It was about six or seven years ago now, where I just hit a wall. It just came out
of the blue where I just felt like I couldn't go on, couldn't survive doing
what I was doing. And I've spent a lot of time trying to understand what that was
like, and I've had cognitive behavioural therapy. I've seen some specialists in mental
health and I also see somebody that does a bit of life tutoring for me as well. It
wasn't work generated but because, and I've said this before, we spend so much
time at work it came out in work if you like. It was all part of that melee of
noise and distraction really and I'd been leading a pretty tough area in
Children Services. And for me the way I describe it is, the glass that I had
would fill up regularly and through the love of my family, my wife and my kids,
and my friends, and my work colleagues and my interests like sport I was able to
take the lid off the glass a bit. You know, reduce the flow and for some
reason in this September when it happened to me I just couldn't stop it
overflowing. So now I take medication every day and I just manage it. And try
and be really self aware of my impact. And I would hope because of my
experience and my mental health journey, and my well-being journey, I'm more
sensitive. To you know my size 10s and the impact I make on my colleagues. And I
remember the day I stood on the stage in Solihull and said "I've suffered
from mental health. I've been to that period of time, that edge if you like and
all of that." And I didn't pre-plan it. I didn't rehearse it I just felt
now this needs saying. Because you know I was talking to our managers and they
were saying "look life's tough. This is really really hard." And it was about, I
think, me having the confidence in myself and the people I have the privilege to
work with and lead to say "you know I understand and it's a bit of my story."
So we are bringing forward in our organisation, through an employee journey,
support for mental health. Support through the Thrive Programme. Many of us
are trained as mental health first aiders now and and it's bringing it to
the front. You know there isn't a cure necessarily but there is a conversation
to be had. There are, I think, particular demographic issues that are now coming
forward for the people that I work with. And I think that adds to pressure on top
of, now let's be frank, working in public service is demanding. It should be
demanding because we are impacting, influencing, changing, supporting people's
lives. It's not easy work. But I think that's an added focus.
I think where I see now a lot of my colleagues saying "Nick, hands up I need a
bit of time here to look after my Mum, look after my Dad" and I get that
constantly. So I think it is changing the way we approach work and being far more
flexible and being listening. You know being in that listening mode and trying
to say "well on an individual case, as well as on a work force basis, how can we
support you?" And actually, I will say I see that as well within our
accountability as Chief Execs and local government with elected members. My
elected members, and elected members across the West Midlands with you I see
a lot of through our combined authority and our LEP and other things, they're
brilliant. You know they are absolutely brilliant. Don't always agree with all
our elected members but actually to a person they are really supportive of us
as their officers, of their senior officers. And there is an empathy there.
It is a challenge but there is an empathy. So that political dimension and how we
talk to our bosses and our accountability is equally important. Just
find somebody you can talk to and it can be somebody who you love and
loves you or it can be somebody in work. You know when I first hit that wall, I
remember speaking to somebody in work and he's now running a council somewhere
else in the country. And he was lovely with me because I still trying to work
out how I speak to my wife and children about how I feel. So you just find that
person and have that confidence to talk to them. But the key thing is talk. don't
Don't let it reach a point where your glass, or whichever analogy you want to use,
overflows and you lose control because that's just so destructive and it takes
a long time to come back from that. And it's that flexibility isn't it with
yourself. Nurture yourself. Look after yourself. There's only one of us.