Profile

I live in Bristol with my boyfriend and we have a cat called Reggie.

Here he is as a kitten last summer and enjoying the snow back in February:

I love cooking, baking and trying new recipes (my colleagues seem to like me baking cakes for some reason!). I’m a lifelong vegetarian.

I read a lot of books and I am a member of a book club, I am currently reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles and Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker.

I support adults with mental health problems with their work, especially when their job is  causing a mental health problem or making it worse.

I speak with their manager to see if there is anything that can be done to make things better for them at work. Sometimes this is things like taking more breaks, having more opportunities to talk about things that are causing them stress or reducing/changing their working hours. There is lots that can be done to help someone at work, sometimes just making a small change can make a big difference!

Part of my role is also teaching managers about mental health so they know what to look out for when their staff are struggling and what they can do to help.

I also organise and chair something called a ‘Vocational Advice Network’, where people who work in lots of different mental health and employment based services come together to talk about what they can offer service users and we help each other by giving advice and helping others to find the best services for the people we are supporting.

Every day is different in my job, but often I will meet a service user one-to-one, sometimes at their home or we meet for a coffee and talk about how things have been for them at work and what support they need. After this, I might make some phone calls if I am working out in the community then get some lunch.

In the afternoon, I might have a meeting with someone’s employer. If this is my first meeting with them I explain what my team can do to help both them and the employee and hear about what they need help with too, then we come up with a plan. Some employers understand mental health but unfortunately not all of them do, so this meeting sometimes involves teaching them about how mental health can affect people.

If I have time at the end of the day, I head to the office and type up my notes and send some emails and make some more phone calls.