Abstract
The causes of disabilities and mental illness. Type of disabilities and
mental illness. A-Z Topics | Mental Health Foundation How disabilities and
mental illness affect lives. How disabilities and mental illness can be
supported.
Ever
since school, I have enjoyed English, making up, and authoring stories ever since,
which doesn’t make a lot of sense really.
During
the nineties when I was in my twenties, without me realizing Mental health
increased a lot from having Cancer when I was twenty – three to having a
Mental breakdown at twenty - seven. Without realizing I was slowly easing
myself with writing.
This is
about where I was born, and from, my family, school, career, etc.
Also, I
have written for those who work, study, want to, train, learn, qualified
in learning disabilities, mental health, and other problems and to help those who
face disabilities, mental health other problems. This could be parents, carers,
help workers, teachers, tutors, employers, Advisers, Mentors, doctors, nurses, the people
themselves, etc.
Introduction to Myself, Learning disability, Autism, Mental health, and
my career
WRITE AN IDEA FOR SARA
History of disability and
mental health
Support needed
for disability and mental health
It’s
not easy being understood when you have a learning disability, or even making
yourself heard. I am writing this blog to show how my disability affects my
day-to-day life and what help & support I need.
https://sararevealed.blogspot.com/
Interduction. My name is Sara Jane Gorman, I am
fifty – three years old. I am a Visiting Lecture of Learning disability and
Mental health for the University of Wolverhampton for Thursday 29th November
2022, 1.30pm – 3.00pm for the Paramedic students. In this handout I am
going to talk about what a learning disability is, when it happens, how
it happens, types of disabilities and mental health, what causes them and how
they affect lives and how they should be supported.
This book is a textbook raising awareness
of learning disability, mental health, other problem, and an autobiography
about my life all in one. Since 2015,
six years ago I have been a Visiting Lecture for the University of Wolverhampton.
I am also an Advocate, trainee
Counselling not a professional, Mentor and Learning disability and mental
health awareness trainer.
I speak up for the rights of disability and mental health, work one to
one with people who face disability, mental health other problems privately
such as listening to things they say which may be emotional problems, mental
health, and other issues etc, which if I may not be able to help with, I may
find help for them whether it is people I work with, other people, places etc.
Such as looking online for help etc.
I face disabilities, mental health, and other problems myself.
I also raise disability, mental health, and all problems awareness to
those who are involved in the lives of people who face disabilities, mental
health, and other problems. Such as parents, carers, support workers, social
workers, professionals, doctors, nurses, friends, family etc.
For example, Health care students at the University of Wolverhampton
The school Of Nursing at the University of Wolverhampton
Healthcare professionals at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton
I used to be part of a Self –
Advocacy group funded by Royal Wolverhampton Mencap, where I spoke up with
people with disabilities for people with disabilities.
I have first-hand experience
of learning disability and mental health as I face it myself, which you will
read in this autobiography. Between 2009 and 2010, I shared a small enterprise
with someone with a learning disability supported by what was Royal Wolverhampton
Mencap and Employment Pathways, which
only lasted twenty months till sadly we had to put it to a close due to funding
having ran out, it was called Access All Areas Now, we only did four sessions
which only earned us £80.00. Our aims were to train disability and mental
health services around learning disability and mental health awareness.
In May 2011, Royal
Wolverhampton Mencap sadly finished due to the government having the funding.
However,’ as negative as this was it has given me some positive experience even
though it may be not a lot.
I will always make learning
disability and mental health on the agenda. Back 2008, I supported Our Shout,
which was our Self – Advocacy group to write and Co – produce a play
highlighting the difficulties people with disability and mental health face
trying to access employment. In 2009, I went on a script and screen course to
try and improve my writing, I helped Mencap create a Disabled Writer’s group
and for fifteen-year, back 2007 when I started working for Mencap, my Mum and
Sister and Mum helped me
create my website called Sara Revealed. The website address is at the start of
this chapter.
CHAPTER
TWO WRITE IDEA FOR SARA
It is hard to have the right idea for a writing
idea.
I'd like to think things have come a long way in my
career since the mid-90s, but I will be honest to say I can't say that I have
hit all my goals to be what I have always wanted to be from when I was young.
Still, I am grateful for what I have achieved over the years. All this boils
down to getting the right help which I have some areas not all.
I'm now 53 years old. I have to say like everyone I am
not getting younger, and no one is. Despite that, if I don't achieve everything wanted to, as long as I am on
this planet, even if it earns me very little or no money, fame, or no fame,
etc, I may not be physically fit, but I am not someone who does nothing at all.
Even at home, I have at least got a project on the go even if it's off my own
bat.
Like it has for everyone covid has been tough, but I
guess we have learned some things in ways we may not have if Covid and lockdown
hadn't happened. For eg, I wouldn't have experienced working volunteer from
home. I have achieved two Qualifications Counselling and Mental health
awareness level 1 back to working for the Beacon centre but from home and this
is a very different role to what it was back in the mid to late 90s, that was basic Admin at that time this is
for Beacon Befriending service, phoning people up who are facing emotional
problems, lacking friendships, etc. Hopefully after facing my own issues and
having had a break - down I can do my best to help others face
if not the same but similar to what I did.
In case you cannot see what the report above is about,
what it was at the time I was doing work experience at the Compton hospice
shop, making staff drinks, and tidying up the shop.
I was 26 years old at the time in 1996, and Compton
hospice was not much ideal career, but they helped me with little bits of what
I was aiming to do along the way by helping me to write this report above. They
also, helped me build my confidence.
As for writing a year have that report was written in
1996, a for a year I faced a Mental - break down in October 1996 break - down
but that wasn't anything to do with Compton hospice but so many months after I
discovered writing poetry.
I stopped on Compton, I think only so many months
after my adult training schemes had finished, and moved on to placements like
the Motions, Beacon centre for the Blind, etc.
Little did I realize then I was going to racing
Learning disability and mental health awareness so many years later.
I
started writing when I was recovering from Cancer of the throat in 1993, I was
at my grandmother’s house watching the ten-o clock news with Trever Mcdould
reporting the council Elderly and Disabled homes closing down.
I was
messing around with my pen, bored out my mind and wondering what to do at the
time.
Suddenly,
I thought about Charles Dickens on how he wrote about orphans.
I wanted
to write about animals, people, care etc, I felt very strongly about the
subject and still do but not had much luck on achieving on what I wanted to and
trying to get ideas for stories.
I was
hoping to interduce myself as a person as well as a writer of past, future, and
present of learning disability and mental health.
My disability has always affected my road sense. I have improved to what
I used to be, but I still get nervous on busy main roads. I have never been
able to ride a bike or drive a car and that will never happen. I can travel
by airplanes, coaches, buses, trains, trams, cars, etc. My
disability affects my reflexes, I can’t carry two cups of hot drinks in at
once. I can only carry one cup at a time. I have to use my right hand because
my left handshakes more than my right. I can’t grip very well with my left
hand; it shakes and slips, which was the tablets I was on for Epilepsy, which
made me depressed and Anxious. Now I would say only for about a year or two,
my family has discovered that I could be dyspraxia, which to do with my hands and
even balance. For e.g., banging into things and people, like I have said with
grip, shakes of the hands, and coronation where you only do one thing at a
time, whether it's with your mind or your body. I can be very clumsy at
times. I haven't gotten around to being diagnosed yet. I've had this problem all my
life, no one knew until about a year ago that I could have dyspraxia.
It shows how much awareness there was twenty-thirty years ago, which
is non. Still better late than never but like I say I need to be diagnosed yet.
At the end of the day education is slower than I am, why does it take years to
find things out? Still, we can find everything out at once, that's too much to
ask. If you or someone you know are the same as me in any way, please drop me an
email at sarajgorman@gmail.com I will be very interested to hear your story about your disability how you cope with it, whoever you are and whatever age you are.
CAUSES OF DISABILITIES.
It's not easy being understood as a person with learning difficulties.
I was born
very quickly which caused a lack of oxygen to the brain. My Mum was neglected
at birth. I was hyperactive and I had epilepsy until I was twelve years
old. Twenty years later my fits came back at the age of thirty-one. Thirty
years ago, we didn't have a lot of help for disabilities. It's still not good
today but better than it used to be. I believe we still have a long way to go but
we always will do. We can't expect a perfect world. My family tried to fight
for my rights, they thought I should have them as a baby and child, but it was so
much more difficult 53 years ago and more. Disabilities were not understood as
much as they are today. Sometimes we thought that many people didn't want to
know, but now I think it's about time, we learned from the past to hopefully try to
bring a bright future for people with learning disabilities. Soon I am hoping
to do some voluntary work at Mencap to help others overcome the difficulties that I have faced. In the
following pages I.
hope to explain more about the difficulties myself
and my family faced whilst I was growing up.
I have never been very good with
directions, but I am better than I used to be. I will always have the
disability I have always had but I make progress each day, which makes me
better than I used to be. I used to get angry and upset when not able to do
things. Now I can accept the things I can’t do because there have been so many
skills, I have learned in the last ten years and maybe slightly more. I accept
that there’s no way I would be able to have children and drive a car. I think
today’s society has made me accept that. It’s an unsafe world to bring children and there is too much traffic on the
roads today. At the end of the day, there are still quite a lot of skills that I
could have a chance to achieve in the long-term future. What skills, who knows!
I didn't cope like most children, I felt
as if they were having a better time than I was. I don’t think now that was the
case. I may have egged them on to bully me without realizing what I had done
was wrong. I could not communicate with anyone, not even myself, they didn't
understand me either. I wasn’t coping by playing games or reading books. Now I
understand things better than I used to. I think I still find games hard to
understand though.
I can just about cope with my own flat, I have
all kinds of friends, I travel independently, and I do my own shopping. I am
attending college, doing English, creative writing, and a computer course. I
like drawing and painting. I am hoping to get some training for work so
hopefully, with the right help, I could become a writer. I am a lot happier
and less frustrated compared to how I used to feel.
Introduction to Mental health.
Mental health is part of us just like
physical when things are good but if things are bad for us a lot, which gives
us bad mental health, which can increase mental illness. We tend to react to
life differently from how we would normally. Really, we need to take care of
mental health as much as we do with physical health but for those of us
who face is easy said than done. I don’t know anything, any more than
anyone but even though it is hard, it makes sense why there can be a misunderstanding between those who face mental illness and professions.
This is not to try and scar anyone, sorry if it does but mental illness can
be unknown. Please do not worry when I say this, it is not the person’s fault
or yours, but anything is possible. However,’ you are seriously doing an
amazing job, you can only do your best and I am not just saying it. Just
that no matter what, mental illness can drain a person at any time. All the
same, suggest positive coping skills, it is something for them to bear in mind
even if, they don’t consider them straight away or not at all, even some people
tend to find their own coping skills, where they don’t always realize that are
making effect to help themselves, whereas some don’t but they shouldn’t blame
you either, which I guess is easy said than done, when you come
across so many people in this field, where like I said a while ago, it’s not
always easy for sure to know how much with what you work with is and isn’t
mental health, which we don’t always know one way or the other. When I faced counseling
for the first time twenty–five years ago, I was given no coping skills
whatsoever, the counselor was just listening to what my situation was to what I
remember. Completely by accident, I discovered poetry, as a student, I was
inspired by John Keats, which inspired me to write my own because he was
writing about similar to what I was facing at the time.
It is hard to know what was facing at the
time, very negative but very strange time. I must admit, I always considered at
the point in my life I had a nervous break but whether I did or not, I have to
be honest when I think about it now, I am not sure. I guess this is because it
was twenty years and the fact, and I am naturally not in the state of mind I was
then.
No matter how hard I tried to not react as I
did, it took ages, maybe even a number of years to snap out of it. When my
ex-partner went off with someone else, at the time it just turned my world
upside down, I think nothing of it now of course. I don’t think I can even
explain anymore like I probably could have at the time, where now I wouldn’t
give him the time of day.
The only way I can explain is at no one and
nothing else mattered other than him. Everyone could see what was happening
other than myself and yet he cheated but I was dam fool to be still in love
with him, at that point I admit, I would have had him back if he would have
changed his mind. In fact, I had him back four years later, then it lasted seven
years till he did again, the second time though I was slightly stronger, then
he tried to get me back another few years but that was it, I had enough, and
the answer is no, and it still is.
Example
What it may be. Mental illness is such mental illnesses as Anxiety,
Depression, etc, which affect the emotions of how the person feels, thinks
behaves, etc even more so, whatever mental illness they may face is likely to
be more sensitive to the situation than what other people maybe. Where it
drives them to behave in ways others may not accept or understand for eg,
self-harm, thoughts of suicide, a lot of alcohol, a lot of drugs, etc.
Reasons
could be emotional reasons for example relationships, friendships, family full
outs, break ups, deaths, money, housing, stress, loneliness, etc, or no reason
at all. This is where a person can feel negative at any time, how it affects
the person can vary to the person and why. For eg, no reason could be the
mental illness it’s self-making the person feel very unhappy, angry, stressed,
etc, if there is a reason may depend on what that reason is and the person
themselves, etc.
Learning disabilities and difficulties can slow people in a lot if not
more ways than other people. This could affect home skills, and health for eg,
speaking to professionals, getting to appointments, education, employment,
social lives, and more but different people in different ways, which may depend
on the disabilities, mental health, and the people who you support.
People with disabilities and mental illness have strengths and
weaknesses but there are most limits to what can do and how long etc. For
eg, with the benefits we are on if we are lucky to do some work there are
limits to the number of hours we can work and
the money we can earn.
Mental health is emotional well-being, how to cope with the way life
treats us whether it is some from years, today or whenever it was whether it is
but if the person faces too many negatives, it becomes Mental illness.
Mental health is emotional well-being to how we think, feel, behave,
react, and interact. Mental health problem is the situation, the problem the
person is facing whether it is money, the relationship breaks up, deaths of
people they know, etc. For many of us, this is hard to understand even for
those who go through it, believe it or not, it is even possible to feel
negative for no reason at all, which really when it comes to the cause is
Mental illness the person's faces, which in some cases if it's anything could
be down to loneliness, doing things too much, not doing things enough, such as
sleep, eating, etc or it could no reason all. Many would say snap out of it,
this is not easy for everyone, and is not someone else place to tell someone to
do that, this is something they work on in their own, time but ask for help if
or when they choose to. However, there is no wrong in trying to offer the
person positives such as asking them what they enjoy, which may be hobbies,
careers, study, favourite music, band film, etc, no matter why they may be
feeling negative, may work for some not others, depending on them, the
situation, etc. Only cause it may not work for them, doesn't mean you have
failed, they just may find their own way of coping, etc, the best is all you
do. My advice is, what do with my clients, often, raise awareness,
suggest things, etc; but don't do anything unless they ask.
You can advise someone to do something or and not to, but you cannot
them to do and don't do something. Motivation is a hard thing and yet from my
experience, what professionals were saying to me, I admit it is, comment sense
but most things are easy said than done, if you are the person facing the
problem, therefore never tell someone to stop or start doing something, which
is likely makes them stressed, do it or don't do it more. Not the case in
everything but most things are hard to take on board if no one came up with it
in their childhood etc. Try to show empathy by taking an interest
in finding out what the person enjoys, whether
it is not only to help their mental health but to help their hobbies,
education, career, etc. The idea of trying to support someone with mental
illness is to try and bring positive lives, where the choices are theirs, not
yours, bring in what they enjoy for them is bringing in more negative when we
should be here to try and help them to see positive, what makes them happy.
They may someone may advise them to get support, could be getting in
touch with a mental health charity or service, etc. Mental
health - NHS (www.nhs.uk) Mental health is not an easy subject,
it's always best to let a person know you are looking out for them, you hear to
talk to if they want to talk, don't them to talk or some people may not want to
put on other people whether they know them or, which can be very concerning,
where what is bothering them could increase, etc, then no one should force them
to talk either. What is concerning is for whatever reason of their own, most
people struggle to open up for whatever reason, they may choose to talk to
someone they know, or don't know, and it can be concerning whether or not they
talk to anyone. It is hard to know what people are thinking and feeling,
even if they seem happy etc. Concerning thing is as well we never know with
some people for those mainly who seem to feel okay but doesn't necessarily mean
to say that they are okay, which is not easy to know when to say anything or
when not to, in case we make things worse, we only know if they say but they
shouldn't be forced to either. About mental health problems | Mental Health Foundation
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