MHFA Book LAUNCH FLIPBOOK
MHFA Cohort 2016
- Page 3: "A former health and social care le
- Page 7: "...his torso, sunken and sallow, r
- Page 11: "His heart had suffered greatly fro
- Page 15: "He would hunch his back and curl h
- Page 19: "With a heavy head and heart, a dar
<strong>MHFA</strong><br />
Cohort 2016
"A former health and social care lecturer, I now<br />
work in the mental health arena, delivering a<br />
diverse range of mental health awareness<br />
courses, including <strong>MHFA</strong> Standard and Lite.<br />
I sit on various strategic bodies, including the<br />
Devon Eating Disorders Pathway Group,<br />
Plymouth Suicide Prevention Strategy Group<br />
and Healthwatch Plymouth."
"I found myself faced with the most<br />
frightening, devastating and<br />
incomprehensible situation that any<br />
parent would quake at. I was<br />
witnessing my gorgeous son slowly<br />
kill himself."
"...his torso, sunken and sallow,<br />
resembled the carcass of a welldevoured<br />
Sunday lunch chicken.<br />
His skin, tissue-paper thin and<br />
webbed with fine broken veins,<br />
covered his bony ribcage."
"I so desperately wanted to<br />
be refreshed from the<br />
excruciating images of<br />
Ollie's wan and deformed<br />
body."
"His heart had suffered greatly<br />
from the self-imposed starvation<br />
that the eating disorder had<br />
inflicted, therefore rest and no<br />
exertion were paramount to<br />
Ollie's care in the unit."
"...conversations that once were<br />
humorous, enlightening and thoughtprovoking<br />
transformed into diminutive<br />
and trivial exchanges of words - no<br />
sentiment or feeling so as to avoid what<br />
the anxious parent really wanted to<br />
talk about."
"He would hunch his back<br />
and curl his body inwards to<br />
desperately find the folds of<br />
repulsive fat."
"...compulsion for excessive exercise<br />
will see the person exercise as if on<br />
automatic pilot, regardless of pain,<br />
injury or harm to self. It is known<br />
that some will exercise far beyond<br />
the limits to their health..."
"With a heavy head and<br />
heart, a darkness<br />
shrouded me -<br />
a darkness that was to<br />
last for years."
"Recovery offered an<br />
opportunity to live life as one<br />
really should, driving one's<br />
own destiny and not being the<br />
back seat passenger."