Published on: 10 October 2024
World Mental Health Day takes place on Thursday 10 October and is an opportunity to raise awareness and make a positive change for everyone’s mental health. This year’s theme is on prioritising ‘mental health in the workplace’. Local organisations including Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust recognise the importance of mental health to support our overall health and wellbeing. 
As part of this awareness day, Derbyshire Healthcare spoke with Marc Riley, a Lived Experience Facilitator at the Trust, who has struggled with his mental health and received support from NHS therapists and the Trust’s early intervention in psychosis service to help learn ways to better manage his mental health.
Marc said: “I was 32 years old when I first visited mental health services in Derby, and accessing the right services changed my life.
“I had a relatively happy childhood but around the age of 15, through peer pressure, I started smoking and became involved with the wrong crowd. I was very confused and out of touch with reality and slowly became more anxious with my surroundings, my interactions with people and within myself. A lot of my younger years were also spent in and out of different jobs too.
“I turned to smoking as a coping mechanism for my anxiety, would isolate myself at home and created scenarios in my head about the world. I thought the world was the issue and not me. I suffered with psychosis and had lots of hallucinations and felt people were putting negative thoughts in my head. This took over my senses entirely – I even used to see and smell things that weren’t there.
“When I was working an earlier job in retail, an assistant manager took me to one side and had a chat with me. He suggested that I should speak to my GP and seek help for my mental health. I didn’t think it would be as easy as that, I never knew where help was. The GP suggested I speak to a therapist to better understand what I was going through and so I could be supported by the right people.
“When I first accessed the service, I was eating tins of custard, smoking 80 cigarettes a day, and was not sleeping due to anxiety. A community psychiatric nurse at the time suggested I visit some local support groups to get me outside of my comfort zone and meet people with similar experiences to me. It was the best thing I ever did. I remember sitting in the group at first thinking everyone was judging me, but I made some really good progress at these groups and interacted well with the others.”
Marc is now a lived experience facilitator at the Trust supporting patient wellbeing from his experiences with mental health. The role helps to bridge the gap between a ‘them’ and ‘us’ culture, bringing together expert advice around mental health to aid recovery and overall patient experience.
“I have worked for the NHS since 2013 as a volunteer and in various other roles to help reduce stigma around mental health and encourage others of the benefits of talking. I have immense gratitude to Derbyshire Healthcare for the support they have given me both as a patient and colleague.
“I have come so far since receiving help. I now have a job that allows me to really connect and create a good rapport with patients as I speak from my own experiences, and they can often relate to these. I am proud of these experiences as it wouldn’t be possible to do my job without them”.
It is important to recognise that mental health is not a linear process and recovery may not be as simple as switching off how an individual feels.
“I have many good and some not so good experiences with mental health. I still experience challenges daily, but I now have the tools to better manage how to deal with those thoughts and feelings. The mental health services were incredible to me. I felt overwhelmed with emotion at being cared for in such a way, as I hadn’t had that support before. I understand that it can be hard to make that initial contact with a service, but there is so much benefit from doing that – it changed my life.
“One piece of advice I would give someone struggling with their mental health would be to ask themselves, ‘Is this working for me, or do I need help?’ If it is not, go and contact someone to talk about it because talking is the best therapy.”
Vikki Ashton Taylor, Deputy Chief Executive/Chief Delivery Officer at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are so grateful to Marc for sharing his experiences. Marc’s story is just one example of how receiving the right care at the right time can make such a difference to someone’s mental health and wellbeing.
“Here at Derbyshire Healthcare, we are encouraging people to use this World Mental Health Day as an opportunity to recognise the signs that they, or someone they may know of, need support and to take action in some way to receive help, like Marc did.”
Everyone experiences ups and downs at some point but poor mental health is not something that should be experienced alone. There are lots of self-help tips and advice on the NHS’s Every Mind Matters website. But there are also lots of ways to reach out in Derby and Derbyshire if you need someone to talk to – including drop-in centres, safe havens open every night of the week, and a 24/7 local helpline – and these are described in more detail below.
Urgent mental health support services
If you, or someone you care for, needs urgent mental health support, there are a range of options available to support you. These are summarised below, or you can find more information online – on the 'help in a crisis' page on the Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust website or on the ‘Derby and Derbyshire emotional health and wellbeing’ website. Remember: in a medical emergency or life-threatening situation, please attend your nearest Accident and Emergency (A&E) department or call 999.
Mental Health Crisis Support Drop-In Services
There are three crisis support drop-in services open Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons in Buxton, Swadlincote and Ripley. These drop-in services, run by Derbyshire Mind in partnership with local community organisations, offer an out-of-hours friendly and welcoming community support space open to anyone over 18 experiencing a mental health crisis or emotional distress. This is an opportunity to get support and help in a relaxed and comfortable environment. All three services are open Fridays and Saturdays 6pm to 11pm, and Sundays 2.30pm to 5.30pm.
- The Buxton service is located at Zink in the Market Street Car Park (top of Clough Street), SK17 6LJ.
- The Ripley service is at The Croft, Slack Lane (just off Ripley Market Place), DE5 3HF.
- The Swadlincote service is at 12-14 West Street (opposite the Empire Cinema), DE11 9DE.
Full details of all three services are on the Derbyshire Mind website.
Safe Havens
These centres, in Derby and Chesterfield, are open every evening from 4.30pm to 12.30am and are places where people can get support when they feel overwhelmed or unable to cope.
- Derby’s Safe Haven, run by Richmond Fellowship, is at 309 Burton Road, Derby DE23 6AG. Tel: 0330 008 3722
- Chesterfield’s Safe Haven, run by the charity P3, is at 188 North Wingfield Road, Grassmoor, Chesterfield, S42 5EJ. It can be contacted through the Derbyshire Mental Health Helpline on 0800 028 0077 or you can self-refer by making a booking on the P3 website.
Derbyshire Mental Health Helpline and Support Service – 0800 028 0077 or dial 111 and select ‘mental health’
This free helpline is staffed by NHS professionals from Derbyshire Healthcare and advisers from the charity P3. It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for residents of Derby and Derbyshire of all ages, adults and children alike. There is now a new option for Deaf people and those with a hearing impairment to contact the helpline via the SignVideo app. Learn more at www.derbyshirehelpline.com
The helpline works closely with the Safe Havens and also Derbyshire’s Crisis Houses, which offer short-term residential accommodation to people with urgent mental health needs, to support their wellbeing.
Help Us, Help You – NHS Talking Therapies
The NHS is encouraging anyone struggling with feelings of depression, or anxiety such as excessive worry, panic attacks, social anxiety, post-traumatic stress, or obsessions and compulsions, to seek help through NHS Talking Therapies services. These are effective, confidential and free treatments delivered by trained clinicians, online, on the phone, or in person.
If you’re struggling with feelings of depression or anxiety, seeking help through an NHS Talking Therapies service can be one of the best steps you can take to overcome mental health issues and get back on track.
You do not need to have a diagnosed mental health problem to refer yourself to an NHS Talking Therapies service. Getting support as soon as you start having difficulties can help to reduce their impact.
For those whose first language is not English, talking therapies can be delivered through multi-lingual therapists or through confidential interpreters, and in British Sign Language (BSL) through SignHealth’s NHS Therapies for Deaf People service.
Your GP can refer you for NHS Talking Therapies, or you can refer yourself online at nhs.uk/talk.
Useful websites
These websites have lots of information about other support services and community groups in the local area:
- Hub of Hope website – this website also has information about support available nationwide
