Welcome back to another blog post by former mental health carer matthew mckenzie. I am also an author, poet, carer activist and faciliator of carer groups. This blog is going to be a bit of an update on how my new audiobook development is getting along.
The audiobook is called “Providing care & other short stories”. This new audiobook is about the experience of care provided by families to someone suffering mental illness. The audiobook will be my first attempt at fiction, although to be fair I have done some fiction before mainly through blog posts.
The short story titles are as follows (titles subject to change)
- Providing Care
- Digging out of a hole
- A family Affair
- Never thought it would be me
- Angry
- Just when I needed you
- A story of Hope
- Discriminated
- View from the other side
- Communication
- Banding together
- Solitude
- Its my right
- Wellbeing
- Empowerment
- Former Carer
- Trying to make sense of it all
- Young carer
- If Only
- Until the end
Since the short stories are about providing unpaid care, expect some dark subject content in these stories. The stories might be fiction, but I did want to add some realism. Within each of the stories, there are challenging things that happen to the carers or I could say families and friends. These would be not knowning what to do when someone becomes unwell, encounters with professionals who are not carer aware, struggling with their own mental health and being neglected by health and social care.
It is unfortunate that although many carers do get some level of support, the are those out there going through the same challenges as the carers in my stories
The good news is out of 20 stories, I have finished 4 of the stories. I should pat myself on the back, because I started the project over christmas.
The first story is the main story about providing care, but seen through the carer’s eyes.
The second story is dark with some glimmers of hope when a person is trying to pick up the pieces, but not finding any answers. As the picture shows, there is a mistake as I labelled it
The third story as shown in the picture below shows how not all things are equal in caring
The fourth story regards experiences in the hospital
I am just about to start my fifth story, which is probably quite depressing, but it does open up the struggles of carers and misunderstandings concerning mental illness.
A Caring Mind 