First of all, I’d like to apologise for the lack of recent posts on End Of Terror. There have been a number of reasons for this and I do plan on posting about these reasons when time allows. The website had been under severe attack and I’ve had to rebuild it and it’s back up and running again now and I hope to be able to maintain it and keep building. The End Of Terror struggle goes on. I’m 26 years and counting in my personal war with the system. One of the principal goals of End Of Terror is to enact change in the mental health system and improve the lot of mental health victims or patients like myself. I’d like to do something positive with this website, just to provide the modern day mental patient, just entering the system like I did as a fresh-faced 19 year old in 1997, with a little bit of hope and positivity and some sort of light at the end of the tunnel so that they can escape the sort of prolonged horrors that I have faced. I’m serious about trying to change the system, so much so, that I have turned to the dark side, much to the chagrin of some of my closest friends who can’t believe what I’m planning. I was invited about a year ago to start working for the Hiraeth team at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board Trust, as a community mental health peer mentor. I told them to ‘f**k right off’ initially but after a bit of reflection, I agreed to do it. Now, it still hasn’t actually yet started but I will be soon (I hope) a paid employee on the books with the NHS. They are encouraging peer mentors in all sorts of areas of the health system and I think it is a valuable policy and will work to the benefits of patients (and staff). My thinking is, I can enact change from within the system. I’m not given up my staunch views on anti-psychiatry and I will FOREVER hate psychiatrists. I don’t think they are human. But, I might have to make them cups of tea and be polite at staff Christmas parties. God only knows. Like everything else I do it probably won’t last if at all it ever happens, but should be interesting nonetheless. I’m not really responsible enough and my views are extreme in my own opinion of the work. But the 26 year experience could prove valuable and actually help people in need. So clean your flat up, put the hoover around and get the kettle on because I’m on my way around to see you….
I did the Mental Health Peer Mentor qualification at Growing Spaces back in December and here it is to prove it. And my new best mate is Nicola Prygodzicz who is the new CEO at Aneurin Bevan UHB and she’s helping me to secure the position. And Hiraeth are a lovely lot. I’ll write more in future posts elaborating on the stuff I’ve mentioned here and hopefully will be able to encourage others to go out and train and work as peer mentors. Watch this space!
