The APPTS held their third annual forum today, this time on staff wellbeing, at the headquarters of the British Psychological Society. Members of the in2gr8mentalhealth forum wanted to ask the APPTS what they might be doing to help services support their staff's mental health and wellbeing.
The in2gr8mentalhealth forum is a membership based peer forum for those professionals working in mental health who have their own lived experience of mental ill health. It was set up in response to the stigma mental health professionals can endure from having this 'dual status', it silences and means needs are not met, and services lose the opportunity to gain rich information that would help with service development. Conversations are beginning to open up about the clear shared humanity - of course!- between 'service user' and 'service provider', undermining the illusion of a separateness and the schism between these two identities in services.
For further information see www.in2gr8mentalhealth.com. Webpages are open and the forum is membership only. If you identify as a mental health professional with lived experience mental ill health, and you want to discuss this with others in a similar situation, please sign up via the forum page on the website and we will be in touch.
Dr Natalie Kemp
Chartered Clinical Psychologist with Lived Experience Of Mental Ill Health