By Dafydd Jones
HAVERFORDWEST County manager and NHS Mental Health Worker Wayne Jones has underlined the importance of seeking mental health support on Time to Talk day.
Jones is a community mental health support worker in his hometown of Carmarthen and has first-hand experience of the support on offer.
He stressed that during a pandemic that has been unsettling and worrying for everyone in different measures, reaching out has never been more vital.
“I’m fortunate that I work within that setting and there are so much out there for people that maybe they aren’t aware of,” he insisted.
“Mental health awareness has been promoted and has been going on a bigger scale the last few years, now more than ever due to testing times, but there’s a lot of organisations out there, a lot of support for people.
“It’s just raising that awareness, knowing that you need to go and talk to someone, whether it be a family member or a friend, but it’s really important that they know that there’s a bit of security there for them.”
— Time to Talk – Mental Health & Bullying Awarness (@timetotalk09) February 3, 2021
Jones laid bare just what a challenging time this is for people in his line of work – and those they are seeking to help.
He added: “Full credit to these agencies and private sectors that are doing really well.
“It’s really testing, it’s having a massive effect psychologically, as we’re witnessing with the backlog of it in my full-time job in the mental team.
“Everything has an implication, it’s maybe sometimes the calm before the storm, but we’re certainly seeing our workplace that our workload is increasing, due to Covid and the effects that it’s having on people’s livelihoods and health reasons.
“As an NHS worker, we’re all hands to the pump and massive credit to the front-line who are tackling it day-in day-out but again, it peels back then to secondary care and the private care sectors.
“They are working extremely hard to combat what we’re facing at the moment.”
Watch the full video of Jones’ interview here.