Why I abseiled on the Forum in Norwich for Norfolk Mind

It’s unlikely you will see me volunteering to leap out of a plane or scaling Everest any time soon.

However, when mental health charity Norfolk and Waveney Mind invited me to take part in an abseil 42ft down the Forum in Norwich, it took little convincing for me to get involved.

As the health correspondent for this newspaper, I have been exposed all too many times to why there is a desperate need for organisations like Mind in our community.

A significant part of my role involves reporting on inquests – where I sit feet away from the families of people whose lives have tragically succumbed to mental ill health.

While it is my job to report on court proceedings, I genuinely feel the pain of every individual whose lives have been affected by suicide.

This part of my job exposes me to the suffering of these individuals and their families – but at the same time opens my eyes to the struggles people have in finding the right support.

Mental ill-health is not like a broken leg or arm – its symptoms can not be seen via an x-ray or a blood test and it does not have the kind of linear road to recovery that physical ailments do.

Wellbeing can fluctuate and even those with the most acute needs can have their good days – which can lead to complacency in their treatment.

It also makes it far, far more difficult to manage.

Time and time again, I have heard horror stories of people who have fallen through the cracks of services – who have been deemed not ill enough for one form of care but too ill for another.

I have heard heartrending tales of people who have been met with waits of months for care and literally died waiting – Norfolk mother Caroline Aldridge has written two books about this very subject after her son Tim’s death in 2013. He was 30 – five years younger than I am now.

Clearly, when people are desperate for care, they can’t afford to wait. They need some form of care immediately.

So much is said about the importance of catching signs of cancer soon – but this principle also applies to any form of mental ill-health. 

Prevention is so key when it comes to managing the ever-increasing demand for mental health services – but when there are lengthy waiting lists for this care, they can soon deteriorate and become acute needs.

This is why care in the community is so important – even if it is as simple as just providing a space where people can talk to one another.

And this is precisely what organisations like Mind are there for – to bridge that gap between services and help prevent people from having to end up on waiting lists for more acute care.

They also do great work in trying to eliminate the stigma around mental wellbeing – which is still very much real.

Many of us are guilty of thinking mental health is solely conditions like schizophrenia, depression and acute anxiety; but absolutely everything is related to wellbeing.

Managing workplace stress, worrying about finances and struggling to sleep are all types of mental health issues – but the stigma around the phrase often prevents people seeking help.

The experience of my abseil was exhilarating and nerve-racking in equal measure.

But the work of charities like Norfolk and Waveney Mind and the reason they exist is far more important to convey than what a 35-year-old father-of-one thought about walking vertically down a building.