Beginning the podcast’s Mental Health Awareness Week series, Ben is joined by Jon Manning from Arthur Ellis Mental Health Support. Jon has personal experience of NHS mental health services and started Arthur Ellis to help provide services to those who need them.
After physical abuse early in his school life, Jon’s first interaction with mental health services was at age 5. After suicide attempts in his teens and early 20s, he went to his GP multiple times but was placed on a four-year waiting list. He saved up for a private appointment at the Priory and was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 25, which allowed his symptoms to begin to be managed.
Understanding Bipolar Disorder
His experience of bipolar differs from popular perceptions of it. Jon explains that the ‘mood swings’ people associate with bipolar are often much more long term, with depressed and manic periods lasting months or even years. Medications have helped him, but the most effective medication has changed over time.
Once Jon knew what his condition was, he looked into training for his employer around mental health but found there was not much about how to actually deal with people suffering with mental ill health. Arthur Ellis was founded to add that important step to corporate mental health training. Initiatives like fruit bowls and recommending apps aren’t doing enough to tackle the causes of mental ill health and assume that the individual is the problem, when their environment may need to change too.
Banana Behaviours
Jon discusses what he calls ‘banana behaviours’, things that are good for you that can help improve mental health. They fit into five broad categories move (exercise), focus (having a bath, reading a book), discover (learning new things), communicate (seeing friends and family), and helping others. His corporate training both aims to educate and to help businesses facilitate more ‘banana behaviours’ both in and out of the workplace.
The corporate offering helps to fund the more charitable side of the business, which provides mental health services. Anyone can self-refer, and Arthur Ellis now provides 30,000 appointments a year. Ben says Jon should be proud of his achievements, but Jon says he won’t feel proud until every child on an NHS mental health waiting list is seen.
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