Mental Health Awareness Week - Anne Crook

Anne Crook - counsellor

Wandering around the supermarket last weekend, I hadn’t expected to come out of the shop with a guitar in my trolley. And, I certainly didn’t expect to be blogging about my efforts to learn to play it as one of my 5-a-day Mindapples. More about Mindapples later.     

As it is for most of us, music is a big part of my life. I’ve always been envious of people who can pick up an instrument and give us a great tune. When I saw the guitar, I said to myself,‘It’s now or never', particularly when I remembered that I had promised myself to try out new experiences as a significant birthday approaches later this year. One week on, I can just about play Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.

I am a counsellor and I work within the psycho-oncology team at The Christie. We offer psychological support to patients who have been referred to us by their healthcare team. Cancer and its treatment is a huge emotional challenge and it is a great privilege to listen to someone tell their story and to help them make sense of the rollercoaster ride of emotions.

Prior to working at The Christie, I was a counsellor working with people affected by blood cancers at a large, London teaching hospital. I loved the work but after 20 years in the frantic pace of the capital, the time came to move back to the North West. We wanted a garden rather than a window box, easy access to proper countryside for walking and to be closer to family. When a job came up at The Christie (and counselling jobs in cancer are extremely scarce), the pieces fell into place and we made the move. Having previously lived in Kenya and Amsterdam, I hadn’t expected it to be so difficult to settle again in a new location. We missed our friends. However, my lovely psycho-oncology colleagues made it very easy to make new friends, despite our differences in support for rival football teams.

Mental health is important for each one of us but we                         

often struggle to talk about it. I have great

 relationships with my colleagues but as someone             
 who is private, it seems strange to reveal my
 guitar-playing. I can imagine how much harder it
 would be to talk about  feeling l ow or anxious.
 As a team, we are keen to  make it as easy for
everyone at The Christie – patients,  visitors and
 staff to think and talk about mental health  as it is
 to talk about physical health. Mindapples are a
great way to get us thinking and talking about our
 mental health.

What are Mindapples? Well, just as we are all encouraged to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day to look after our physical health, Mindapples are those day-to-day activities that we can do to look after our mental health. When we asked patients, visitors and staff at The Christie what they do to look after their mental wellbeing, they told us that walking the dog, having coffee with a friend, watching a favourite TV programme and all of the other day-to-day things that we sometimes take for granted, made a difference to how they felt.

Research suggests five ways to help us feel well in ourselves:  Be physically active, be sociable and connect with others, be kind and do something for someone else, be aware and take notice of what’s around you and be open to try out new things.

I reckon that my guitar project ticks a few of those boxes although my current act of kindness is to practice in private. More Mindapples such as cooking for friends, walking in the Peak District, tending my veggie patch and screaming loudly at football on the TV all help me feel connected to myself and others.

The second week in May is Mental Health Awareness Week. This year, the theme is Stress - are we coping? Stress is when the pressure is too much and we feel that the demands on us seem to outweigh our resources to cope with them. Much of my work is helping people to rediscover that they do have the resources to cope with the challenges that cancer brings.

We begin Mental Health Awareness Week with Mindapples Monday - What are your five-a-day Mindapples that you do to look after yourself? Treat Tuesday is an invitation to share a random act of kindness for someone else, perhaps a smile in the corridor or a word of encouragement. Wake UP Wednesday reminds us that physical activity is always good, whether that be some gardening, a walk or a dance. Therapy Thursday invites us to take notice of what is around us and to be present in the ‘here and now’ – stop for a moment and notice the buds on the trees. We complete the week on ‘Friendly Friday’. We hope that lots of people will visit our display in Oak Road and post a thank you for a person, an experience or an activity that has helped their sense of wellbeing.

Come and visit our display in Oak Road on Monday 14^th May and tell us about your own five-a-day Mindapples. If I’m feeling brave, I’ll play you a song!