Trevor is an Involvement Volunteer and carer. Here is a snapshot of a day in the life of Trevor and one of his many volunteering activities he participates in helping staff to recognise carers and families in the Trust as equal partners in care.
It was a typical Thursday morning, in the Learning and Development Department at Duncan McMillan house, Nottingham with the exception of what was happening in the Purple & Green training rooms organised by Andrea Emmens our Mental Health Family Interventions Coordinator at Bassetlaw Hospital
Yes, it was another BFT training day. We all know what BFT stands for, don’t we? If you don’t, then you better read on, and if you do know what it means, Andrea expects you to read on! Oh alright then…it stands for ‘Behavioural Family Therapy Training’.
An adventure was about to unfold. It started with Andrea asking me to come along and help out. Working with Andrea is always an adventure, because if you knew what you what you were letting yourself in for you would probably leave the country and run (it’s a joke honestly!)
There was lots of NHS staff on the course with quite a bit of role play.
It was great to watch and I even got a chance to play someone’s Grandad or was it someone’s Mother? I forget now, but it was great fun! Andrea always plans the BFT courses with humour and imagination; she has a flare for it.
In the afternoon we told our stories, I did ‘my thing’ about the five sequences of events carers can fall victim to when no support is offered. Ingrid, a carer from, the Rosewood Centre in Ollerton told her story and stunned the room into silence. After this, another carer, Bev gave her passionate story that filled the room with emotion making you hang on to her every word. Yes, there were tears and shock and many other emotions in the audience. Life can be raw at times for carers and their families.
It showed how role play is effective in bring training alive. Yes, it was enjoyable to do but more importantly it is a vital part of the course and as Ingrid’s and Bev’s words bought all that to life, they put it into context with the power of their stories. It was a very emotional and worthwhile day indeed. Well done Andrea and the team. BFT is a great learning opportunity for staff to learn indeed.