By Pam Abbott, Coordinator of Nottingham Mental Health Awareness Weeks
When I think back throughout my life a sense of belonging to some kind of community has always been a part of who I am. From the communities I experienced as a child, especially when staying at my grandparents who lived in a small terrace house in Hyson Green, surrounded by friends and neighbours who often converged outside on doorsteps or in communal back yards talking, laughing, crying, arguing, but always there for one another! Then there was the community of my friends and peer groups while growing up through my teenage years, these groups were a mutual support system that helped many of us during some challenging and tricky growing up experiences!
The warmth and security provided during these times enabled me to view the world as a safe and predictable place.
My career has been varied over the past many years (no, I’m not going to put in an actual number!!) consisting of working behind many bars, to becoming a social worker, as well as the odd labouring job, among others. What all these roles have in common is connection and communication, the requirement to enable another person to feel heard and seen, whether that being in the hustle and bustle of a public space or in the quietness of a person’s own home.
My journey into social work came from my experiences and love of voluntary work. Again, there was always a community aspect to the volunteer roles I did. I became involved in my local adventure playground back in the days when adventure play was a big part of inner city spaces, providing fun, support, and opportunities to children and young people to feel connected to their local areas. I also volunteered at the local community centre running mother and toddler groups, welfare rights sessions, and women’s support groups, and I can honestly say that the things I saw and learnt during this time have stayed with me throughout my personal and professional life.
For the past 26 years I have worked at Framework progressing gradually to managing 24hr accommodation services for people experiencing high levels of mental health distress. Many of the people we work with haven’t had the opportunity to belong to caring communities during their early lives, often leading to feelings of abandonment and loss which are exacerbated by cuts to support services across our communities, increasing feelings of isolation, loneliness and exclusion from society at large. We worked hard to create services where people could belong, where people could feel seen and heard, and most importantly be validated as valuable human beings. My role has changed from that time, and I now deliver training to staff across our services as well as social work students, and volunteers. This has given me the opportunity to embed the intrinsic values of compassion, kindness, and integrity into our working practice therefore enabling the people we work with to feel a sense of worth and belonging. 24
During this time, I first met Rosemary Renouf in 2001 and my journey with Nottingham’s Mental Health Awareness Weeks began. A little over 34 years ago Rosemary, along with other carers, friends, and people with lived experience, made the decision to put together a week’s programme of events highlighting the stigma and discrimination that people with mental health distress face in our society, as well as a celebration of community and inclusion. It was timed to include the very first World Mental Health Day on 10th October 1992, becoming the first series of events of its kind… Mental Health Awareness Weeks was born!
I became more involved from 2003 when I became a volunteer coordinator of MHAW’s, alongside Rosemary as chair quickly becoming an important and valued part of my life, remaining so to this day. We became close friends and we worked well together, although I would have to say Rosemary was definitely the boss!! Rosemary sadly passed away in 2017, and I have managed to keep the weeks going up to now, even through the years of Covid 19. I can still hear Rosemary’s voice at times encouraging me in her own forthright manner!!
Mental Health Awareness Weeks for me is an accumulation of everything I believe in, they’re about challenging stigma and discrimination as well as raising awareness of the many barriers that people face in our society when they’re viewed as “different”. They’re about inclusion and openness, recognising the valuable friendships and alliances that have been built up over many years, as well as welcoming new faces and diverse groups, branching out further into communities letting people know what sources of support are out there.
But most of all they’re about community, of people, of thought, of belonging, and of connection. Look out for the orange leaflet and come along, you will always be welcome to join our community!
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This article was first published in the Peer Support in the Community edition of Exchange Magazine
To explore this edition click below
Exchange Magazine Issue 22: Peer Support in the Community
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