Category Archives: Event reviews

Reviews of events I have been to

Bringing the Lambeth community together for health and wellbeing.

Welcome back to another blog by carer activist Matthew McKenzie. I run many groups aimed at those caring for someone unpaid. They could be caring for someone suffering mental illness or caring for someone affected by cancer. One of the groups I run is the Joint Southwark & Lambeth mental health carers forum.

So I was delighted to attend a fun filled community event over in Lambeth.

The weather was perfect for the health event. The event focused on the Lambeth community and beyond. It was a way to bring the community together.

We all have something in common, just as we all have importance in health and wellbeing. So it was a fun afternoon where everyone could come together and learn what the borough of Lambeth if providing for the community.

The event was called “Thriving Vassall and Coldharbour Health Day”. It took place over at Wyck Gardens on the 21 July 2023 from 3pm to 7pm.

When I attended the wellbeing festival, the first thing I noticed was how everyone was enjoying themselves. There was no fussing or fighting, people were relaxing, enjoying the music, learning about health and eating the food provided.

I met up and chatted with Karen Hooper who is a carer and does so much to promote community links in Lambeth.

I then spoke to stall holders at Age UK Lambeth, Disability UK Lambeth, Kooth stall, SHARP Gallery and more.

The Wellbeing Festival provided fun for all the family. Workshops and activities to help attendees stay fit and healthy. It was great to see a focus on young people’s mental health from the Kooth stall.

We also had stalls from South London & Maudsley regarding mental wellbeing services.

Involvement and providing feedback on health services is so important. So it was great to see Lambeth Healthwatch giving advice and information at their stall.

I noticed there was Jewellery Making and Face painting for children attending as it is great for young people to get creative. There was also a bouncy castle.

There were other Stall holders including Lambeth Childhood, Active Lambeth, Primary Care Network engagement (especially from the social perscribers). We also had stall information from Moasaic Club House, Certitude, Loughborough Farm, Buzwakk Recording Studio, Big Kid Foundation, Repowering London and Lambeth Libraries.

We also had some great singing performances on the day.

With so much bringing the community together, I enjoyed my visit to the Health and Wellbeing day, everyone was friendly and many wanted to chat about their services to help the community.

A big thank you to the main organisers Anthea, at Thriving Vassall & Coldhabour (Fiveways), Surjit from Ecosystem Coldharbour and Kamika from Chips and to everyone who came to the event.

Mental Health Awareness Week 2023

Hello everyone, welcome to another blog post by carer activist and author Matthew McKenzie. To watch the video version of this blog, click the video below.

I raise awareness of those caring for someone with a mental illness. I also raise awareness regarding cancer carers. Those caring for someone with cancer can also suffer mental health due to stress, guilt, anxiety and depression. In fact everyone actually has levels of mental health. It is not just reserved for those suffering mental illness. We need to be aware and awareness events are just the thing to help with that awareness.

So from May 15 to may 21 it is Mental Health Awareness week 2023. Now this is an annual event to raise awareness of the importance of mental health.

The official theme for this year, as set by the Mental Health Foundation, is ‘anxiety’.

Mental Health Awareness Week will increase people’s awareness and understanding of anxiety by providing information on the things that can help prevent it from becoming a problem.

Anxiety disorders affect over 8 million people in the UK – that’s a little over 1 in 10 of us and there are lots of different types.

For carers as I have mentioned before, there are many things that can cause anxiety. The first is worrying about the health of the person you care for. We also need to remember that The cost of living crisis is affecting the mental health of millions.

You can Get involved this Mental Health Awareness Week by checking out Rethink mental illness, Mind, Sane, Mental Health Foundation social media and share on your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram profiles.

Bowel Cancer Awareness Month 2023

Welcome fellow carers. My name is Matthew Mckenzie and I campaign regarding unpaid carers. Most of my time I focus on those caring for someone with mental illness. However this blog is a little different, well ok a lot more different. Before I continue, feel free to watch the video version of my awareness blog

I am still focusing on unpaid carers, but more on those who care for someone with cancer. Why is that you ask? Well I run a carer’s stall at some hospitals. Those visiting someone using those hospitals drop by that stall and I often get those who care for someone with cancer. Yes, a lot do visit requesting information or just wanting to be heard.

Did you know that April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month?

Unfortunately Someone dies of bowel cancer every 30 minutes in the UK. So raising awareness of Bowel cancer is incredibly important.

Bowel cancer awareness month is an opportunity to highlight the symptoms of bowel cancer and encourage people to get tested.

In fact this type of cancer is one of the most common cancers in the UK. It is the UK’s second biggest killer from cancers and most likely to be diagnosed in people over 60.

Some of the common symptoms of bowel cancer include:

  • Bleeding from the bottom and blood in poo
  • Being easily fatigued with no obvious reason or cause
  • Pain or a lump in the tummy
  • Persistent and unexplained change in bowel habit
  • Sudden and unexplained weight loss

With these symptoms it is so important to get screened or tested for bowl cancer. This is especially important for those from ethnic groups. There is no shame being tested or talking about it.

If you are caring for someone with cancer, it can be understandable that talking about this can be difficult. Carers of those with cancer are suddenly thrown into a world of advocating, feeling guilt and stressed at what the future holds. It is important health professionals identify and listen to these types of carers.

How can we reduce the onset of Bowl cancer?

  • Eat less red meat and avoid processed meat
  • Eat more wholegrains, pulses, vegetables and fruit
  • Be a healthy body weight
  • Be more physically active
  • Drink less alcohol
  • Stop smoking.

I hope this blog has raised much needed awareness. I certainly will be covering more on those who care for someone with cancer to continue raising awareness.

Review of Kingston – Real Estate Poetry Project

Welcome back to another carer blog by Matthew McKenzie

It has been a while since I did an event review. To be honest I ought to be attending a lot more events, especially things to do with mental health awareness, carer awareness or even book conferences related to my content.

Well you are just in luck, I recently was a special guest poet at the ‘Come Rhyme with me’ series of creative writting workshops. These workshops are hosted by award winning poet Michael Groce. The event was brought together by Voluntary Action Kingston.

There often can be fast paced changes in the community, some positive and some bringing changes which causes people to be isolated. Ethnic communities can often feel isolated, so it helps that there are ways to help people use their voice in ways that are powerful.

I have always found poetry to be powerful. The creative writing workshops are held in the Cambridge Estate over in the London Borough of Kingston. I found at the event all were welcomed and the community in the borough of Kingston are talented and passionate about their experiences.

You can see my poem from the video below.

If you are from the borough of Kingston, you can book on the event below.

HSJ Awards 2021 – System Led Support for Carers

Welcome to a quick blog from carer matthew mckenzie. Just last night I went to the excellent (Health Service Journal) HSJ Awards 2021.

Taken from the HSJ website – The 41st HSJ Awards culminated in a ceremony shining a light on healthcare excellence at Evolution London. From senior leaders to front-line staff, all finalists have been a source of life-changing and much needed work sharing best practice, improving patient outcomes, and being innovators of better service.

As we all know due to the pandemic and a few other things, the NHS is under immense pressure and whatever pressure the NHS and social care suffers from, it does not take long before unpaid carers take on that added strain. Many patients and unpaid carer’s are often forgetten and although awards are necessary, it is so important to award the work done to identify, support and keep track of the many millions of unpaid carers across the country.

The entries for 2021 were very impressive and numerous as many healthcare systems took up the challenge. For those who managed to get their projects to be judged, I can say there are all winners, but unfortunately there can only be one HSJ winner.

As one of the judges for the entries I felt I learned a lot on the system led carer category. I found out how dedicated the healthcare professionals were in pairing up with stakeholders and those who support unpaid carers.

The judging process was led by Jennifer Kenward who is the senior NHS England lead for experience of care, which is a much needed role for increasing the identity of carers all around the country. You can read her blog in the link below.

Jennifer Kenwards HSJ Blog on learning from carers

Going back to the Annual HSJ Awards, it was held at the Evolution London. A massive venue which is just right for the fabulous event.

Evolution London Website

I was a bit late arriving to the event due to fighting with my bow tie, but the venue was easy to get to from pimico underground station. I was worried about the covid situation of such a large ceremony, but the way the event was run, everything was strictly monitored.

As a judge we were placed on the front tables to get an excellent view of the awards hosted by the brilliant Sue Perkins who is a great British icon and is passionate about the NHS. The food was excellent and HSJ staff looked after us very well.

I managed to greet friends and partners from Carers UK, Carers Trust and NHS England as well as fellow judges. Obviously I gave them a signed copy of my book (I never miss a trick).

The winner for our category ” System-Led Support for Carers” was “Care for the Carers” on their Intensive Support to Carers in Hastings.

The highly commended award went to West Yorkshire and Harrogate Unpaid Carers Programme, Covid-19 Vaccination Programme for Unpaid Carers.

You can find out more about Care For the Carers off their website below.

Care for the Carers website

All in all, I felt very previllaged to be included as a judge for the HSJ System-Led Support for Carers category for 2021. A very challenging year for the NHS and also challenging for unpaid carers, but entries for such awards set the standard for others to follow. I urge those across the country to take up that challenge and care for the carers.

Well done Care for the Carers, your HSJ award is historic.

CommUNITY Assembly – Lambeth Town Hall

The Black Thrive Lambeth Partnership is inviting Black individuals, organisations and allies that are striving for an equal society to join our CommUNITY Assembly on 18 September 2021 for honest discussions about how together we can achieve real change for Black communities in Lambeth.

You can book from the link below.

Register for event here

Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework at SLaM

Welcome back and thanks for stopping by. Have you ever heard of PCREF? There was a blog about it in 2019 regarding mental health inequalities for black people. Mental Health outcomes for those from the Afro-Caribbean community has been very poor for a long time. So there has to be some form of change, but how can this go about? I think it starts with the community and a way for black people to come together and query how mental health services and support the community.

The blog about health inequalities from NHS England is below.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/blog/how-can-we-have-the-same-outcomes-when-were-not-having-the-same-experiences/

South London & Maudsley short for SLaM are one of the mental health trusts looking to work with the black community on ways to support wellbeing and close the inequalities gap.

I recently made a short video as an intro into black health inequalities, although its not going to be the only video I am working on.

They are looking for members of the Black community to attend a series of events SLaM call ‘Fit for Partnership’. These events well focus on four boroughs they run services.

  • Croydon’s Black Community:  Tuesday 19 January, 6pm – 8pm:  Register here
  • For more information email:  CroydonIAG@bmeforum.org  

There will also be a Black service users and carers event, where details are below:

Four borough Service User and Carer event:  Thursday 4 February, 1pm – 3pm:  Register here 

For more information email PCREFapproach@slam.nhs.uk 

We Coproduce October forum 2020 – A Caring Mind book Section

If you have been a regular to visiting my blogsite then I am sure you have seen a few blog posts about the fantastic mental health forum over in West London. Taken from their website “We Coproduce CIC is an award winning social consultancy, owned and run by local people for people who care about the future of health care in the UK. They are commissioned to work with local communities to coproduce better and braver solutions to health and social care challenges.”

We Coproduce do a lot more than run their forums over in Hammersmith & Fulham, Hounslow and Ealing. Over many years they have worked closely with the mental health trust West London NHS trust on improving mental health for the community. For the October forum facilitated by both Jane McGrath and Natalie Louise there were many exciting speakers.

One of the speakers was myself where I talked about my new book “A Caring Mind”. You can see the talk I gave from the video below.

Matthew Mckenzie speaks about his new book – A Caring Mind

The book “A Caring Mind” shines the spotlight on the carer’s experience when caring for someone with a mental illness. Often carers stand in the background and carry on supporting their loved ones because of duty, love and just being there.

I felt it is about time I put my thoughts down in a book and We-Coproduce along with West London NHS Trust supported the work I was doing.

You can get hold of my book on Amazon either in Paperback or Ebook.

World Mental Health Day 2020

Welcome to another Blog post from Author of A Caring Mind, carer activist and former carer Matthew Mckenzie. As of today being the 10 of October 2020. It is World Mental Health day and The theme set by the World Federation for Mental Health is ‘mental health for all’.

There are many organisations and charities promoting world mental health day. If you want to see the video of this blog, then see below

World Mental Health day is about continuing to raise that much needed awareness of mental health each year. This year’s theme set by the World Federation for Mental Health is ‘mental health for all’. When we talk about Mental Health, people tend to feel mental illness is about Mental health problems and how it affects around one in four people in any given year. Those illnesses such as depression and anxiety, to rarer conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Mental health problems affect around one in four people in each year and since this has been a tough year due to lockdowns and loss that have had a huge impact on our mental health.

However we can all feel depressed, angry, stressed or frightened. This is why Mental health is everyone’s business. We cannot continue to state severe mental illness is someone elses problem to fix. Taken to the extreme, even anger can become a mental health challenge if it gets out of control.

It does not help that around 450 million people live with mental disorders that are among the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide (WHO’s World Health Report, 2001). The World Economic Forum (2018) noted that mental health disorders are on the rise in every country in the world and could cost the global economy up to $16 trillion between 2010 and 2030.

From job losses and uncertainty. We’ve all found ourselves under pressure and carers are not exempt from such pressures due to having to care and support someone suffering mental illness due to extra strain. It is important carers get a chance to support their own mental health and wellbeing, please its so important carers take a break and take time out even if only for a little while.

There still is mental health stigma leaves people feeling isolated and ashamed and not being able to access support, so this is one of the reasons for campaigning on World Mental Health day.

The good news is that you can do something for World Mental Health day and raise awareness, be it by talking about it, campaigning even if using social media or attending online events, it does not hurt to raise that awareness.

World Suicide Prevention Day 2020

Welcome to another blog post by Matthew Mckenzie former carer and expert by experience in caring for someone with a severe mental illness. I know it is a bit late, but on the 10th of September 2020 it was World Suicide Prevention day.

Suicide Prevention is so important that awareness of it should be raised at any time. I even made a video to help raise awareness of suicide prevention.

Usually I raise awareness of carers, specifically carers who care for someone with a mental illness, but every so often I do want to raise awareness of mental health. The causes of suicides are an important issue because it certainly does involve mental health.

World Suicide Prevention Day is an awareness day observed on 10 September every year. World Suicide Prevention Day aims to start the conversation about suicide and to show that recovery is possible.

There are many charities and organisations promoting world prevention suicide day. The theme for World Suicide Prevention day is of ‘connection’ and ‘Working Together to Prevent Suicide.’ The awareness campaign is organized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP)

With World Suicide Prevention day it is especially relevant because Covid-19 has affected us all in different ways and brought new or increased challenges. Many people have lost so much, be it homes, loved ones and that form of connection to society and to the world.

Having a strong sense of connection is an important part of suicide prevention. We all can form a connection with friends and family, as family is so important when caring for someone.

But still, Why is World Suicide Prevention day needed? Unfortunately 800,000 people take their own life each year. Despite the terrible statistics, one life taken is always a tragedy. There is still a lot of work for the government, health organisations and society to do. Families and carers looking after someone who may suffer from suicidal thoughts can be devastated when they loose someone to this.

Reaching out

It is often helpful for people to have an honest communication about mental ill-health support. Having such conversations have the power to increase awareness and helps to break the stigma of mental health . It is always important to remind people are not alone.

If suffering from suicide thoughts it is good to let family or trusted friends know what’s going on for you. They may be able to offer support and help keep you safe.