As a teenager, Katie was detained in a psychiatric hospital and supported by an Advocate from Rethink Mental Illness. Two decades later, she is helping others in her role as Associate Director for Community Services, with the very charity which supported her.

In my teenage years, I started being affected by mental illness. I had really low mood, anxiety, difficulties with food, started self-harming and experienced suicidal feelings.

At 17 years old, this reached a crunch point. I didn’t feel able to cope and went to my GP. This was the first time that I spoke to anyone about how I was feeling, as I had never told anyone about it before. A few days after my GP appointment, I had an assessment at the local mental health team and was immediately admitted onto an adult psychiatric ward as a voluntary patient, to maintain my safety.

I found the experience of hospital terrifying and discharged myself a week or so later. I began therapy and sessions with the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT), but my wellbeing continued to deteriorate and I was then detained in hospital again.

I don’t remember much about the initial period of being detained as I was heavily medicated and experiencing dissociation. Dissociation feels like you are disconnected from your surroundings, you don’t feel part of yourself, and you don't feel your feelings or thoughts like you would normally do. It’s your mind’s way of shutting you off from difficult feelings and preventing trauma from impacting on you. I remember being confused and not understanding what was happening.

At this stage I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), eating disorder (not otherwise specified), generalised anxiety disorder and depression. A lady visited me and explained to me about my rights and helped me voice my feelings about medication, diagnosis and treatment. I later discovered that this lady was an Advocate from Rethink Mental Illness.

Things gradually got better for me and at age 19. I was lucky enough to secure a part-time frontline Community Mental Health Worker role at the National Schizophrenia Fellowship (NSF) which was Rethink Mental Illness’s name back then. I was really nervous about applying for the role as I was still young and didn’t have work experience in this area. I set up a user-led charity before coming to work for Rethink Mental Illness which was called the Self Harm Alliance in 2001 and these were my only transferable voluntary work skills. I struggled with a lack of confidence and low self-esteem, felt that I would be unsuccessful in the interviews and doubted my ability to do the role. I was so happy to be offered the role and I won't ever forget the manager at the time who recruited me and gave me a chance to come to work for Rethink Mental Illness.

I felt excited to be coming into a job role where I could help people affected by mental illness as I knew from my own experiences how difficult it is for people on their recovery journey. I was even happier that I was able to come to work for a charity who had helped me in one of the difficult points in my life.

I have worked for Rethink Mental Illness since 2002 but I left for about 6 months in 2003 and then became an employee again in 2004 and I have been here ever since. I have gradually worked my way up through the charity into my current role as Associate Director for Community Services. I also gained experience across different service types such as helplines, community services, housing services and advocacy services. I believe my operational roles across various types of service and moving within lots of different job roles from frontline worker upwards has given me insight into the different challenges that different service types face.

I believe it’s important for all grades of managers with lived experience to be able share this within their work, as often when you hear of peer workers and lived experience in the workplace this is often classed as frontline roles, rather than being openly seen throughout the management structure of an organisation. I see my experiences including my own lived experience as unique strengths that I am proud to share openly with others.