50 Voices
ANDY 50 Voices captures the authentic voice of the people that use our services and our staff as Turning Point celebrates its 50th anniversary
50 Voices
Andy Taylor
50 Voices
Andy Taylor
Andy Taylor is a project worker at Crisis Point which is a Turning Point service in Manchester supporting individuals who are going through a current mental health crisis.
What are your main responsibilities? My responsibilities are half and half. Part of my role is managerial; supervising the other project workers. However I also work with the clients, assessing, looking at their needs and developing their support plan.
What is unique about Crisis Point in the way that it supports its service users? We support service users in a person centred way; the client comes first! There is a specific way of listening to people which we call active listening. This means that service users truly know that we are listening to them and not just asking them to take their medication and we treat them with the respect they deserve.
What is unique about Crisis Point in the way that it supports its service users?
Even your body language is important; it needs to say “I’m listening�
50 Voices
Andy Taylor
Being able to listen and communicate with people from all walks of life! Even your body language is important; it needs to say “I’m listening”. If you don’t listen to people then you won’t get to grips with what the problem is and secondly the service users won’t feel like they can open up to you. They won’t have that trust with you so building a rapport is really important.
What have you learnt from your role? When you’re sat with a person long enough you see them change, their guard comes down. They just needed someone to listen to them.
I’ve learnt not to judge people. In the earlier stages I think I used to think that after reading someone’s file that I knew them. However when you’re sat with a person long enough you see them change, their guard comes down. They just needed someone to listen to them. I think also learning to take things on the chin helps, sometimes people can act out because they’re angry. You might see someone and think they look like a nasty person but after getting to know them they can be really nice.
What’s life like at your service? There are activities going on for an hour every evening. We have relaxation and pampering sessions and even creative writing. However we are open to making changes at Crisis Point so the activities aren’t fixed in stone. There is a service user meeting once a month where they share their thoughts and opinions. There are some people who want to isolate themselves, which doesn’t help recovery, so having everyone participating in activities really helps!
50 Voices
Andy Taylor
What aspects of your service do you think are effective for service users’ recovery?
We see every client as a valued person and we want to see them leave with a smile on their face
We’re all singing from the same hymn sheet! We have the same aims and the same wants. I think sometimes people who work in the mental health sector can become burnt out and turn up to do a job and go home just for the pay packet but that doesn’t happen at Crisis Point! We see every client as a valued person and we want to see them leave with a smile on their face. Of course sometimes people may need further support; however it seems to me that at least 80% of our service users feel like they’ve truly been helped enough at Crisis Point that they can go on and start living their lives again!
What do you think is the biggest misconception about people with mental health issues? I think there’s an attitude that for people who are struggling with mental health issues to just get on with it but it’s not as simple as that. People who suffer with their mental health can find themselves in a deep hold so it’s unrealistic to expect them to suddenly snap out of it. You have to be there to understand what they’re really going through and I think if people in general had first-hand experience then they may change their opinion.
What aspect of your job do you enjoy the most? Working with the clients is nice and there have been lots of times where we’ve had a breakthrough. We have lots of positive feedback from service users telling us if it wasn’t for us, they don’t know where they’d be. That makes us feel like we’re genuinely doing a good job. When I started I came into the role with a view of moving on because I wanted to be a therapist in a private practice and thought Turning Point would be a great opportunity to get a bit more insight and experience. However, at my age and with failing health I’ve become quite settled and private practice is no longer on my mind.
50 Voices
Turning Point Standon House 21 Mansell Street London E1 8AA 020 7481 7600 info@turning-point.co.uk
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