Welcome to a blog site of former carer Matthew McKenzie from South London. I used to care for my mother who passed away this year. For close to 18 years I have been supporting her and my brothers who both have autism, but for my mother she had a difficult time with mental health. There was only so much I could do and a lot of support depended on health and social care services that were already struggling.
Author Archives: mmckenz11
Lewisham BAME MH Carer Forum May 2020
Welcome to the May update of my Lewisham BAME mental health carers forum. This is one of my 5 carer groups that focuses on the experiences of BAME carers and sometimes BAME groups suffering mental ill health. I usually run this forum from the Lewisham Branch of Bromley, Lewisham & Greenwich MIND. Due to CoronaVirus I have moved the forum online via ZOOM.
As a reminder the forum is not a support group, but a way to connect to health providers in the community. The forums focus is of course on mental health services so our local mental health trust (South London and Maudsley) engages with BAME families and carers at the forum.
Beyond Carers Week 2020
Hello everyone and fellow carers. Just a quick blog post now that Carers Week has ended. For those who do not know about Carers Week, basically it is an awareness event that looks to raise the awareness of unpaid carers throughout the week of June 8th – 14th.
Carers Week is an annual awareness campaign to celebrate and recognise the vital contribution made by the UK’s 6.5 million carers.
My view on how Carers Week 2020 went
I am not sure if many people or blogs mention views on post events. I felt Carers Week 2020 really raised the bar for Carers week 2021 due to the amount of activities, events and awareness drives from people, charities and organisations. I have been involved in quite a few carer awareness events over that week.
Study in the experiences of loneliness and isolation of MH Groups
Researchers at UCL would like to talk to people aged 18 and over to find out about their experiences during the virus outbreak, and more generally, their experiences of feeling lonely or isolated and how they may relate to experiences of mental health problems.
For more information on this study please visit their site below
Southwark MH Carers forum May 2020
Here is May’s update of the Southwark mental health carers forum. This is one of the 4 to 5 carer groups I run each month. All carer forums and support groups are run online via Zoom due to social distancing because of COVID-19. I feel families and carers still need to know what is happening with services especially when health and social care is under strain.
In attendance for the forum we had carers from Southwark and also from Lambeth since the Lambeth carers forum is not running at the moment. We were also joined by trustees of Southwark Carers, plus Southwark Healthwatch were in attendance. We were also joined by Maudsley’s NHS Southwark inpatient carer lead, plus a carer who co-runs their carer groups. The main presentation was from Bernadette Pickerell who is SLaM’s Mental Health Act Team Leader and Senior MHA Co-ordinator.
Lewisham MH Carers forum May 2020
Welcome to the month of May’s update of the Lewisham Mental Health Carer forum. This is one of the 5 carer groups I run once a month to give carers a chance to find out what is happening to health, mental health and local authority services aimed at carers.
For this month we were joined by South London and Maudsley’s Associate Medical Director Dr Zain Sadiq who is also a psychiatrist. We were also joined by Lewisam’s Wellbeing Map coordinator Tim Bradley. At the forum we had a number of carers as well as carer champions, the modern matron from SLaM’s Ladywell inpatient wards. We also had in attendance the SLaM involvement lead for Lewisham and Croydon as well as Carers Lewisham staff and a representative from POhWER mental health advocacy.
I explained the reasons for the forum being the following.
1. It can be difficult for Carers in Lewisham have an idea on MH services and influencing them.
2. MH carers need some empowerment in their role.
3. Services have suffered from cuts, carers need to act in order to support everyone.
4. There needs to be an engagement platform for carers to discuss issues.
LSE research on Carer wellbeing
Research at the London School of Economics and Political Science want to understand what impact covid19 coronavirus has on mentalhealth, wellbeing and loneliness of carers supporting people with poor mentalhealth. If you are an unpaid carer help LSE by filling in their brief
https://lse.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3ItyiAwSrT7xeTj
The survey should take about 15 minutes. All information will be treated in confidence. You can change answers until you submit the questionnaire. It has received ethical clearance from the London School of Economics and Political Science. If you have questions please contact David McDaid Email: d.mcdaid@lse.ac.uk More information at http://eufami.org/2020/04/28/covid-19/
Mental Health Awareness Week – Kindness
Welcome to a caringmindblog written by a former carer Matthew Mckenzie in South London. As of this blog’s writing it is Mental Health Awareness Week which is Hosted by the Mental Health Foundation. Mental Health Awareness Week takes place from 18-24 May 2020 and the theme this year is kindness.
The Mental Health Foundation is a charity that works to prevent and raise awareness of mental health problems.
Resilience of Carers during Covid Research
Are you an unpaid caregiver for someone with #MultipleSclerosis, #dementia, #cancer or #mentalhealth condition?
Researchers at Kings College London are recruiting UK participants aged 18+ for a 35 – 40 min online survey to better understand resilience and distress during COVID-19 pandemic.
Latest poem by Carer Elsie Cronin
‘Why’ By Elsie Cronin
Why don’t you see a Mum doing her best?
You see it differently from the rest
From your madness I take the flak
And patiently wait for you to come back
The worry you cause, the tears I cry
Just to end up asking why?
Why is it so wrong for me to care?
What is it you don’t want to share?
Be careful how you play this out
Madness or not I will shout
I have got your best interests at heart
So come on – make a start
Start to accept with grace
The love and care that I give without a trace
A trace of tiredness and frustration at your place……….
In the mental health rat race
When you come around, as you will
You may well find I’ve swallowed “the pill”
The “pill” of rejection that I receive
Each time you give it there is no reprieve
No reprieve
And so I grieve
Oh well hopefully you will reflect
On the one who sees a speck
A speck of you from long ago
That keeps on making me want to show
Show that I love you without conditions
With all my heart and soul
To you I pledge this rendition
A Caring Mind 