Testimonies on Mental Health
The Men Matter family walk, Drumchapel. Men Matter are a peer support and suicide prevention charity based in a housing estate on the outskirts of Glasgow. ‘It’s a safety net. It becomes a brotherhood everybody becomes a brother and you look out for each other. If something happens you’ve got a good group of guys round ye to help ye” Fraser.
Heather in her garden, Renfrew. ‘I feel me fighting for the calm within the torment.’ When I first met Heather she was going though court proceedings to maintain her current custody of her daughter, whilst recovering from an abusive relationship. Heather has been vocal about her mental health issues. ‘I’ve had mental illness since I was 17. It’s been recorded with the doctors. So when I was young I didn’t treat myself well.’
"As Far back as I can remember there was fear in my life. I did'nae know it then. I was just a scared wee guy. From anybody and anything. I was in behavioural school, got took off medication for my ADHD and when I got took off that I went straight into drink and drugs. The more I help other people it takes away from me. I get a buzz seeing guys getting better. I’ve known a few guys that have been to Men Matter and they’ve been on the edge of suicide”. Fraser Devine.
“It was Tuesday night, halfway through the bingo caller announces for an Ellen Moore. I am like that, nobody even knows I’m at the bingo. There were two coppers. And that was that. She threw herself out of the top flat window. She must’ve been waiting until I was away. She had money, she had everything. She had two children. She didn’t have to. Although you think they’re alright for a long time they’re definitely not.” Ellen Moore, Easterhouse talking about losing her sister Margaret to suicide.
Kaitlin, 23, at home in Springburn. ‘I’ve been diagnosed with a chronic illness, been through two blocks of therapy, left uni, started a new job,’ she says. ‘I feel it in my bones that good things are going to happen for me soon. I am powerful amazing and ready.’
Liz lost her partner Andy to suicide in 2015. She is pictured wearing his jacket. “I kissed him goodbye. We were on good terms. And then two days later I got a phone call from his mum and she told me that he was dead. There was no note. I don’t know what was going through his head. But I’d imagine that he just couldn’t, he couldn’t do it anymore. He died about a week before his 28th birthday. If he’d have had professional help things could’ve been a lot different. I think there is help out there, but it’s very hard to access.”
Margaret and John, practicing Tai Chi outside the Senior Centre in Castlemilk. Who’s mission is to ‘Provide an accessible facility in which we will promote the social inclusion of elderly people in the Castlemilk area, by reducing isolation, poverty, poor mental and physical health and poor diet.’