Mental health: real voices, real change

World Mental Health Day invites us not only to talk about mental health, but to listen. This year’s theme, centred around lived experiences being heard and real voices making real change, speaks deeply to me.

My own experience has taught me that a personal story, shared in the right place and with the right purpose, can reach people in ways that policies, statistics and presentations sometimes cannot.

It can challenge assumptions, encourage compassion and, in the workplace, help prevent harm.

The day everything changed

In December 2004, shortly after I had turned 20, I was involved in a workplace accident that resulted in an amputation and crush injuries to my hand.

The physical recovery, as far as it was possible, lasted around six months. It involved two operations and a prolonged period of physiotherapy as I tried to regain function and learn how to use my hand in light of what had been lost.

The visible injuries were obvious. What I could not yet see or more importantly, accept were the psychological consequences.

As part of my recovery, I had to speak with a psychologist. I spent much of that time explaining why I was fine: I was young and relatively healthy; my left hand still worked; I would get on with life. I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and an adjustment disorder.

At the time, I did not believe or want to believe the diagnosis. Yet whether I accepted the words or not, I was already living with their reality. It took another four years before I began to understand and accept that the mental health consequences were real.

When recovery is more than physical

Most people are kind. However, my experience has also shown me that when someone is viewed as different, whether because of an observable physical difference or because they think and act differently, human nature can sometimes lead people to reject them, make light of them, or treat them poorly.

Those responses can compound the challenge of mental health recovery. Trauma does not happen in isolation; it can be intensified by how others react to the person who is trying to live with it.

After I was made redundant in 2008, I realised how far I had isolated myself. I had developed a reliance on pain medication and was struggling to come to terms with how some family members and people I had grown up with now viewed or treated me.

Turning experience into prevention

By 2010, I had started retraining in occupational safety and health. That decision began a journey that eventually led to Chartered membership of IOSH. I still remember how proud I felt when I first achieved the Technical Member grade.

The more I learned about the practical application of health and safety law, the more empowered I became.

Understanding hazards, controls, responsibilities and methods of prevention helped me make sense of my own accident and its outcome. Knowledge could not undo what had happened, but it gave the experience direction and purpose.

I was fortunate to have opportunities to put my new knowledge, qualifications and experience into practice.

I discovered that my story as well as the visible evidence of my injuries could help workers and managers understand what can happen when risks are not properly controlled.

Later, when I began delivering occupational safety and health training, lived experience gave real weight to the material. I was not sharing a theoretical possibility.

I was showing, with passion and care, how a moment at work can alter the course of a life.

As my communication skills developed, people told me how powerful and relatable the story was.

I came to understand that some of us only need to hear what can happen before we take safety seriously.

Some need to see the consequences for themselves. Sadly, others may only understand after living through them. That is why people sharing their experiences in appropriate, supportive forums can have such an impact: a real voice can turn an abstract risk into something human, memorable and urgent.

Listening can change culture

Organisations can gain enormous value from lived experience when it is shared voluntarily, respectfully and safely.

Personal testimony can strengthen safety culture, raise standards and help people recognise the human consequences behind procedures.

But listening must be more than inviting someone to tell a difficult story. It requires psychological safety, respect for boundaries and a willingness to act on what is heard.

Learning about the mental health continuum was another important moment for me. The model helped me see that mental health includes every one of us, just as physical health does.

Previously, like many people, I had thought of “mental health” mainly in terms of someone being unwell or in crisis. The continuum offered a more truthful picture: our wellbeing can change over time and we may move between coping well, struggling and needing more support. No one stands outside that reality.

No one is a lost cause
Over the years, I have spoken with many people whose lives were changed in ways similar to mine. A common theme is that we never believed it would happen to us.

The difficult truth is that life will challenge all of us. We will face loss, injury, uncertainty or other hard times, even if the circumstances differ. No one is immune, which is why kindness and support matter so much.

We should never write someone off as a lost cause. Recovery is rarely simple or linear, but people can recover, adapt and add extraordinary value.

We need to be there without judgement and give people the safe space and time to come to terms with trauma.

On this World Mental Health Day, my hope is that we listen more closely to lived experience, not as a slogan, but as a source of insight and change.

When real voices are heard, they can help people feel less alone, challenge stigma, improve workplaces and prevent others from being harmed.