Socrates maintained that "we only value what we pay for". Equally, we sometimes only value what the Doctor prescribes or diagnoses. I often wonder how a patient with anxiety presenting to the GP would react if the GP spent the appointment taking the patient through a controlled breathing exercise … [Read more...]
Covid-19 Blog that I never posted
I just came across this blog in my Blog Draft file from early into the Pandemic. Ironically it is now April 2022, Covid-19 is still with us, at the time of writing, hospitals are still overwhelmed and a huge chunk of us are fully vaccinated but mindsets are mostly different. Reading this now, it is … [Read more...]
Police “Stop & Help” Resource
I was making my notes for this Blog about how we could possibly look differently at the Police Stop & Search practice and switched the radio on. Lo and behold there was a discussion, hosted by David Lammy MP on LBC, about Knife Crime and the police Stop & Search … [Read more...]
Instant mental health resource for schools……
This month, the UK government announced £300million funding for the provision of mental health interventions in schools and colleges. Funding for mental health resources are always a good thing - as is this. However, I would suggest that before schools and colleges go rushing off to … [Read more...]
Kingston Hospital: Even Aneurin Bevan couldn’t have envisioned this…
If Aneurin Bevan had had a utopian vision for his National Health Service, it still wouldn't include the kind of care that I have received over the past week at Kingston Hospital in Surrey. I have been a patient elsewhere in my life and I have worked independently at hospitals within the NHS, … [Read more...]
You’re nobody till somebody……wants your vote
Yesterday evening was a cold, windy, rainsoaked event and I was weighing up whether to complete my journey home, stop at a restaurant or pop into a local pub for a warming whiskey. I think it was the gale that blew me home rather than any decision I made. As I turned the corner I saw a group of … [Read more...]
Wellness starts with a little direction………..
I am delighted to see that Wellness, Self-Care, Self-Management are the current buzzwords for health and recovery right now. It was a long time coming but its good to see an acknowledgement that it is the individual who knows their life best and, in that, knows what doesn't work for them and what … [Read more...]
You really do only get 4,000 weeks in a lifetime, so you may as well do something…
I recently tweeted that, as a guest speaker, I had offered a Positive Action speech instead of the Positive Thinking request that I was asked for. I was asked "surely the thinking comes first?" I disagree: we struggle to achieve change as individuals because, of course, the subconscious usually … [Read more...]
Solution Focused Therapy:The Silent Session
I heard a quote this morning from a 19th century French statesman: "When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice". It resonated with me. Whether consciously or sub-consciously, I think we are happiest when we are met with agreement. We don't have to think too hard then and we … [Read more...]
Why no shiny TV “Quit” ads for Drug Recovery?
Revisiting this post from the Archives and I am still none the wiser as to why there is no TV campaign welcoming Cannabis or Class A Drug users to "come over to the healthy side of life" as there is for tobacco addicts. There are hundreds of Addiction Recovery charities in the UK so one imagines … [Read more...]
