World Mental Health Day is taking place on Sunday 10th October and is dedicated to raising awareness and challenging the stigma surrounding mental health. At Excelcare, we wanted to honour and emphasise the importance of good mental health, so we have decided to share stories and advocate for mental health awareness all week.
Throughout the week, we have been sharing stories from people in the Excelcare family, where doing one thing that has made a difference to their own mental wellbeing.
Yesterday, we shared Hazel’s story and today, we share the story of Ann-Marie Harmer, Dementia Care Lead.
“Up until May 2010 I was both physically and mentally very well. I was Captain in the Territorial Army (as it was called back then). I ran a medical centre and prepared troops before and following deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. In a very male orientated environment and as an officer I had to project a persona of being confident and in authority.
During a 2-week military exercise at Dartmoor, I contracted Meningococcal Meningitis which resulted in me being ventilated in ITU. Thankfully I survived and have physically made a great recovery. However, I have been left with some emotional and mental challenges. The biggest impact has been severe anxiety and feelings of vulnerability. Prior to joining Excelcare I would often sit in my car and cry before entering a care home. Why????I could not tell you why I was feeling so anxious. If I woke up in the night, I would not be able to go back to sleep because of feeling so anxious. I would hang out of my bedroom window to get air into my lungs. My chest would feel tight, and it felt as though I could not breath. Again, I would not be able to tell you why I felt so anxious.
One thing I really did learn was to be an excellent actress. As soon as I walked into a care home or meeting, I was able put on a cloak of confidence and no one would ever had guessed my feelings deep inside. I kept my feelings deeply hidden due to fear of ridicule and losing my job. My husband begged me to see my GP, which I did, and I was put on medication. My anxiety slowly started to ease, but it was still there haunting me at times. Still, I kept my anxiety a secret from my Line Manager. A colleague at my old job who had been with the company for 15 years experienced an episode of depression and eventually he was given no option but to leave the company. He felt so unsupported and not at all valued.
17 months ago, I joined Excelcare. This was an anxious time, as it would be for anyone joining a new company in the middle of a pandemic. However, I felt very welcome and slowly settled into my role. It was particularly difficult to really feel part of a team as I never saw any of my team members as we were all located in the various regions due to the pandemic. I would speak to my Line Manager, at the time once a week, for a general catch up, but I would never have shared that I experienced anxiety.
In June, this year, things changed. I came out of the Milton Keynes region and started meeting with my team members and our new Line Manager, Samantha. We started talking weekly via Teams and meeting face to face once a month. The sense of being part of a team that really cared about what they do was both reassuring and comforting. What was really profound was the sense of honesty between all the team members and Samantha. People did not appear to be afraid of asking questions; they admitted when they did not understand something and confessed when they did not get something right. My level of Anxiety has dramatically reduced as has my medication. I have now not hidden that fact that I have experienced anxiety in the past. I feel safe to honest and know that I will not be judged but totally understood and supported by Samantha and my team members. This is something that I value deeply.”
We have enjoyed sharing the stories of people in the Excelcare family on our website and on Facebook throughout the week and expanding the conversations that we are having surrounding mental health. We look forward to sharing a collection of every story that was submitted at the end of the week.