Firefighter who recovered from trauma backs new mental health centre for the North East
An experienced fire fighter diagnosed with PTSD and depression following years of exposure to traumatic incidents is backing plans for a new mental health centre in the North East.
The move comes after he credited the support he received from social enterprise Changing Minds with Pick up a Penny CIC as instrumental to his recovery.
Daniel McManus, watch manager for County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service, has backed the new model of care Forest Hall psychotherapist Sara Young and founder of the social enterprise is advocating.
Daniel said: “Maintaining good mental health and wellbeing is increasingly recognised as a crucial part of any work place, particularly when experiencing trauma and traumatic situations is routine, as in my case in the fire service.
“Changing Mind’s With Pick Up A Penny recognised this and provided me with a route out from a very dark place. There is a real need for the support that Changing Minds provides for people of all ages, especially now following such a prolonged and traumatic global event as the pandemic.”
Sara Young is looking to create a network of mental health centres offering a broad church of pioneering psychotherapy techniques such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing), Neuro Feedback, and integrative psychotherapy under one roof with additional space for ongoing training and support for professionals.
The first centre to support adults and children is planned for a site in Cramlington and has already received a positive response from Northumberland County Council and a £90,000 deposit on the land, with the promise of more from a businessman who wishes to remain anonymous.
It has also received backing from Stephen Harrison founder of Forterra one of the UK’s biggest brick manufacturers who has offered free building materials for the new centre in Northumberland. And Barclays Bank also stepped up by offering its network of North East retail banks as an opportunity to fundraise.
Sara said: “I am really delighted with the support for the centre, which could alleviate pressure on our already overstretched mental health service and change the model throughout the UK with a bottom up approach.
"We set up this social enterprise to offer an alternative mental health service for people of all ages. Mental health covers a plethora of presenting issues and I believe in an integrative approach.
“Our work often comes from people needing to engage at crisis point, when other services have either let them down, or not provided the therapy that the individual needs. Often in more male dominated environments there can be issues with communicating, with emotions bottled up, which is particularly adverse when combined with trauma.”
Daniel said: “The therapy I received has enabled me to understand that not talking about these things is not an option and can lead to suicidal thoughts or worse. This is exactly where I had got to when I first came to Sara.
“And it is this that I try to pass on to my colleagues who experience similar routine trauma. It is not weakness to talk about these experiences.”
The 38 year old married father of two from North Shields received therapy in 2018 after his family and employer encouraged him to talk about his issues, retaining the services of a psychotherapist on Dan’s behalf.
He’s now channeled his experience of therapy and recovery from poor mental health and works as a part of a team of active fire fighters and corporate fire service staff who make up the volunteer trauma support team as one of the coordinators signposting others within the service.
Daniel said: “We work closely with the wider team at the fire service and if a watch attend a particularly traumatic incident or fatality, we can now facilitate a guided discussion using trained team members to help normalise any adverse feelings or thoughts following the incident. These are open discussions where people are encouraged to talk and air their feelings in a safe and confidential environment.”
Sara Young said: “Initially Dan found it hard to talk about his feelings and open up but he knew he was in a dark place and after a couple of sessions he was able to talk more freely.
“EMDR is a powerful tool that enables the subject to rate their emotional reaction to a given memory using tapping to associate the feeling to the memory. We then ask the individual to rate how they are feeling and ultimately this will decrease over time enabling them to dissociate or separate themselves from the traumatic recollection.
“Also when workload and traumatic stress are combined, poor sleeping patterns become an increasingly significant problem. If left to worsen this can be a very serious problem particularly if it reduces deep sleep, referred to as stage four, where
most of the restorative work in the brain occurs. It is one of the biggest precursors to death as it can cause low mood and poor concentration.”
For Dan it had come to a head with a lady he had helped who had collapsed on the sea front along the North East coast five years ago.
“We were first on the scene and administered life saving CPR that I continued in the ambulance all the way to the hospital, where shortly after arrival she was unfortunately pronounced dead.
“I’m not sure why this incident impacted on me more than others, most likely it was just one too many traumatic experiences, the last straw.
“I went back to the station and had a cup of tea feeling completely numb. After this I felt lost and without empathy or sympathy; I was on the run. I didn’t want to be in a similar situation again and at my lowest point I was having suicidal thoughts. This went on for months.
“I was lucky and my changed behaviour was noticed by my family. I became withdrawn, moody, I isolated myself at work away from the main group and self sabotaged my free time by no longer watching sport or taking part in other pastimes or hobbies I enjoyed.”
To find out more about the mental health centre visit https://www.changingmindswithpickupapenny.co.uk/our-centres