There are many cumbersome ways to kill a man. You can make him carry a plank of wood to the top of a hill and nail him to it. To do this properly you require a crowd of people wearing sandals, a cock that crows, a cloak to dissect, a sponge, some vinegar and one man to hammer the nails… Read More
We need to talk about Training
As I look back over my career in Learning and Development, training has been a large part of it. Induction training, mandatory training, clinical training; training on mental health, substance misuse, self harming and suicidal behaviour, the list goes on. I believe that can comfortably say that I have developed into a confident and comfortable trainer. I also have the… Read More
The Three Silences of Depression
Longfellow’s poem ‘The Three Silences of Molinos’ states “Three Silences there are: the first of speech, the second of desire, the third of thought;..”, could have been easily written to describe depression. Depression is a thief of the soul, depriving the individual of the words that they could communicate their feelings, their fears and their anxieties; robbing them of the… Read More
Imagery, phenomenology and paradigms.
I am involved in a cooperative piece of work at the moment which included developing a set of presentations on Mental Health. As my background is in mental health I am well qualified and experienced to do so and as I am also a qualified teacher and trainer also well able to develop a good slide set. After completing the… Read More
Science versus Opinion
It is interesting how you can so easily look up ‘facts’ nowadays. I was doing some background research the other day and came across an article in The Independent Newspaper stating that ‘exercise may speed up symptoms of dementia’ looking through their on-line pages I came across another article from December 2017 saying ‘exercise can decrease the symptoms’. The same… Read More
Living in a glass bottle!
For many individuals who have mental health issues life can be like living in a glass bottle. A glass bottle is fragile, glass distorts how a person sees and how they are seen. Broken glass cuts, it pierces, it hurts and so people live a life that seeks to stop the glass being broken. Or they get to a point… Read More
Is your training provision the right one for you?
Yes I am being a little selfish, and yes I would really like it if you used Train for Care as your provider. However you may be very happy with the one you are using, so why change what isn’t broken? If you are thinking about changing then asking yourself the following questions may help you out: Is your provider… Read More
Developing a simple and effective Mental Health assessment tool
My background is in Mental Health, having worked in most areas, acute, children’s & adolescent, elderly as well as over twenty years in Forensic Mental Health, I feel I have the clinical nous to talk about mental health assessment. So what has prompted me to write a ‘Blog’ about mental health assessment? Simply this, I have just adapted a mental… Read More
Reminiscence
I have a confession, I do not have anything against Vera Lynn at all. There you go it is out of my system, I can move on now! What I have got an issue with is that of peoples not understanding an individual’s cultural references. The amount of times I have visited Care Homes Jeremy Kyle on a muted TV… Read More
Mental Health
Mental health!! There is a lot of talk about mental health and yet in general, speaking from a Mental Health Professionals point of view, there is still a great deal of confusion and ignorance about the subject. The subject is a large and complex one that covers a range of other subjects within it, each equally complex in its own… Read More