Welcome back to another update from Carer activist Matthew McKenzie. I have some exciting research in which carers can feedback their experiences.
Ella Rose a researcher from University College London is conducting a study focusing on the experiences of carers from ethnic minority backgrounds of inpatient mental health care in the UK. There are currently very few studies documenting the experiences of ethnic minority carers of mental health services. She hopes this study will fill an important gap in current research and help identify the specific needs of ethnic minority carers, and how services can best support them.
Participation in this study will involve a one-hour interview to discuss their experiences as carers of a loved one receiving inpatient mental health care in the UK, their views, and their support needs. She is recruiting individuals over 18 who identify as being from an ethnic minority background and who are carers for someone currently or previously admitted to inpatient mental health care within the last three years. As a thank you for their time, she will offer participants a £25 voucher.
To take part in the study please see the poster below or email Ella at ella.rose.23@ucl.ac.uk
I have great news regarding my poetry projects. I have now published the special edition of the poetry book of mental health caring.
The audiobook provides poems about the unpaid caring role, quite a few poems focus on what it is like to provide care for someone suffering mental illness.
This audiobook not only has the audio version of some of my older carer poems, but also contributions from unpaid carers around the country. Close to 3 hours of poems.
Thanks to the many carer centres supporting the project.
You can purchase the audiobook via Google Play for £2.40. Here is the screenshot below, where you can listen from your computer, or play the audiobook from your phone or tablet.
The audiobook contains over 100 poems and can be purchases from the link below.
Here is my latest blog post from my carers website. This site focuses on events, thoughts and awareness of unpaid carers, especially those who care for someone with mental illness or suffering through cancer.
For Carers Week 2024, I was back over at the Maudsley site based in the London borough of Southwark. South London & Maudsely were doing a special follow up event from their Carers conference held last year for 2023. During the conference, many carers contributed to a number of poems which has led to the a carer poetry book.
The carer poetry book event took place over at Maudsleys NHS training and events centre, The Ortus.
Over the years, I have attended many mental health and carer events, including attending meetings and engagement events. It was with great pleasure to attend a poetry book launch which was driven by carers from the boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon.
The event was opened by Gabrielle Richards who is the Head of Inclusion, Recover and Professional Head of Occupational Therapy and Allied Health Professionals at South London & Maudsley. Gabrielle also oversees Triangle of Care at the NHS mental health trust.
Gabrielle was joined by carer Faith Smith and Ann Morgan who led on the ideas for poetry inclusion from carers who attended the Family and Carers listening event
Faith and Ann read a number of poems while commenting on the poetry books development. We also heard from Rob Frowen winner of the 2017 Carer of the Year Award and Chair of Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust Service User and Carer Council.
You can also view Ann reading a poem below.
A large number of carers also took turns to read some poems including carer advocate Brenda.
We were also joined by Carer and poet Jo Lambet and myself who also promoted the importance of poetry and how carers can connect and tell their experiences through creativity. Later on during the event, I spoke about the importance of poetry and how this can help carers relate to each other while exploring their experiences of caring and sharing this with others.
I also did a spoken word section from the poetry book I released in 2023, which is being edited into a new edition to include poems from unpaid carers around the country
You can view the section of myself and Jo performing some poetry and my talk about the importance of including carers to give space to poems.
I enjoyed the carer poetry book launch event and hope the book can make history or at least show how carers over in South London can be included to experess their exprience of care via poetry.
Welcome back to another of my carer blogs during Carers Week 2024. Lots of carer engagement and awareness events are still taking place as we are midway through Carers Week.
As a Cygnet Carers network ambassador, I was proud to be invited to present on my thoughts for Carers Week and the focus as to why families, friends and carers are important to Cygnet. The event was the “National Carers, Families and Friends Network Event”. This event took place over at Cygnet Churchill on Thursday 13th June 2024.
As I entered the premises the Cygnet staff were friendly and welcoming, I felt relaxed but excited at the same time. Looking at the event agenda, we had some excellent speakers for attendees both professional and families and carers.
David Willmott who is cygnet’s Director of Nursing opened the event. David spoke about Cygnet’s passion to engage with carers, but to get it right we need to consider families and carers as the experts.
With the ideas of cygnet’s Carer lead Laura Sheridan, Cygnet has made lots of progress, but there are still many things to develop.
David spoke how important it is to develop ideas with the audience and introduced who was going to speak.
Matthew McKenzie presents the importance of Carers Week
When David introuced my session to present to the audience, I spoke about the importance of Carers Week 2024. I have been a carer most of my life regarding my two brothers, but things became immensely difficult when my mother became diagnoised with schizophrenia. For many years I cared alone for 3 people and the impact it had on me was horrendous. I still suffer the scars of unpaid caring experience, but with the support of Carers UK and Carers Trust I feel I can cope.
My caring role led to carer activism, a powerful role that helps engage with whole communities and charity organisations. I spoke how busy I was doing Carers Week and even provided a poem or two which you can see below.
Also speaking at the event was Dr Neil Churchill who is NHS England’s Director of People and Communities. Due to the election Dr Neil could not say much, but did speak about his own carer experiences and the importance of the NHS. Dr Neil also mentioned what is currently available for carers under the NHS, but things could change.
Next up to speak was Nisha Cunnane who is Cygnet head of Pharmacy Services. Nisha spent 25 years working in Various phamacy settings, including hospitals and prisons. She is passionate about patient education and empowerment, this includes caregivers as she promotes they have a pivotal role in enhancing the overall well-being of the cared for.
Nisha spoke about Empowering Carers when guiding them through medication management. She spoke about what medication management actually means and their challenges to unpaid caers.
These challenges would be carers being overwhelmed with multiple medical factors and trying to avoid the risk to potential medication errors. Spotting side effects are also very important to caregivers of those with mental illness, but it also helps to tackle communication barriers with healthcare providers.
Nisha also spoke about medication adherence and top tips for carers and families. She answered questions about medication safety and medication side effects and she also pointed out the importance of collaboration and access to information.
We then had a carers story and her focus to engage with other carers. This was Veronica Kamerling and you might have remember her from the series of carer activist interviews I am currently running.
Veronica spoke passionately about caring for her two daughters who both have an eating disorder, verconica also spoke about caring for her brother who was diagnoised with schizophrenia. Due to her lived experience and carer activism, she runs her own organisation “Eating disorders & Carers”. She has been associted with Triangle of Care for many years as Cygnet strives to embed the Triangle of care in their hospitals.
Listening to Veronica drove home the memories and experience of my own caring situation. It reminded me why I try so hard to engage and involve unpaid carers in my network and also Cygnet carer’s network.
Other speakers were Julian De Takats who is a Parent and Carer. He is also a Cygnet Expert by Experience Carer Ambassador and helps provide carer awareness training at many of Cygnet hospital sites. Julian’s talk helped remind why it is so important to involve carers in shaing services.
We also had Juliana Onwumere from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience speaking about their focus on families and carers, especially with the new online course for training carers about Caring for People with Psychosis and Schizophrenia
Unfortunately I could not stay for the full event as I was required as a judge for Harrow Carer’s Awards for 2024. Harrow carers ran their “Carers Family Fun Day” for Carers Week 2024. That is another blog for another day.
However for the National Carers, Families and Friends Network Conference, I felt Cygnet put a lot of work into presenting why they do an amazing amount of energy to set the standard of involving unpaid carers.
It is mental health awareness week 2024. The theme for this year is “Movement: moving for our mental health.”.
The charity Mental Health Foundation has been running Mental Health Awareness Week for 20 years and it continues to grow stronger in raising awareness.
Please watch my video on the importance of Mental Health Awareness week.
To help promote and celebrate mental health awareness week 2024
1. Sign-up for an active challenge event! 2. Wear a green ribbon to show everyone that you care about mental health. 3. Learn about mental health by attend events online or locally.
Mental Health is every ones business and we must recognise and support our own mental wellbeing
Did you know that national hoarding awareness week is fast approaching? The awareness week starts on Monday 13th of May, which is the same day mental health awareness week starts.
The awareness week started in 2014 and has grown each year. So the theme for this year is called “Then and Now”, which is centred around looking back at how much has changed throughout the last decade
Hoarding is a recognised mental health diagnosis. It is the excessive collection and retention of any material to the point that living space is sufficiently cluttered to preclude activities for what they are designed for.
Those who care for someone hoarding often go through forms of mental health stigma, which can often set difficult challenges in their relationship with the person hoarding.
Hoarding disorders are challenging to treat because many people who hoard frequently do not see it as a problem, or have little awareness of how it’s affecting their life or the lives of others. This can lead to families and friends struggling to maintain a relationship with the person who has the disorder.
There is much needed awareness for hoarding, so it is just by chance that a Leicester Animation Studio has launched Campaign for Animated Short Film Shedding Light on Hoarding Disorder.
Supported by the British Film Institute (BFI) NETWORK, the film will visually explore real human emotions within the context of Hoarding Disorder focusing on the relationship between a mother and her daughter.
Though the BFI NETWORK supported by the National Lottery is behind the project, Kino Bino are seeking pledges to complete the production. Their crowdfunding campaign is backed by national hoarding organisations such as Hoarding Disorder UK, Clouds End, and Hoarding Support, with Leicestershire Fire Service, academic experts, and organisations like the British Psychological Society, Age UK, and the APDO rallying behind this worthwhile film.
Welcome to an update of the Cygnet Annual Nursing Conference and awards ceremony that took place over at the National Conference Centre.
Just to let you know the perspective of the Nursing conference is from a carer’s perspective. I will not always repeat what took place, but might review its importance or my understanding of the event.
The Cygnet Nursing Conference took place on the 9th of May 2024 from 10:00 am till 4:30 pm, so the event was packed with updates, keynote speakers, Breakout Sessions and Awards along with certificate graduations.
You can also watch the video promotion of the event below.
I would just like to mention that in my carer engagement role, I have never been to a nursing conference before, so I was not sure what to expect. I was worried a lot of things would go over my head or there would be too much Jargon. This is important if involved patient and carers from expert by experience are attending professional events.
The evening before carer ambassadors and expert by experience were treated to a lovely meal at the Premier Inn hotel over in Birmingham.
I had not seen a few Cygnet carer ambassadors for a while, so it was great to connect and hear updates. With support from Cygnet Carer lead Laura Sheridan I was made to feel welcome. In fact we all were welcomed by David Wilmott who is Cygnet’s Director of Nursing. David has a strong nursing background and has a focus and passion for making nursing a special career for Cygnet staff.
I have to admit I did not pay too much attention to the Conference agenda beforehand, but to my surprise, it turned out some of the Keynote speakers were at premier inn meal. I had a chat with Stephen Jones who is the Head of nursing practice for mental health at the Royal College of Nursing. Did you know I am involved in a few RCN projects?
I also had a chat to Jane Murkin who is the Deputy Director of Safety and Improvement at NHS England.
It was great to see two professionals passionate about the nursing profession and I was interested to hear what they were going to say.
On the day of the conference the weather was pleasant and so was the atmosphere of the conference. Everyone was friendly and welcoming as they looked forward to the agenda. It was not long before we had welcome and introductions from David Wilmott who thanked those in attendance and mentioned how important it is to congratulate each other. David mentioned that it takes a lot to not only help others who are vulnerable, but also to help each other and ourselves.
We then had a welcome from Dr Tony Romero who is the CEO of Cygnet. Tony showed his support for those in attendance as he prepared staff for a special day.
Next to present from a video message was Prof Deborah Sturdy who is the Chief Nurse for Adult Social care at the Department of Health and Social Care. She also thanked those in attendance, but made note that we must join networks with people and their communities.
Stephen Jones presents
It was not long before we had our first Keynote speaker. This was Stephen Jones who I met the day before and had an interesting discussion about carer involvement.
Stephen spoke about Psychosocial Interventions in Mental Health Nursing. Interventions along with coproduction and codesign are the things I am involved in at the RCN. Stephen spoke about these very things and how these programmes are developed at the Royal College of Nursing.
Stephen spoke about those who promote these programmes at the RCN and the work they do.
He also mentioned why Mental Health Nursing is so important regarding psychosocial interventions. Stephen stressed that Psychosocial interventions are not a replacement for structured psychological therapy, medication or other evidence-based treatments, but work with and inform these treatments to provide a conprehensive approach to mental health care.
Stephen made his presentation easy to understand as he broke down the roles of mental health nursing. Stephen also spoke about the The Nursing and Midwifery Council, which is the regulator for nursing and midwifery professions in the UK. The NMC maintains a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses and nursing associates eligible to practise within the UK.
Jane Murkin NHS – Keynote Speaker
We then heard from Jane Murkin who is the deputy director of Safety and Improvement in Nursing at NHS England
Jane spoke about her reflection on nursing and delivering the best outcomes for people. She also promoted that we should consider our roles and responsibility when it comes to improving services. Jane touched on some of NHS England’s improvement approach and impact. Plus she finished up by providing an overview of the national strategic nursing priorities.
It was refreshing to hear Jane mention the importance of families, carers and patients being involved to help change systems of service delivery.
Rebecca Burgess-Dawson Presents
The third keynote speaker was Rebecca who is the National clinical lead at South West Yorkshire Parnership NHS Foundation trust.
Her presentatation was a passionate talk about mental health nursing and its overview. She challenged the audience to think closely on what mental health nursing is percived to be and why she feels cygnet has carefully thought about its identity and service when it comes to mental health nursing.
We then had a coffee break with a chance to network which then led onto how Quality Improvement helped services at one of Cygnet sites. This was presented by Rosie Hodgson-Whittle who is the Interim Hospital Manager at Cygnet Appletree.
Rosie talked about the implementation of the 7Cs Tool which aid and improve services regarding patient observations, collaboration and identifying not only the problems, but also the solutions.
Cygnet Nursing strategy
It was then back to David Wilmott who introduced Laura Sheridan and Raf Hamza on the co-production of Cygnets Nursing strategy. We heard from Raf Hamza on why lived experience should be included in developments on such strategies.
Next was more networking and lunch, where I took the time to speak to some staff and catch up with keynote speakers. I glanced through the Cygnet annual nursing conference booklet and felt the design, feel and presentation was inviting. It was easy to understand and had a professional feel to it.
Ellie Gordon presents
After lunch we heard from more keynote speakers. The first being Ellie Gordon who is the Senior Nurse for Learning disability at NHS England. Ellie talked about the importance of education and the inclusion of Nursing Associates.
Oxleas presents on Embedding Relational Security – See Think Act.
I have close links with Oxleas due to my carer forums and groups. So it was a delight to see Oxleas support the Cygnet Nursing Conference.
We got to hear from Naidoo Armoordon who is the Head of Nursing at Oxleas.
Naidoo was joined by Emma Hopkins who is the practice development nurse in the Accute & Crisis Directorate. Oxleas wanted to Showcase the transformative power of ( See Think Act ) relational secutiy knowledge and how this can be applied through a trauma informed lens.
This would be done through strong leadership within the acute inpatient setting and help enchance staff and patient well-being with a culture of excellence at Oxleas Wards.
Naidoo spoke about why such tools are needed especially when nurses face difficult challenges on the wards. As you can see from the chart below.
Emma provided a case study of a patient and how those tools produce better outcomes.
Nursing in the United states
This section was presentated by Karen Johnson who is the Chief Clinical Officer and Senior Vice Presendent in Behavioural Health at UHS. Karen was joined by Valerie Devereaux who is the Vice President of Nursing and Behavioural Health at UHS.
Cygnet is a subsidiary of Universal Health Services, which is based in the states. UHS owns and operates 400 facilities across 39 US states including Washington D.C, Puerto Rico and of course the UK. These sites include
Acute Care Hospitals Ambulatory Surgery Centers Behavioral Health Facilities Freestanding Emergency Departments
Karen spoke about the state of US health care, which included the length of stay within inpatient facilities and residential facilities. She focused on the importance of the US 2024 National Suicide Strategy and the focus on
Community-Based Suicide Prevention Treatment and Crisis Services Surveilance, Quality Improvement and Research Health Equity in Suicide Prevention
It was interesting to hear what the Nursing Trends and challenges are in the US as there seems to be similar challenges over in the states as well as in the UK.
Breakout sessions
Next we had a choice of 4 Breakout sessions where I attened 2 of those sessions
Caring for a person with Diabetes Intervention and escalation of an unwell person Role of engagement when performing observations Support and engagement in social care
I was interested in the session regarding diabetes, since my mother suffered greatly with the illness.
I remember the difficult challanges of trying to care not only for her mental health, but how her physical health was in a serious situation.
Cygnet Nursing awards
This section of the conference was one of the events I was looking forward to. I wanted to see what the nursing staff were celebrated for and how they were celebrated. You get to hear the works Cygnet Nursing staff carry out during such awards.
I was not disappointed as I watched David present awards. I heard how Julie won her award for the work she does with carers at the Cygnet Hexham site
I also observed not only the nursing awards. but also graduation certificates which was presented by Mandy ianchard who is Cygnet’s Head of Learning & Development.
Overall I enjoyed the day and felt I was not only watching the conference, but was also a part of it.
Welcome to another update of an event for carers. This blog is of the special event produced by carers for unpaid carers. The event was developed by unpaid carers Faith Smith and Annette Davis.
The point of the event was a chance for carers who care for someone unpaid to come together and showcase a talent to link carers together. This was a special event because it was produce by unpaid carers for unpaid carers. Both Annette and Faith felt carers have something to offer that can bring the community together. After viewing an exhibition, both carers felt inspired to develop an event which took some months of planning and organising.
I have known Annette and Faith a very long time and we often collaborate when there is a chance. So with the support of Carer network lead Laura Sheridan at Cygnet, we felt this would be a chance for Carers of London to learn from each other and develop confidence to share their talents.
For the first ever Positive Talents show took place at Cygnet ChurchHill hospital over in Lambeth. The location was very easy to get to, with good transport links.
There was also a good turn out as we got support from unpaid carers wanting to attend to reduce isolation and also carers who wanted to showcase their talents.
Annette and Faith opened the positive talent show with an explanation of to why carers should be given the chance to show off any skills or talents. It is just a matter of being given the chance.
We were then shown a video of a carer performing poetry. The poem was performed by Brenda Onatade who could not be present. However you can see Brenda perform her poetry below.
Next we had a video from Jo Lambert who also could not attend, however Faith gave a great talk about the video which you can see below
You can see Jo Lambert’s video called “Fairy lights of Hope” below
We then had a talk by Annette on Looking after yourself. Her talk was titled LAM “looking after ME”
As being a poet, I wanted to showcase the importance of carers recognising their talents and performed a poem called “What helps me”
I also did a learn and share session for carers to relate to the poem, which you can view below.
There was then a focus on positive wellbeing messages that were shared by the audience of carers. We all shared what was positive for our own health.
.After my poetry performance we then moved onto a comedy routine by another carer called Jo.
The routine helped destigmatize mental ill health as sometimes the only option for difficult challenges is laughter. You can see the comedy section below.
Next was a game of charades, where carers can feel welcome and join in the activities
Then next was refreshments and food along with networking. The food was prepared by Cygnet chief Titilayo
For the 2nd half of the Talent show. We had a presentation from Southwark Wellbeing hub on their focus for Black carers. There is a launch of the Black Carers Project, which I have included the poster below.
Then we have a dance section from carer Jackie Christie, where you can see the performance below
After the lovely dance show, we had another comedy routine, this time performed by Faith Smith, again the video is placed below.
Next was my 2nd poetry performance on the importance of setting a legacy.
The last two performance were led by Annette who did a few song sessions
I felt the event turned out very well since this was the first ever carer talent show. We all shared from each other and felt that we were part of something very big. Thanks for the support from the following carer centres who also helped to promote and connect carers to each other. These being Lambeth carers hub, Sutton Carers and Imago community and a special thanks to Cygnet for hosting the event for carers, plus providing food.
All who took part were awarded certificate, so well done to them.
Given the chance, carers can do some amazing things for the community. Carers can be supported to showcase their skills and talents.
A Caring Mind 