Transcript: A Day In The Life: Stuart

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Stuart - My name is (Stuart) Eaton and I'm an STR worker, which is a Support Time and Recovery worker for Salford Early Intervention Team.

In early intervention, we work with people with first onset of psychosis, and the belief is if you can work with somebody at the very, very early stages of mental ill heath, with a very recovery-focused team with lots of different professions in it, then the chances of recovery are much better than perhaps if something is caught very, very late.

Service user - If I wasn't with the EIT and I didn't get diagnosed, I'd still have these problems and I wouldn't be where I am today. I wouldn't be saying, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that," cos I'd probably still have mental health problems, I'd still be hearing voices, seeing things, and still have heavy drug abuse, and that would have probably carried on into my 30s and early 40s. Then where are you, when you're in your 40s, and you're unemployed and you've got drug abuse? There's no future for you.

Stuart - The problems that we encounter, I guess, with first onset psychosis are that it can be quite a wide-ranging experience. It can be voice hearing, it can be visual hallucinations, it can be someone with bipolar, like myself, that might have psychotic experiences when they are either very, very depressed or very, very manic.

It seems a positive thing that I've had mental heath problems in the past because there's that feeling that having those personal problems yourself gives you the passion, the understanding of some of the client group you are working with. So my boss and the rest of my team are acutely aware of the problems I've had in the past, so I like to think that they will be there to help.

Service user - I will never forget the EIT. Never. That's why I want to do voluntary work for them. Then when Stuart leaves, I'll get his job. (Both laugh)

Stuart - My role doesn't require any degree. It requires passion and maybe a bit of life experience. It's more about what you're like as a person. But once you're there, that's a great stepping stone to move on to other careers, be it nursing, be it social work, or even if someone is willing to study, maybe go into becoming a psychologist. There's lots and lots of jobs within the team that you can grow into. The experience that you gain from being kind of at the sharp end, working with people day in, day out, is invaluable.

We do a weekly football group on a Wednesday. We normally get around about ten people down most weeks. We just find it's a good way for people to get out and about, out the house, and do a bit of exercise, and it seems to make a difference to everybody. It seems to be a really enjoyable group. And I look forward to it as well.

When I came to the Salford team, we didn't have a football team at that time. We spoke about it and we thought it was possible to do. So I made a few phone calls to various leisure centres around here and bartered them down and got them to give us a good price, and we set up a football team from there. We've just managed to secure a bit of budget to buy some kit, so we've got a new strip ordered for the team. We're going to enter into a mental health league that they run up in the Northwest. Our goal is to get the team together and get a team entered in that. All the guys are really, really up for it, and they're really excited about testing their skills against some other teams. I must admit it really lifts me up on a Wednesday to see everybody enjoying themselves on a football pitch.

Sometimes we've had clients that have maybe had some ideas of stigma themselves about mental health services, about being under mental health services themselves and what that means. I've taken them along to the football team and sometimes they can't believe that it's other service users playing football. It's strange that just throwing a ball in the middle of a football pitch, everything changes, it's that kind of moment encapsulated.

It really works. It's such a simple thing, but it really works. It's something that I'm really keen tokeep going with. It's certainly making me keep fit, which is another added benefit to the job.

The journey from problems with mental health to recovery can be a lengthy one. It is small steps. If you can be the person that can just help those small steps along that's what really makes me think that I've done a good job and makes me enjoy it the most, sense of achievement.

It's a job for all ages, for all skills. It's a job for everybody. Because we deal with people, everybody is different. So we need a varying workforce, we need different people. I think it's important that we get plenty of men into social care. I also think it's important that we get more men that realise that caring roles and caring professions work just as well for a man as they do for a woman. We've all got different skills to bring, we've all got different points of view to bring and it's important to have all of them.

I don't think there's many jobs out there where you get to work with people at the full range of human emotions every single day. From people who are completely elated and really pleased about what's going on in their lives, to people who may be in the pits of depression.

I wouldn't say to anybody that it was the easiest job in the world, but I would say it was probably one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. It's something that I'm incredibly proud to have been chosen to be able to do. As long as you go into it with that attitude, nothing is going to stop you from getting into this area of work.

You'll follow that through when you get into it, and you'll find it incredibly rewarding. The clients you work with, they'll pick up on that as well. If nothing else, we need more passionate people in this area of work, because we need to give the best level of care possible.