Davids Story

David's Story

I heard about Basildon Mind through the Basildon Borough magazine: I saw an advert in early 2022. I’ve always been a walker and I’ve always been interested in Mental health. This started when I did some youth work which I found this interesting. It led to me qualifying as a Youth and Community Worker and later as a Counsellor.

Having retired and experienced the Covid-19 pandemic, I felt quite cut off from my local community and felt the need to re-engage, start walking at a pace and using my skills.

I joined the Basildon Mind Friday walking group, who meet outside the Vange Community Hall every Friday at 10am. I was made feel very welcome by the Walk Leader, the Talking Therapist and the group, which is quite diverse and very friendly (Basildon Mind’s ‘Walk and Talk’ is led by a qualified Walk Leader, accompanied by a qualified Counsellor who walkers can talk to during and after each walk). That part of Vange is pleasant to walk around.

Over time, the activity has developed into a social group. This was helped when we started having a post-walk coffee and chat each week, which usually lasts 30 minutes.

My next step was to support the Talking Therapist during some training she wanted to run. I felt I could support her having done lots of training in the past. So far we have run 2 Suicide Prevention workshops together: the demand is so high that we will run more.

One of my concerns working with organisations is that it’s important to look after the welfare of your staff and volunteers, so they feel supported in their job or role. A way to put this into practice was to run a Stress Management workshop, which I did in June 2023. I was also asked to set up a confidential service to give anyone an opportunity to talk over something that’s troubling them on an individual basis and Basildon Mind’s ‘Let Us Talk’ internal service has been running since July.

Joining Basildon Mind’s walk and volunteering with them has been great for my physical health and allowed me to use my work experience to help others.

It seems to me that the value of talking therapies is becoming more prominent. I would encourage anyone suffering with their mental health to take the first step – think about talking to a professional or even a good friend or relative. There are lots of different organisations out there who can help you.