A week in the life of…Tina

The peer support worker role is relatively new to the Recovery College. I’m Tina Dransfield, and am one of three peer support workers working part-time between the Recovery College and the Connecting Care Team. The other peer support workers are Averil and Rhys.

In a typical week on the connecting care side, I visit patients in their own homes to support them with their recovery towards better mental health. During these sessions any number of activities can take place, including following care plans that encourages a patient to go out for a walk, craft or simply just sit and have a chat. We aim to work with a patient for up to eight sessions over several weeks, but as each person is an individual, it will depend on the severity of their needs.

On the Recovery College side, I will plan and deliver courses aimed at helping recovery. Courses I have recently delivered have been practical ways to wellbeing. These have included a six-week course held at Prosper House, Wakefield, on crafting – making things you can replicate at home with family and friends that are inexpensive. We have made Christmas wreaths, gonks, fabric flower hair ties and my colleague made tote bags and decorated them using fabric paint, pom-pom animals and fabric hearts.

In addition, I ran four-week courses in both scrapbooking and journaling for wellbeing, held at Pontefract Library.

Furthermore, I recently delivered, a wellbeing session to professionals for Wakefield Council to share the importance of our own wellbeing. We cannot be expected to look after others if we are not taking care of ourselves.

The job is never the same two days running and sometimes you need to step in at the last minute to cover a session. I love the changeable nature of the work and the people I meet.

The team are amazing and very supportive – we have daily check-ins with each other on the recovery college side and are invited to peer support sessions each Wednesday with the connecting care side. This is in addition to our monthly supervision; a time to reflect and talk about things important to us both professionally and personally.

We never work alone on the Recovery College side, we always have a co-worker or volunteer sharing the workload, which is new to me. This makes me feel a valued, and supported member of the team.