"Community mental health"

After our son disappeared in January of 2020 I found myself at rock bottom. Blaming myself for not noticing that he was unhappy and had been struggling for a while. I had made a plan to end my life. In my head I was not a good mother so why would I want to stay alive.

The only thing that kept me going was my immediate family.

Scroll forward a few months of waiting on the list to see someone, I was assigned Helen as my CPN. I felt at ease with her instantly. She listened patiently giving her view when she felt it was needed. I can honestly say she is a friend not just my CPN. She helped me learn mechanisms to help me cope on the dark days. Encouraged me to do some courses with the Recovery College, something else that I have found extremely helpful as I continue to recover from my breakdown.

The support Helen has given has helped me feel a little more confident in the fact I will get better, I just need to keep working at it. Now Helen has moved on to pastures new and I wish her every success in her new position. I just had to shout it to the whole of the trust how amazing she is at her job.

I feel a lot of the time those who are out doing the community visits might be very much maligned and forgotten about by their line managers, so would encourage them all to look at their teams and give them continual praise. They are the ones out there taking all the flak that is thrown at them

All that remains for me to say is THANKYOU Helen, for everything!