to understand distress

A film about a unique Narrative Masterclass with long-term mental health service users and medical students was a runner up at the recent Haelo Awards. The Haelo Film Awards showcase outstanding, original and DIY public sector films from across the UK. The Narrative Masterclass is part of the undergraduate medical education course at the University of Sheffield and is run in association with Storying Sheffield. Participants explore aspects of their own personal narrative using storying methods and research the principles behind a recovery approach to care.

Storying techniques support users through varied creative processes to see the person beyond the illness, and help the individual rediscover a sense of identity and reconnect to the world around them. The sessions are designed and led by Chrissy Bonham and professional artist Kay Aitch, both of whom live with long-term mental health conditions.

Brendan Stone, Director of Storying Sheffield and Co-Chair of the Service User Engagement Group (SHSC), said: “Storytelling plays a huge part in our lives, whether we realise it or not. The Narrative Masterclass brings together people with lived experience of mental health difficulties and medical Winter 2017/18

students to explore how we can use the power of story to understand the contexts in which our distress happens, resist the negative portrayals of the self which we all have, and create a new story which is comfortable for us to live within.”

Chrissy Bonham of Storying Sheffield and freelance psychoeducator for SHSC, said: “I am passionate about improving the understanding between service users and clinicians about how the experience of mental distress impacts on the self and both inhibits and supports recovery. The feedback we receive from both service users and medical students has always been extremely positive and you can see this reflected in the film.”

Dr Helen Crimlisk, Deputy Medical Director and Director of Undergraduate Psychiatry (SHSC) said: “Medical students learn how to take a patient ‘history’ but narrative inquiry goes beyond this and helps the doctors of tomorrow take a whole person approach to treatment and care.”

Watch the film at: https://youtu.be/kh80LW-sNlo

On 25th January, clients, volunteers and staff at Ben's Centre celebrated the charity's 21st anniversary at a lunchtime party with hot roast pork sandwiches and birthday cakes.

The Sheffield day centre and outreach service supports clients with substance misuse and mental health issues and vulnerabilities associated with the culture and lifestyle these issues can bring.

Ben’s outreach service provides food, clothing and friendly advice and support to rough sleepers and those who, for whatever reason, find themselves homeless and marginalised.

Some of the men and women who look to Ben’s as a refuge experience complex mental health issues. These are often compounded by substance misuse and homelessness. Although some clients will require specialist medical help, what can make a difference are empathy, kindness and friendship. Staff and volunteers work hard to ensure an atmosphere where clients can feel understood and that Ben’s is a place they can call their own.

Ben’s is in the process of extending the hours devoted to outreach in order to engage with extremely vulnerable clients that have no means of support.

Find out more about Storying Sheffield at:

For further information visit:

http://www.storyingsheffield.com/

www.benscentre.org No. 86

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YOUR VOICE

Your Profiles Pete Fleischmann, head of co-production at the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), on the unhelpful experience of psychiatry, the value of psychotherapy and engagement with the survivor movement

What brought you into contact with mental health services?

From the age of about 17, I experienced an annual cycle of mood swings which gradually became more extreme. At the end of each summer I would start feeling down. Then slowly over the next few months I would gradually become engulfed by terrible feelings of despair and hopelessness. By Xmas I would become very withdrawn and virtually mute. This would be followed by a gradual recovery and then a few months of relative stability. Then in the spring I would start to get overexcited, talkative and fascinated by people and ideas. During this period I was very creative and outgoing. Sleeping and eating would get problematic and my thinking would become more and more unrealistic.

Mostly I enjoyed the highs but the exhilaration was also tinged with great anxiety as I knew from bitter experience that what goes up has to come down. Slowly the cycles became more serious. The lows got Winter 2017/18

lower and the highs got higher. So it was not long before I came to the attention first of my GP and then a psychiatrist.

Looking back I think what caused my breakdowns was a combination of family history, my father’s sudden death, difficulties with my stepfather and my attempts to selfmedicate with illegal drugs. My father was a German Jew who spent the first eight years of his life in Frankfurt. In about 1934, when he was eight years old, the rise of Hitler meant that his immediate family were forced to flee Germany.

They were lucky to escape with their lives and they lost their apartment and possessions. For reasons that are not quite clear they ended up in South Africa.

Family members that they left behind later died in Dachau concentration camp.

My parents met in South Africa, got married and because of their objections to the Apartheid regime, emigrated to London in the 1950s.

I was born in north London and

grew up there. My family identified as Jewish but were completely secular. So I always felt an outsider in the close-knit north London Jewish community in which most people were religiously observant.

Despite the family history and an underlying feeling of being unsettled, until I was 13, I was a fairly happy child and probably would have not required mental health support. But the loss of my father from a heart attack changed all that. His death was almost violent in its suddenness. One afternoon he went up to his room saying he was tired; a short time afterwards he was found dead. My mother started a new relationship about a year after my father died.

Whilst my stepfather had some good qualities and he was kind to my mother, he was a troubled, unpredictable and occasionally violent man.

I tried to deal with the shock of my father’s death and my troubling home life by experimenting with drugs for a short while but that just created more problems than it attempted to solve.

What was your experience of mental health services?

My experience of mainstream mental health services was not helpful. I was treated with tricyclic antidepressants, lithium carbonate and eventually electro-convulsive therapy (ECT). All of this made no real impact on my mood swings and just gave me more problems and made me feel even more alienated. Amitriptyline gave me a horrid taste in my mouth, distorted vision and the shakes. Lithium felt like I was wrapped up in cling film and made me feel like my life was happening to someone else. ECT made me feel like I was a broken machine rather than a person. I started to fear the sessions as several times I woke up paralysed due to the muscle relaxant.

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YOUR VOICE What aspects of your life were affected by contact with mental health services?

Mental health services affected every aspect of my life and compounded my difficulties. From staff I got the message that I was ‘damaged goods’. They showed almost no curiosity about what had happened to me and the focus was on what was wrong with me. The lack of hope and negativity projected by psychiatric services mirrored my own sense of despair.

In the 80s psychiatric services were even more stigmatising then they can be now. So I tried to hide both my distress and my use of services and that only served to separate me even more from friends and family.

I’d like to say that I came across caring staff who took time to listen to me. But whilst I was not actively mistreated the overall experience felt like I was being punished for being unhappy and lost. No account was taken of my history, my feelings or my emotional life. I don’t blame individual members of staff. I think that basically psychiatric training can do little to equip people to offer any real help to people with mental health issues.

Page 7 things to support my mental health, This includes exercising, getting enough sleep, not overworking and spending time with friends and family. Three things have been especially helpful: psychotherapy, meditation and the support of other people who have been through similar experiences. I have had psychotherapy for most of my adult life. I realise I am extremely privileged to be able to fund one-toone therapy for so long - it accounts for a substantial part of my spending. I think of it as an investment. Having that space to explore how I am feeling has helped me in every aspect of my life. It’s been a difficult and painful process but one from which I have benefited enormously.

I have practiced meditation within the Zen Buddhist tradition for many years. The kind of meditation I do is called Shikantaza in Japanese, which translates as ‘just sitting’ in English. Meditation is the only time in my day when I am not goaldirected, rushing between meetings, juggling family life or striving to meet a deadline. I just sit and watch the thoughts float in and out of my mind.

The only good thing about ECT was it confirmed my feeling that psychiatry had nothing to offer me and that if I was to have any chance of recovery I needed to find my own way. I tried to find a counsellor or therapist through charities or the NHS. But this was the 80s and talking therapies were not provided by public services. So eventually I started to see a private psychotherapist. It was such a relief to talk to someone who didn’t think mood swings are caused by faulty brain chemistry or genes.

The other thing that has helped me enormously has been my engagement with the mental health user/survivor movement. Meeting so many other people who have experienced mental health issues has been amazing. The support and solidarity has made a real difference to my life. Sharing stories and discussing what needs to change has made me feel that I am not alone. I have made many friends and most importantly met my wife Jolie Goodman through our mutual involvement in mental health user groups.

I am happy to say that extreme mood swings are a thing of the past and I have been medication-free for many years. Of course I still face life’s difficulties and disappointments as we all do; the difference is that my response to them no longer overwhelms me. I do lots of other

What projects, or work are you involved in today?

At SCIE, we cover all social care services so we work with older people, disabled people, people with learning difficulties, as well as people who use mental health services. The most recent piece of

Winter 2017/18

work I have done around mental health was 12 resources about Independent Mental Health Advocacy which can be found here https://www.scie.org.uk/ independent-mental-healthadvocacy/ The 2nd – 6th July sees the third annual national co-production week, which SCIE hosts. The week is a chance to celebrate and promote the co-production of services. Coproduction is about developing more equal partnerships between people who use services, carers and professionals. See https:// www.scie.org.uk/co-production/ week/ for how to get involved. We have loads of free resources about co-production and we also do training and consultancy work to help organisations develop coproduction.

What is your proudest achievement?

That’s a really hard question. On a personal level I am really proud that I now lead a pretty settled life. I am married, have kids and I earn money doing work I find satisfying and meaningful. These are all things that in the past I thought were totally out of my reach.

On the work front I’ve been involved in so many fantastic projects and organisations. I am really proud to have worked on consumers’ views on ECT. This research brought together the views of service users and showed for the first time that the evidence supported what ECT survivors have always known: ECT causes long-term damage to autobiographical memory in at least a third of recipients. See http:// bit.ly/2CQmags Is there anyone in mental health that you particularly admire?

I admire anyone who uses their own experience of mental health issues to try to change the system.

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Thanks for inviting me to contribute this profile; it’s a real privilege.

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YOUR VOICE

Telling Life After myCare story in my own way ‘It The snipped Reverend my heart’ Mark Edwards on the autobiographical reflects on howzine he found Eye Water the faith, and hopethe and importance love that enables of creative himexpression to thrive in mental health going out with me. We were married in 1984. Many people said the marriage would not last because we were from different social backgrounds.

I am from a family of five; three sister’s and one brother. My parents divorced when I was a toddler and from the age of three onwards my brother and I spent the early part of our childhoods being shunted between home and various foster homes. Eventually, having been in and out of various foster homes, we were literally snatched from school one afternoon by social services without any warning and taken to a children’s home in Spalding, Lincolnshire, where I lived for seven years.

In 1978, after I left the children’s home, I went into a spiral of decline.

I started drinking and eventually tried to take my own life by cutting my wrists. I was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 1981. I remained on a mental health ward for five months, during which time I took an overdose of drugs.

Aged 19, after I was discharged, I was homeless for a short time, sleeping in a night shelter and on the floor of a local church. The minister took pity on me and helped me find a bedsit. I then met my future wife, a student from the local university, who was volunteering at the soup kitchen I attended. Having told the minister we were courting, he tried very hard to talk her out of Winter 2017/18

With no qualifications and having been in a mental health institution, I found it impossible to find work. It was during this time that I came to faith and started to get involved in voluntary work with a community church. This gave me an opportunity to explore my vocation to Christian Ministry. With a young family to support, I went to night school to obtain O levels and A levels while working as a lay minister for a Baptist church in Lancashire.

In 1991, I was accepted for training with the Church of England at St. John’s College, Durham University.

My time there was not without difficulties. I struggled with the academic side of training; I was diagnosed as being dyslexic while still battling mental health issues from my past. In effect, I suffered a breakdown and was almost withdrawn from training by the Bishop of Manchester, my sponsoring diocese.

However, I came through that period and was ordained in Carlisle Cathedral in 1995 after undergoing a psychiatric assessment put in place by the church authorities. I found it difficult to shake off the past and continued to struggle with mental health issues while serving in the church, often hiding behind the role and the dog collar.

My faith was strong but at times my depression, fear, anxieties, insecurities and low self-worth got the better of me. In 2002, my wife gave birth to twin boys, one of whom was born with life-threatening medical issues and spent the next seven years in and out of hospital.

It was during this period that I

served as a crew member on the local lifeboat and sat on a number of committees serving a church in one of the most deprived areas of Barrow-in-Furness.

In 2004, my first book ‘Tears in the Dark’, recounting my time being bought up in care and my journey to faith, was published. In 2008, I moved to Newcastle to take up new posts as vicar in charge of two parishes and as police chaplain to Northumbria Police. In 2009, I was named in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list when I was awarded the MBE for services to the voluntary sector. Since 2010, alongside my role as parish priest, I have served the North East Ambulance Service as a community first responder.

I have been described as ‘a walking miracle’ to be doing what I am doing today considering my background. I was a special needs child, written off by the educational system, social services, the NHS and even the army, air force and navy when I tried to join at 16. I was considered a hopeless cause who would either spend his time in and out of prison, mental institutions or eventually commit suicide. My journey to ordination was not easy and I had to fight against prejudice even within the Church. I would be first to admit that I carried a huge working class chip on my shoulders for many years and was content for a long time to play the victim. Having suffered what the psychologist called maternal deprivation, my emotional and intellectual development were impaired.

It’s been a tough journey but I found faith, hope and love and continue to thrive. I still wrestle with my mental health issues but through my faith, my marriage, and my service to the community, I am able to continue to give something back rather than be a victim.

Mark’s book ‘Life After Care: From Lost Cause to MBE ' is available to buy from: http://www.trigger-press.com/ No. 86

YOUR VOICE

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Telling myMy Changing story Mind in my own way Aresnipped ‘It counsellors my heart’ and psychotherapists on the autobiographical repressive zine social Eye Water and the importance engineers or enablers of creative of life enhancing expression personal in mental development? health I can't remember what I thought about counsellors before I started to work as a volunteer with a mental health project in the late 1980s. I probably viewed them as good hearted people who wanted to alleviate suffering. What I saw and experienced changed my mind. But not to begin with.

The project I volunteered for was run by a group of qualified and experienced therapists. The organisation ran a few groups but counselling was its main business.

The paid workers were supported by volunteer counsellors, some of whom were in training, others of whom had retired from careers as mental health professionals. I was impressed by the people who ran the place. They were lovely women, warm and empathic, full of energy, committed to the wellbeing of distressed people. My supervisor was an inspirational character. She used to feed me articles by Carl Rogers, which I devoured with almost religious fervour. She made me feel good about myself. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have embarked on my 30 year career as a mental health activist and worker.

Becoming involved in the survivor movement is a consciousness raising process. Learning about other people, and re-evaluating what you've been through yourself, changes what you think about mental health services. I started to think more deeply about what was going on at the project I volunteered for and wondered if things were as benign as they appeared on the surface.

Why was the front door locked?

Why were workers and volunteers discouraged from outside contact with service users? Why were the mirrors in the toilets not made of glass? Why were there panic buttons in the rooms, which only Winter 2017/18

workers were aware of? How comfortable was I with the power relationships and the ideology that sustained them? Why did I feel so bad when I found myself in the company of counsellors and therapists at the conferences I started to attend as my immersion in the mental health industry widened and deepened? What was the correct response to hearing well founded rumours of unethical conduct? Which side was I on?

“He sees the benefits of psychotherapy for its practitioners, in that it brings them money, supports the delusion that they are skilled and important healers, and elevates their self-esteem (not that they are lacking in self-esteem to begin with). He sneers over his latte at these healers, who instruct their life partners to deliver high quality wine bottles in Waitrose Bags for Life to recycling points hidden here and there in shady arbours throughout the pleasant parts of the city. The accents of these clowns are enough to set one’s teeth on edge. It might be good to talk but talking to these jokers certainly will not be.”

In 2017, I experienced a serious physical illness, which gave me the opportunity to access a range of voluntary sector services as an aid to my recovery. One of the services I opted for was counselling. I didn't hold out much hope that it would do me any good but I resolved to engage with the process as openly as possible.

And I changed my mind again.

Image by It Snipped My Heart

I was on the side of people whose experiences of abuse and neglect had led to distress which was pathologised by the services they turned to for support and commercialised by those who made their livings by offering inadequate responses to the unhappiness they purported to address. Counsellors and psychotherapists weren't peddlers of drugs but they were social engineers upholding neoliberal philosophies designed to keep people in their place. I turned against them. I treated them with scorn. I summed up my feelings in 2006:

Ripeness is all. My crisis opened me up. I was amazed at what happened during the course of the four sessions I attended, amazed at how far I travelled during and between my appointments. I learned what I knew already: nothing is fixed apart from the facts, and nothing is how you expect it will be. Most beliefs are subconscious and becoming aware of them allows you to assess their validity and change them if you can. There are questions that I need to answer: Do I like people? How can I manage uncertainty? How do I make best use of the resources I have developed through my experience?

I learned that the important thing about counselling is not what you think about it before you engage, but what you do with what you go away with.

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YOUR VOICE

Your Reviews Service user Steve on ‘Our Encounters with Stalking’ edited by Sam Taylor, Alec Grant and Helen Leigh-Phippard (PCCS Books ISBN 978-1-910919-24-8)

This book is a fine addition to the series, with previous volumes addressing madness, self-harm and suicide. The aims of this text are presented in the introduction, with demystifying the concept of stalking, and the impact it can have on those directly affected by the issue being primary considerations.

In a similar vein to the previous volumes, the strength and impact is derived from short and powerful accounts from those working in the field, friends and, most importantly the victims themselves. By using personal narratives, the accounts are vivid and moving, and excellently captured by the varying writing styles of the contributors.

In the introduction, Alec Grant addresses how prevailing societal influences can shade our perceptions of victimhood. Attention is drawn to how our neoliberal society draws attention to the subjective and psychological over the social and political, which conveniently places the problem onto the individual stalked rather than addressing issues such as inequality, gender and other structural issues. After this

Winter 2017/18

introduction, Short and Barnes provide an account of various stalking types, its prevalence, and gender related aspects about those stalking and those on the receiving end. Due to poor documenting and recording they estimate between 12% and 32% of women, and 4% and 17% of men have been subject to stalking. They conclude with how the stress of stalking can leave the recipient with issues such as PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and the negative impact such issues can have on work, relationships and sense of worth. They also outline how this chronic stress can lead to physical health issues such as enhanced chances of heart attacks, strokes and the implications of reduced immune function.

After contextualising wider issues, the book is structured into two brief sections of accounts from the third sector and the police and court systems, followed by a longer section of first-person accounts of stalking from survivors, family members and friends, which prove the most moving and harrowing.

The two chapters on third sector experiences address the work of

Rachel Griffin and Kristiana Wrixon who are employed by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust. Their work at the Victim Support and National Helpline draws attention to how little is known by the general public, and the scale of the problem. The police and courts section highlights the lack of funding, resources and clarity from the law enforcement agencies, and the negative impact this can have on victims.

The final section proved a difficult read in the sense that reading about the impact on victims and their friends and family is not pleasant, and some accounts end with a victim being murdered by the stalker, or one where a child commits suicide following the same act by the stalker. This is not a criticism, but just the harsh outcome of some cases. Also, some accounts show the sheer grit of people moving forward and triumphing against the odds.

Ultimately, I found this book a highly commendable and readable account of stalking. It highlights the work of agencies and contains much advice for professionals in this arena on how not to re-inflict further trauma on victims. It clearly fulfilled its intention to highlight stalking as a wider social issue, and the accounts brilliantly illuminate this oft neglected area.

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YOUR VOICE

Your Artwork

Page 11

Your Verse First Impressions Let’s reduce stigma together, I promise us patients will remember it forever.

It can happen to anyone, Yes, anyone, maybe YOUR mum or even your son.

You put on that uniform, Please don’t transform.

You’re still you. The one that smiles at your child, checks on your mum and has fun.

Please nurse, tell me your name.

You know mine.

Talk to me, Help me to feel fine.

I know you’re busy but a smile doesn’t take any time.

That one small thing to you that you would have forgotten about Is massive to me.

Shall I ask for a cuppa tea?

Or will they say "I’m not free"?

She looks scary, Should I be wary?

She seems nice, She made eye contact.

It’s such a shame I don’t know her name.

What do you see when you look at me?

When you switch off the light and say goodnight.

Forget the day, go home and play.

I’m still left alone now you are home.

That smile could have helped me by a mile.

It’s a job for you but a life for me.

I wish you would see the real me, Not the mask that’s taken years to grasp.

See me, wave, nod or smile Or even do them all at the same time.

So please nurse, when you next walk past, Think how much your impressions will last.

Amy Tynan

‘Lisianthus’ by Anon.

Winter 2017/18

No. 86

YOUR NOTICEBOARD Social care focus group for older people Age UK and Age UK Sheffield are holding a social care focus group with Clive Betts MP. They are looking for older people (and carers) from Sheffield to talk about their experiences and discuss any social care issues they have faced.

Date: Wednesday 14th February Time: 11 am – 1 pm Lunch will be provided. For more information and to book on, please contact Healthwatch Sheffield: Tel: 0114 253 6688 Email: info@healthwatchsheffield.co.uk

Mental health carers hub For carers of people with mental health problems. The group meets on the third Thursday of each month from 10.30 am till 12 noon.

Dates for forthcoming groups are: · Thursday 15th February (Talk from Sheffield Flourish) · Thursday 15th March (Talk from Drinkwise Agewell) · Thursday 19th April Venue: Sheffield Carers Centre, Concept House, 5 Young Street, Sheffield, S1 4UP. Booking is not necessary, but if you want to talk to someone in advance, please ring Jan or James: Tel: 0114 278 8942

Join St. Wilfrid’s for an evening of live entertainment As part of St. Wilfrid’s Sleep Out, an evening of live music from The 20ft Squid Blues Band and Open Jaw Fayre with a short showcase drama performance by some of the charity’s clients, the St Wilfrid’s Centertainers. Age 12+ Date: Friday 16th March Time: Doors open 7 pm Venue: The Abbeydale Picture House, S7 1FS. Tickets: £10 per person (available from our front office or buy online at https://www.stwilfridscentre.org/ events/eveningfun).

For more information about the Sleep Out or the evening entertainment, please contact the fundraising team on:

Sheffield IAPT Health and Wellbeing Event We would like to hear from service users who have attended our new service, and members of support groups and charities who provide support to those with long-term physical health conditions.

Date: Thursday 1st March Venue: Showroom Cinema, 15 Paternoster Row, S1 2BX. Time: Lunch & stalls: 12 pm -1 .30 pm Main event: 1.30 pm - 3 pm Find out about our new service, share your ideas and experiences and help us to shape the service.

To book a place please contact:

Tel: 0114 255 5720 Email: info@stwilfridscentre.org

Tel: 0114 271 6568 Email: healthandwellbeing@shsc.nhs.uk

Mums in Need - Professionals Open Day Are you an organisation, service or individual that may come into contact with mums who have left emotionally abusive relationships?

Would you like to enhance your current networking system, in order to help support more mums in need?

Date: Wednesday 28th February Time: 9.30 am - 12 noon OR 1.30 pm - 4 pm Venue: Sheffield based Session plan:  Registration  Presentation including referral information  Q&A session  Tour of venue  Networking To register please contact: Email: enquiries@mumsinneed.com www.mumsinneed.com SUN:RISE Service User Network The Service User Network aims to improve the range of ways that service users can become informed and involved with the Trust.

Date: 2nd Wednesday of the month Time: 1 pm - 4 pm Venue: Conference Room 2, The Circle, 33 Rockingham Lane, S1 4FW. For further information, contact Noelle Riggott: Tel: 0114 271 8789 Email: sunrise@shsc.nhs.uk

To request, amend or cancel a Your Voice subscription, please contact us at: Your Voice, Office 27, Woodbourn Business Centre, Jessell Street, Sheffield, S9 3HY T: 0114 242 3675 ♦ E: info@yourvoicesheffield.org ♦ E: editor@yourvoicesheffield.org Website: www.yourvoicesheffield.org Please send contributions for the Spring issue by 28th March 2018