Greetings one and all,
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of delivering my bespoke bipolar training course to various organisations from within North Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, all brought together by Expert Citizens Insight Academy. As always, I’d like to bestow a huge thank you to everyone who took part and for Jonathan, Sam and Darren for commissioning me in the first place.
It was Sharon Sharman, when she was developing the training for Voices of Stoke who first asked me to create a course that would benefit professionals working with people with bipolar – a true legend.
The course of the title is; ‘It’s Not Just the Highs and the Lows’ and I think it pretty well sums up what it’s like for some people living with the disorder. I created the course with various people from across the Midlands:
• Folks who had been diagnosed with bipolar or cyclothymia.
• Professionals who work day to day with people with enduring mental health conditions.
and also
• Family and friends of people affected by the condition.
As you can see from the feedback comments, the learners were very taken with my ‘lived experience’ view of learning and development. I can honestly say that after I delivered the training, I felt elated and proud that we are doing things a bit differently here in Stoke. Training that is led by the voices of people who have lived it, walked the walk and talk the talk. People who can inform and educate services across the city. Services that can then offer a better, more supportive approach to people who may be in mental health crisis or heading for a manic or depressive episode.
On with the 100% positive feedback:
“Steven is a perfect example of having the ability to live your best life, be an inspiration to others and a font of knowledge and support to others dealing with similar or different illness’s or dis-orders. Steven doesn’t just improve the knowledge and support those who are directly diagnosed with a condition but he also improves the knowledge and devises supportive techniques for those who are directly impacted by or working with others conditions in order to raise awareness and best support EVERYONE. Steven’s training is always inclusive, informative and most of all for me FUN!”
Frankie
“Another great training workshop that met all of my expectations and reasons for attending including understanding the different types of bipolar and the differences, recognising signs of someone entering or experiencing an episode and how to support them.
Thanks to all those people who gave permission for their stories to be shared to help us to learn about bipolar.
Extended thanks to Steven for sharing his story as a shining example of how someone can achieve great things living with a mental illness.
The training was very informative and interactive enabling the whole group to speak to each other and sharing best practice. I will definitely encourage my colleagues to attend any future training provided.”
Collette
“Very Enjoyable.”
Victoria
“Very informative and good use of lived experience.”
Julie
“Thank you so so much for the training. It was inspiring. I often leave a mental health training course feeling a little offended and somewhat deflated. However, I feel this training course was informative, inspiring and most importantly non-judgemental. The personal accounts from individuals were really helpful in my understanding and it was made even more special that they were from Stoke. I feel like it was prepared with compassion and care and I really appreciated Steve’s candour at the end. I’m so glad that there is training like this out there. I will be recommending it to everyone.
Thank you Steve.”
Lauren
“As always, excellent training from Steve. Training was fully interactive in spite of it being online with lots of visual aids, exercises, and opportunities to discuss the issues with fellow learners. Thanks Steve.”
Karen
“I really enjoyed the training, it was interesting and informative. I would definitely recommend this training to colleagues. Thankyou Steven.”
Jill
“I really enjoyed the course, I enjoyed working from home, I didn’t think I would.”
Paul