Matthew McKenzie FRSA BEM – Unpaid carer, author, poet and carer campaigner
On 11 November 2026, I attended South London and Maudsley’s carers listening event at ORTUS. The event brought carers and staff together to share experiences, hear about ongoing work and discuss what meaningful involvement should look like.
As an unpaid carer, author, poet and campaigner, I welcomed the opportunity to contribute through poetry, discussions and my carer information stall. There was warmth in the room, alongside a willingness to ask difficult questions about how services communicate with families and respond to their concerns.
Recognising the person behind the caring role
The opening conversations reminded us that carers bring knowledge, experience and skills that can make a real difference to someone’s care. They also highlighted that carers have their own physical and mental health needs.
One concern raised was that even carers who feel confident speaking up can struggle to get services to listen. This raises an important question: what happens to those who are less confident, unfamiliar with services or facing language barriers?
The welcome recognised the partnership between staff, service users and carers, alongside the support of Maudsley Charity in making the event possible.
We also took part in an introductory activity using the letters of our names to describe positive qualities. This offered a chance to meet one another as people and recognise the strengths we bring into the room.
At 11am, we observed the two-minute silence for Remembrance Day.
Giving carers a voice through poetry
My contribution included “Ode to Unpaid Mental Health Carers”, reflecting on the everyday experiences that can remain unseen: the phone beside the pillow, the plans rearranged and the knowledge of a loved one that existed long before their clinical notes.
Poetry can make space for experiences that are difficult to express in a formal meeting. It can acknowledge the love, frustration, uncertainty and hope that often exist together within caring.
I invited the audience to join in recognising carers and asked which lines stayed with them. Their responses returned to an important theme: carers are individuals with identities, feelings and needs of their own.
When caring becomes all-consuming, other parts of a person’s life can gradually disappear from view. We need opportunities to recognise those experiences and ask how the carer is managing.
I also shared a poem thanking NHS staff who listen, explain and treat carers as partners. Those relationships matter. Recognising the pressures on staff can sit alongside asking for better communication and support for families.
Information that carers can actually use
A major part of the event focused on the Families and Carers Information Project.
We heard about work to develop and improve ward guides, community team guides, borough information, webpages and shorter fact sheets covering topics carers have prioritised.
These resources respond to questions that many families will recognise:
Who is looking after my relative?
How do I contact the right person?
What does this service do?
What support is available to me?
Where can I raise a concern?
Presenters described extensive carer involvement in developing the resources. Some guides were being piloted, with further development and feedback still to come.
What stood out was the discussion about accessibility. Participants raised the needs of carers with hidden disabilities, neurodivergent carers, people facing language or literacy barriers, and those who cannot easily access information online.
These contributions showed why accessibility needs to be considered throughout the development process. Carers themselves need to help test whether the information works.
For me, the practical test is whether someone can find, understand and use the information when they are worried, exhausted or facing a crisis.
Learning from Heather Close
The Heather Close session offered examples of carers and service users helping to shape a service. This included involvement in the environment, information and staff recruitment.
We also heard about the developing carer support group. Topics emerging from the group included communication, medication information, understanding staff roles and managing difficult situations.
An encouraging example was the process of taking carers’ feedback into team discussions and bringing responses back to the group.
That continuing conversation matters. When carers give their time and share personal experiences, they need to know where their feedback goes, who considers it and what happens afterwards.
The session also highlighted the value of peer support. Carers may have very different circumstances, yet still recognise common experiences and offer one another understanding.
What does meaningful involvement look like?
The afternoon discussions gave participants space to explore what meaningful involvement means in practice.
Themes included feeling valued, equality with staff, regular contact, peer support, clear information and opportunities to influence change.
A useful distinction emerged between involvement in a loved one’s care and involvement in improving services.
Both matter. Families may need support to participate in care discussions, while also having knowledge that can help improve the wider service. Clear explanations are needed about the opportunities available, alongside sensitivity to what a carer is managing at the time.
Participants also raised diversity, racial equality and inclusion. Involvement needs to reach beyond those already familiar with meetings and NHS structures. We need to understand whose voices are missing and what would help them participate.
There was a clear emphasis on understanding impact. Carers want to see how their contributions influence decisions and whether improvements make a difference to people’s experiences.
Connecting the Triangle of Care and PCREF
There was also discussion about connecting the Triangle of Care with the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework, known as PCREF, with further information and opportunities for involvement to follow.
This is an area close to my heart. Through my work with carers, I continue to hear how culture, language, racism and previous experiences of services can affect trust and involvement.
For me, bringing these approaches together offers an opportunity to ask more specific questions about who is being included, whose knowledge is being recognised and how services respond to different families.
The value will be seen in carers’ everyday experiences of contact, communication and support.
My reflections on the day
Alongside taking part in the sessions, I valued the opportunity to share my books and carer information, reconnect with others and hear both encouraging examples and honest concerns.
The event created space for carers to speak about what helps, what remains difficult and what they would like to see change.
My hope is that this learning becomes visible in everyday practice: clearer information, more consistent communication and feedback that leads to improvements carers can recognise.
Listening takes commitment beyond the event itself. It means returning to the people who contributed and showing them what has happened because they spoke.
Thank you to the organisers, Maudsley Charity, the staff who contributed and every carer who made time to share their experience.
By Matthew McKenzie – Chair, National Ethnic Mental Health Carers Forum
Welcome to my October update from the National Ethnic Mental Health Carers Forum. I am Matthew McKenzie, and I chair this forum to give unpaid mental health carers from ethnic minority communities a space to share experiences, question services and connect with people working to improve care.
Our meeting on Friday 30 October brought together presentations and discussion about racial inequalities, the wellbeing of unpaid carers, and the difficulties families face when trying to secure appropriate mental health support.
We heard from Tracy Bignall from the Race Equality Foundation and carer campaigner Agi, who presented findings from a substantial piece of work with carers in East Sussex. Their presentations approached change from different directions: challenging structural racism across institutions, and gathering carers’ experiences to press for improvements within local services.
Throughout the meeting, a shared concern emerged. Carers are often expected to hold care together, yet their knowledge, health and support needs can receive too little attention.
Tracy Bignall – Race Equality, Unpaid Caring and Mental Wellbeing
Tracy Bignall, Director of Policy Engagement at the Race Equality Foundation, introduced the organisation’s work to improve experiences and outcomes for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
She explained that the Foundation works through research, evidence, practical interventions and partnerships to challenge discrimination and disadvantage. Its work extends across health inequalities, family support and other areas affecting people’s lives.
For this forum, Tracy focused on the relationship between unpaid caring, ethnicity and mental wellbeing. She highlighted the pressures caring can place on employment, household finances, physical health and emotional wellbeing. These pressures can become particularly demanding for people balancing caring with paid work, raising children or supporting ageing parents.
Recognising yourself as a carer
An important part of Tracy’s presentation concerned who identifies with the word “carer”.
For some families, supporting a relative is understood primarily as a family responsibility. People may describe themselves as a parent, partner, sibling or adult child without recognising that they are also providing unpaid care.
Language and cultural expectations can influence this recognition. The term “carer” may not translate easily into someone’s understanding of their role, and seeking help may feel unfamiliar or uncomfortable.
This matters because people who do not identify as carers may miss information, assessments, peer support or other assistance. Services need to explain what caring means in ways that connect with people’s everyday lives.
Racism, financial pressure and trust in services
Tracy explained that carers’ wellbeing must be understood within the wider circumstances of their lives.
Financial pressure can reduce opportunities to meet friends, enjoy hobbies or take part in activities that support mental wellbeing. For someone already carrying substantial caring responsibilities, losing those opportunities can deepen isolation.
She also discussed the cumulative impact of racism and discrimination across education, employment, healthcare and later life. These experiences can affect mental wellbeing and influence whether people feel safe approaching services.
Where communities have experienced discriminatory treatment, encouraging people to seek support requires more than providing information. Services must address the experiences that have damaged trust.
Moving towards structural change
Tracy described the Foundation’s work through the London Anti-Racism Collaboration for Health programme, which I had previously contributed to.
The programme brought together partners from the NHS, public health, local government, social care, voluntary organisations and communities. Its purpose was to help institutions take an active anti-racist approach to health inequalities, including examining policies, commissioning and workforce practices.
She also discussed work developing recommendations on structural racism and the wider determinants of health. Housing, the environment and other conditions shape people’s wellbeing, so improving health requires action beyond healthcare appointments.
Tracy then introduced a five-year programme developing anti-racist collaboratives in selected areas. A central feature is the involvement of people with lived experience in identifying priorities and shaping decisions.
The programme creates opportunities for communities and organisations to use evidence, test approaches and share learning. Support for unpaid carers could become a focus where communities identify it as a local priority.
Discussion Following Tracy’s Presentation – Accessibility, Culture and Meaningful Co-production
The discussion brought Tracy’s presentation into contact with the practical concerns carers encounter.
Older carers and isolation
Members raised the needs of older carers who are managing their own health conditions or mobility difficulties while supporting someone else.
There was particular concern about isolation during winter and about support that assumes everyone can travel or participate online.
Tracy clarified that the Foundation primarily works through research, policy, partnerships and support for organisations, rather than providing a general frontline carers service. She described previous work supporting organisations assisting older people and families affected by dementia, including efforts to help smaller community organisations access funding.
The exchange highlighted the importance of sustaining trusted local organisations that already have relationships with carers.
Accessible information requires more than translation
Members questioned whether written translations are enough to make information accessible.
Speaking a language does not necessarily mean someone can comfortably read it. Equally, speaking conversational English does not mean someone can understand a complex letter about care.
The discussion identified a need for different formats, including:
Plain language and Easy Read information.
Pictures and visual explanations.
Spoken information and short videos.
British Sign Language and appropriate interpreting support.
Clear explanations of available services and how to access them.
Tracy described the Foundation’s use of different formats and work developing information about access to interpreting support within the NHS.
A recurring concern was that people cannot use support they have never been told exists. Accessibility therefore includes how services explain and promote what is available.
Cultural needs and disabled parent carers
Members described situations in which carers felt their cultural needs were poorly understood or dismissed.
Concerns included preferences around intimate personal care, assumptions about family responsibilities, and the experiences of disabled people who also care for someone else.
The discussion challenged the idea that receiving support for your own disability prevents you from being a carer. People can occupy both roles, and services need to understand the whole family situation.
Tracy acknowledged the difficulties and emphasised the importance of personalised care, informed challenge and working through trusted community organisations.
Co-production must influence decisions
Another important question concerned how to make co-production work in practice.
Tracy described an anti-racist co-production resource being developed with partners. She also highlighted a familiar tension: communities may explain clearly how information should be presented, only for institutions to favour their established wording and processes.
The discussion reinforced that asking people to contribute is only part of co-production. Organisations must be willing to give those contributions weight and change their approach.
For carers, this means being able to see how their involvement has affected decisions, communication or care.
Agi – Turning East Sussex Carers’ Experiences into Evidence for Change
Agi presented findings from a report developed through the experiences of unpaid carers supporting adults with serious mental illness in East Sussex.
She spoke about her own long experience of caring and how attending a carers group helped her recognise that role. Through those meetings, she repeatedly heard similar concerns about communication, crisis support, exclusion and difficulties navigating services.
The report grew from a desire to bring those experiences together and present them to the local mental health trust as evidence requiring a response.
The work used a questionnaire containing 15 rated questions and two open-ended questions exploring carers’ concerns and suggestions. Agi described contributions from 71 carers supporting around 80 people.
These were findings from a particular group of respondents. However, many of the issues strongly resonated with those attending our national forum.
Long-term caring and complex responsibilities
Agi described a respondent group containing many women, older carers and people who had been caring for more than 15 years. Many supported adult children.
The report also highlighted complex needs, multiple diagnoses and the additional demands placed on people caring for more than one person.
These findings raised questions about how services assess the scale of someone’s caring responsibilities. Supporting one relative can already involve substantial work; caring for several people can leave very little space for the carer’s own health and wellbeing.
Responsibility without sufficient involvement
A central finding was that carers often felt they carried excessive responsibility while receiving limited professional support.
Respondents described having to advocate repeatedly to secure care, while not always feeling listened to or respected.
This is a serious tension within mental health care. Families may be relied upon to notice deterioration, manage difficulties at home and support recovery, yet struggle to be included when decisions are made.
Agi’s recommendations called for stronger partnership with carers, including practical implementation of the Triangle of Care.
Communication and information sharing
Communication emerged as a major area of concern.
Agi reported that 86% of respondents said they were informed about decisions, meetings or services only sometimes or not at all.
Carers wanted clearer, more consistent communication between teams and with families. They also wanted timely responses, accessible information and less jargon.
Poor communication places additional work on carers. They may have to chase updates, repeat information and work out which service is responsible, while also supporting someone who is unwell.
Consent and confidentiality
The report highlighted the stress created when consent and confidentiality are applied rigidly, particularly during crises or inpatient care.
Agi called for better staff training and clearer communication about what can be shared and how carers can contribute.
An important point in her presentation was that restrictions on disclosing information should not prevent staff from listening to information carers need to provide.
Families may hold essential knowledge about changes in behaviour, previous treatment, medication difficulties or emerging risks. A meaningful partnership needs a reliable route for that information to reach the care team.
Continuity and the importance of care coordination
Agi reported that 90% of respondents felt the person they supported had received insufficient care, while 69% said the person had no care coordinator.
She described continuity as one of the report’s strongest themes. Carers whose relatives had a care coordinator reported better experiences, and the report called for stronger coordination across services.
The value of a coordinator was explained in practical terms: someone who knows the person, understands the family context, follows up concerns and helps connect different parts of the system.
For people who find it difficult to engage with unfamiliar professionals, a trusted and consistent relationship can be particularly important.
Crisis support when families need it most
Agi described concerns about reaching crisis services, lengthy waits and the suitability of busy emergency departments for people experiencing severe mental distress.
Carers wanted responsive support outside normal working hours, clearer routes to help and more home-based interventions where appropriate.
The report also raised concerns about suicide prevention, aftercare and whether plans developed within services were reaching families in a useful form.
The question running through this section was straightforward: when a family reaches crisis point, can they obtain timely help that responds to the situation they are facing?
A broader approach to care and recovery
The report called for more individualised, therapeutic and holistic care.
Carers wanted greater attention to family work, psychological support, housing, financial advice, meaningful activities and complex or neurodiverse needs.
Agi also explained that the existence of a community activity or service does not guarantee that someone can use it. A person may need sustained support and a trusting relationship before they feel able to participate.
Recommendations therefore need to address the steps between offering a service and enabling someone to benefit from it.
Taking the findings to decision-makers
Agi described presenting the report to senior leaders and developing further conversations with the trust, including its Patient Advice and Liaison Service.
She acknowledged that learning how to work with institutional structures and constraints takes time. Her aim remained to secure practical improvements that carers and the people they support could experience.
The report offered a way to move repeated concerns from individual conversations into a collective account that services could examine and respond to.
Discussion Following Agi’s Presentation – Racial Trauma, Diagnosis and Advocacy
Members recognised many of the report’s findings and explored where further attention was needed.
Racial trauma must be explicitly recognised
The discussion raised the importance of trauma-informed care that recognises racism and racial trauma.
Members described how racial inequality, Islamophobia, disability-related barriers and gender could interact with the difficulties already identified in the report.
Agi acknowledged that the largely White respondent group meant racial inequalities had not emerged as a major distinct theme. She explained that trauma-informed support featured in the report, while recognising the need to give racial experiences greater attention.
For our forum, this was an important distinction. A general account of poor care may capture some shared experiences while still missing the specific barriers faced by ethnic minority families.
Late diagnosis and lack of diagnosis
Members also raised concerns about late diagnosis and situations where people remain without a diagnosis despite substantial difficulties.
Families can spend long periods providing support while struggling to secure assessment, recognition or an appropriate response.
The discussion highlighted the uncertainty and exhaustion this creates. Caring responsibilities continue even when a clear pathway into services has not been established.
Agi recognised this as an issue requiring further attention, although it had not been fully captured by the questionnaire.
The role of advocacy
An advocacy contribution to the discussion explored how independent support can help people understand options, raise concerns and challenge decisions.
Members considered advocacy in relation to hospital care, community services, assessments and complaints. There was also interest in further information or training so carers could better understand different forms of advocacy.
The discussion showed that awareness alone is insufficient. People need to know which service is relevant, how to contact it and what support it can provide in their circumstances.
There was particular concern that carers’ perspectives should remain visible in conversations about advocacy and mental health reform.
Planning ahead and recording preferences
Advance choice statements and planning during periods when someone feels able to participate were also discussed.
Examples included recording preferences about family involvement, treatment concerns and cultural needs. Hair care, food and personal care were raised as practical aspects of dignity that can easily be overlooked.
However, members also explained why planning ahead can be difficult. Someone experiencing persistent or recurring distress may have limited opportunities to engage with paperwork or unfamiliar professionals.
This brought the conversation back to continuity. Families may need help from a trusted professional to make planning possible and revisit it over time.
Trust connects people to support
One of the strongest points in the discussion was that numerous available services can still feel inaccessible.
A person experiencing psychosis or severe distress may find it difficult to trust new professionals or engage with another referral. Carers may then be expected to bridge every gap.
Members described the need for consistent relationships that help connect the person, family and different services.
Advocacy, care coordination and community support can each contribute. Their usefulness depends partly on whether the person can access them and whether someone helps make those connections.
Matthew McKenzie – Reflections on Partnership, Consent and Carers’ Relationships
As chair, I was struck by how closely the two presentations connected.
Tracy’s presentation asked us to consider the structures that produce and sustain racial inequalities. Agi’s presentation showed how carers can gather evidence of everyday service difficulties and use it to seek change.
Both made clear that listening needs to lead somewhere.
During the closing discussion, I reflected on the pressure that consent difficulties can place on the relationship between a carer and the person they support.
A carer may be trying to obtain urgent help while also preserving a relationship built over many years. Repeatedly having to intervene can create strain, particularly if the person experiences the carer as part of an unwanted service response.
Services need to recognise that relationship as an essential part of the situation. Carers should receive clear information about available support, opportunities for planning and how concerns can be communicated. These conversations also need revisiting as circumstances change.
There was considerable interest in returning to consent, confidentiality, advocacy and advance planning at a future forum.
The depth of discussion meant that we ran beyond our planned time and could not hear all the scheduled contributions. I am grateful to our speakers and everyone who contributed their experience, questions and ideas.
Continuing the Work
October’s forum reinforced the need for racial equality work and carer involvement to remain closely connected.
Carers need accessible information, culturally responsive support, reliable communication and recognition of their own wellbeing. People receiving care need relationships and services that recognise their individual circumstances, preferences and aspirations.
The meeting also demonstrated the value of bringing national policy work and local carer evidence into the same space. Each can strengthen the other, helping us ask more precise questions about what needs to change and how progress will be recognised.
Thank you to Tracy Bignall and Agi for sharing their work, and to everyone who helped make this such a thoughtful discussion.
I will continue using the National Ethnic Mental Health Carers Forum to bring these experiences together, encourage challenge and keep attention on the changes that matter to carers and their families.
By Matthew McKenzie, Cygnet PCREF Carer Lead and Carer Ambassador
On 1 October 2026, I attended Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust’s Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) Community Event at St Thomas Centre in Manchester.
I attended in my role as Cygnet’s PCREF Carer Lead and Carer Ambassador, sharing Cygnet carer information alongside wider resources on the Triangle of Care and carer voices. I wanted to build relationships, learn from the discussions and keep the experiences of unpaid carers visible within conversations about racial inequality in mental health care, although at times i will support events as Triangle of Care ambassador.
As I continue developing my poetry collection Unpaid, Unseen and Yet Unbroken: Poetry about Ethnic Mental Health Carers, I wanted to share another poem from the collection called Language as Comfort.
This is Poem 30 and explores something that can easily be overlooked when we talk about involvement in mental health services: the comfort and belonging that can come from being able to communicate in your own language.
Watch the poem below.
For many ethnic minority carers, language is about much more than translating individual words. Our mother tongue can be connected to family, culture, identity, memory and a feeling of safety.
When language becomes part of carer inclusion
Language barriers can affect how confidently carers participate in assessments, consultations and discussions about the person they support.
This is why one part of the poem asks services to record a carer’s language needs:
A carer should not have to start again at every appointment, repeatedly explaining how they need information to be communicated.
This connects strongly with the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF). If we want meaningful involvement from diverse communities, we need to think about whether our usual ways of communicating actually enable people to participate.
The poem ends with the idea of language helping someone to “break free from this cage”.
For me, that is the central message of Language as Comfort. Being understood can create confidence. Being able to communicate can create involvement. And recognising someone’s language can help create a sense of belonging.
Language should not be another barrier between carers and mental health services.
It can instead become part of the bridge.
Poem 30 from the developing collection Unpaid, Unseen and Yet Unbroken: Poetry about Ethnic Mental Health Carers.
By Matthew McKenzie – Chair of the Greenwich Mental Health Carers Forum
Welcome to the September update of the Greenwich Mental Health Carers Forum, held on Tuesday 29 September 2026.
This month, we welcomed representatives from Greenwich Carers Centre, the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Healthwatch Greenwich and Greenwich Mental Health Hub, alongside unpaid carers.
Our discussion explored the future of carer support in Greenwich, difficulties accessing respite, support available through the Mental Health Hub, and how carers’ feedback can influence services.
As I continue developing my poetry collection Unpaid, Unseen and Yet Unbroken: Poetry about Ethnic Mental Health Carers, I wanted to share another poem from the collection called Fear Has Roots.
The poem explores something I feel mental health services need to understand more deeply: mistrust does not always begin with the person standing in front of you.
Sometimes it has a history.
A carer may have experienced years of being dismissed, misunderstood or having their concerns minimised. They may have watched other carers from their community struggle to be heard. Experiences of discrimination can also travel through families and communities, influencing how safe people feel when approaching services.
By Matthew McKenzie, Co-Facilitator – South West London Mental Health Carers Forum
Our September forum brought carers together with Nisha from the South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust Recovery College.
We explored the courses available to carers, how to join them, and a question that matters well beyond the college: what happens when a carer still needs support after a time-limited service ends?
By Matthew McKenzie – Ealing Carers Poetry Group facilitator
At our September Ealing Carers Poetry Group, we tried something different: bringing drawing and poetry together. I invited carers to sketch something simple, notice the words and feelings it brought to mind, and then write as though the picture could speak.
There was no expectation to be an artist or an experienced poet. A few lines on paper were enough. What mattered was giving carers room to express something important to them.
Think Tenacity Academy CIC is hosting another important Making Time for Black Mental Health event in London.
The free racial trauma seminar will take place on:
Wednesday 23 September 2026 3:00 pm–9:00 pm Cottons Shoreditch, 321 Old Street, London EC1V 9LE
The event will provide a culturally informed space to explore racial trauma, mental health and wellbeing within Black communities. It will also create opportunities for people with lived experience, carers, professionals and community organisations to connect and learn from one another.
I attended a previous Making Time for Black Mental Health event and saw how valuable these community-led spaces can be. They enable conversations about race and mental health to take place in an environment where people feel understood, represented and supported.
As a lived experience Black mental health carer and advocate, I know that racial trauma can affect not only individuals but also families and unpaid carers. We need more culturally responsive spaces that recognise these experiences and make it easier to discuss mental health without fear, judgement or stigma.
The event is free to attend, but capacity is limited to approximately 45 places, so early booking is strongly recommended.
A related Racial Trauma Group Support event is also advertised for Thursday 1 October in Notting Hill.
By Matthew McKenzie – Carer Activist and Carer Advocate
On 8 September 2026, I had the honour of attending the DUALITY event at King’s College London, held at Bush House.
The event was a research and public/community engagement event connected to the INTERCEPTION study, based in King’s Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, within the School of Global Affairs / Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy.
There was a packed agenda, which I have shown below.
Registration, refreshments and photo exhibition — Attendees arrived, had refreshments and had an opportunity to look around the community photography exhibition.
Welcome and introduction to DUALITY — The organisers introduced the event and its focus on ageing, ethnicity, health and experiences of living with multiple long-term conditions.
Research Panel: Ethnicity, Ageing and Health — Researchers discussed work exploring inequalities and experiences at the intersection of ethnicity, ageing, health and multiple long-term conditions.
King’s Sport & Wellness energiser — Attendees were invited to take part in accessible seated stretches and movement exercises.
Human Library — Attendees could “borrow” Living Books for short conversations, hearing personal stories intended to build understanding, foster empathy and challenge assumptions. My Living Book was “The Carer They Didn’t See.”
Community information booths — Organisations and community representatives provided information and resources. This was also where I supported the Carers UK stall.
DUALITY Photography Exhibition — Photographs used visual storytelling to explore support, health, ageing and lived experience. My photograph “The Carer They Didn’t See” was included in the exhibition.
Photography Competition Awards — Winners of the DUALITY Photography Competition were announced, with “The Carer They Didn’t See” selected as one of the winning entries.
Creative performance — The programme included a creative lived-experience performance exploring identity, Caribbean heritage, racism, family, memory and culture.
Keeping Fit with Multiple Long-Term Conditions — This discussion brought professional and lived-experience perspectives together to explore chronic conditions, exercise, confidence and wellbeing.
Dinner and networking — The evening concluded with food and an opportunity for attendees, researchers, community groups and people with lived experience to connect.
This was quite a different event for me. I have attended many conferences, workshops and involvement events over the years as an unpaid carer, carer advocate and speaker. This time, however, I wasn’t simply attending or presenting.
