My post for World Suicide Prevention day 2015

matthew mckenzieSorry I have not blogged for a while since as with many mental health carers, I am currently caring in crisis. It can be so difficult, but when a loved one has to be placed in a mental health unit, then other things need to be placed on hold.

As of this blog post, I am one of those mental health carers trying to keep things stable while recovery for my loved one is vital.

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Don’t be pushed away as a Mental Health carer

20141107_143004_2For those who are caring for someone suffering mental health problems, be it addictions, a form of psychosis, Compulsive disorders, serve depression and so on. This blog post is mainly for you.

As mental health carers we are often on the border line. If you are a mental health carer, you want to do what is right for whoever you care for. Sometimes Mental Health carers can find themselves being pushed out. Sometimes mental health carers are left being isolated. Sometimes mental health carers are ignored or bullied.

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The El Camino review

Welcome back to another one of my blog posts. This time my post is going to be on another event I attended some time ago. I had actually meant to write up about my experience at this event much sooner, but unfortunately I fell unwell due to a nasty cold. However never mind about that, I feel much better now and to be honest one of the reasons I felt a lot better was my experience at the El Camino performance provide by the Alchemy Project.

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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

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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.