Author Archives: mmckenz11

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About mmckenz11

IT Officer for London School of Osteopathy and a Carer representative for Maudsley. As you can see, I have many interests shown off my blog. I hope to keep it updated with posts and more things to come soon.

Carers networking – the reasons why its important

Matthew McKenzie copyThanks for visiting my mental health carers blog. Sorry to not have blogged for a while since I have only managed to get myself a horrible cold, although I have now recovered. I thought to blog about networking and if you have gone through my other posts, you would have realised that I attend many events especially mental health and carer events. My emphasis is that carers should try to avoid being isolated, which is one of the most unfortunate things to happen to a carer.

If you do not know already a carer is someone who takes time out to carer for someone perhaps a family, friend or neighbour. Carers most often do not do this out of choice, carers hate to see their loved ones suffer if they feel support is lacking for whoever they are looking after. There are of course many other reasons why people, families and communities feel compelled to care, but I want to save that for another blog.

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My visit to the Lewisham Peoples Day 2015

Every summer the London Borough of Lewisham holds its Lewisham Peoples day.  The festival takes place over at Mountsfield Park and lasts most of the day.

So for Lewisham Peoples day 2015, I wanted to try and blog about the festival, although mainly about the Mental Health and Well-Being angle, which is what I was interested in.

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As a member of the Lewisham Mental Health Connection, I spent some time at their stall talking to staff and volunteers.  The weather was lovely, I did not notice any trouble and people were friendly.  It was a great day out, but I coming from a mental health and well-being background, it was not long before I checked out the other stalls at the festival.

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The Arts and Addiction debate : Twelve

20141107_143004_2Welcome to another of my mental health blog posts. Every now and then I attend events regarding mental health, carer awareness, psychology or psychiatry field or just general health events. However although I enjoy attending such lovely events, I really enjoy events, presentations or debates on Art.

I admit that I am not an artist myself although I am creative, I am certainly not an Art critique either, but then when attending art events, I feel my lack of knowledge can be a good thing, because I have so much to gain and much to learn and enjoy.

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Croydons Hear Us Open Forum July 2015

Thanks for checking out my blog post on mental health updates, reviews and summaries.  Even though I am a carer from Lewisham, I am involved in the Mental Health Trust that provides services in South / South East London, although I do admit I sometimes wander away from South London and sometimes head to other boroughs.

As usual I tend to visit the borough of Croydon to get updates and also raise questions concerning mental health services in that area.  I took the time to review Hear Us (Mental Health Service User Project) open forum.

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The biology of emotions – Lecture summary and review.

Its time for another blog post summary off an audio lecture. This latest audio lecture is from Professor Jason M. Satterfield who is a Professor of Clinical Medicine and also Director of Social and Behavioural Sciences. He works at the
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Prof Jason

Professor Jason M. Satterfield

The audio lecture comes from a course called “Mind-Body Medicine The New Science of Optimal Health”. This course heavily links the biology to psychology, although it still centres quite a lot on psychology field. The particular lecture of
interest is lecture 10 – Agony and ecstasy. Unfortunately, this lecture can be very challenging, but as usual the best thing about audio lectures is that the listener can always play the lecture again and again.

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Some journeys are fun in the dark

20150620_234208Welcome to another blog post by Matthew Mckenzie a Carer from the London borough of Lewisham. For this blog post, I want to write about a fun event I attended. This event was a walk, which took place on the 20th of June starting late at night till the 21st on sunday morning. The event was a fun filled, healthy and educational.

This walk I took part in was called the Largactyl Midnight Summer Solastice walk, which usually lasts around 5 hours. This walk was held by Cooltan Arts. Cooltan Arts is an Arts and Mental Health Charity based in London and they have been doing walks around the city for around 6 or 7 years. The walks are free to join, but donations are welcome.

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Video List of Influential Psychologists

psychology

Welcome back to another of my blog posts.  I thought for once it would be nice to raise awareness of those who have contributed to psychology.  I have created a video showing a list of famous Psychologists, although some on that list have contributed to psychiatry.

As with all lists, I expect some people to disagree with the list and to be honest the list helps to raise discussions on the field of psychology.  Some on this list are even considered controversial, but all on this list have influenced the field of psychology.

I hope you enjoy.

Carers Week 2015 – Building carer friendly communities

Matthew Mckenzie (2)This blog post centres on carers week 2015, which runs from 8-14 of June. Carers week occurs each year raising awareness of carers or care givers. Carers week in the UK also has many supporters and collaborators ranging from CarersUK, Carerstrust, Macmillian Cancer support, AgeUK, Sainsbury and so on.

If you ever happen to visit the Carers Week website, feel free to make a pledge on
their pledge wall.

The cost of caring

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There are many carers and organisations that have contributed to carers week
2015, I as a mental health carer I feel I should at least add some of my own views.
Interestingly enough I have noticed that the theme of Carers Week 2015 is on building carer friendly communities and of course this is a good thing. There are in the UK around 6.5 million carers. It is a fact that Carers provide help, support and care not only to family members, but also to close friends or neighbours. Without that much needed support from carers in the UK, then the UK’s National Health Service would collapse.

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Fragmentary – Artist Talks event Summary and review

Welcome to another of my blog posts on mental health.  It has been a while since I have attended any art events.  So I thought that I should pop over to North London to visit the Camden Health Centre in order to attend an event called Fragmentary. This event was promoted by the Free Space Gallery.

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If you prefer, you can watch the video version of the blog.

The Free Space Gallery promotes health and well – being through the arts using their prominent position within the Kentish Town Health Centre and Queens Crescent Practice.  Please check out their site at http://freespacegallery.org/.

kentish town

So going back to the 5th of June 2015, what exciting art presentations was I expecting to hear and view?  Well before I continue, this event was called “Artist talks” and was presented by Fragmentary, which I ll also explain its website called fragmentary.org. Now this site helps to showcase artists work through the view of mental health, especially using photography as the form of creativity.  The website is at fragmentary.org

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Coaching Conversation Skills for Carers

Matthew MckenzieEver since I became a carer years ago for a close relative, I had soon begun to realise that they were not the same person I communicated to when they were well. If there is one major thing mental illness can take away from someone, it is their ability to communicate what is important to them. When a family member or carer has to step in to continue dialogue with their loved one, things can become heated, confused or just down right difficult.

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