Nurse Jess was going about her everyday routine, walking back to her car after a late shift at work. Then she heard a voice behind her - the last thing she remembers before blacking out. She had been physically assaulted and knocked unconscious.
She woke up from a coma months later to find the globe engulfed in a pandemic, her city locked down, her fiancée tragically dead.
Jess found herself in an upside down world, where faces were covered with masks and loved ones had to keep their distance. The streets were barren as people were confined to their houses.
Not only was Jess’ home a strange place, she woke up to the heartbreaking news that her partner had died while she was in the coma.
“I wasn’t sure I had woken up at all. As an experienced nurse, I knew something wasn’t right by the way the intensive care staff were behaving,” Jess, who wishes to remain anonymous, explained.
“I knew they weren’t telling me everything. They eventually explained what the Covid pandemic was and told me my fiancée had died.
“Once I was physically well enough, I was released into a world I didn’t know. I walked into Manchester city centre to get a taxi and it felt like a version of The Walking Dead. The streets were empty, and the air was silent, I didn’t think I was alive. I can’t explain how scared I was.”
Jess was ‘left alone in an alien world’ - and her mental health soon started spiralling down. And in the peak of the pandemic, she couldn’t get the support she needed.
“One minute I’d been in a job I love, engaged to my partner, and on my way home,” said Jess. “The next I’m left alone in an alien world that could only belong in a fictional film.
“I couldn’t leave the house or even open my curtain. I’d have a panic attack if someone walked past my window. It’s hard to put into words how I felt mentally. The attack was terrifying, the world was terrifying and my partner, the person I loved most, had died. I felt so alone.
“While I was physically well enough, due to it being peak Covid I couldn’t get the mental health support I needed. At my lowest point, I took an overdose to try and take my own life. I didn’t know what else to do.”
But then, Jess met Penny Maughan, a trainee advanced clinical practitioner. Jess didn’t know it at the time but Penny would ‘bring her back from the brink’.
Penny works for Tameside and Glossop Living Life Well Neighbourhood Mental Health Team - where Jess was referred following her traumatic experience.
Penny helped to arrange the right medication for Jess, arranged a CT scan, developed a safety plan for Jess, and helped her claim benefits including back payments.
“I’d be dead now if it wasn’t for Penny and the team. She changed my life. She listened properly and genuinely cared. She’s given me hope and has turned my life around.
“A little thing that made a massive difference was how she explained what support each organisation or professional could offer and how it would help me. She showed real compassion.
“On a practical level, she helped me to get the right medication, solve the financial problems I was facing because I couldn’t work and has taught me coping mechanisms that help me understand my mental health. She broke the cycle.
“ She was there even if I just needed a bit of company. She genuinely cared and brought me back from the brink.”
Jess is now encouraging others struggling with their mental health, especially in the cost of living crisis, to get in touch with support teams. “I know now that I’m going to get better, I just don’t know when,” Jess shared. “I’ve made so much progress. From being at a point where I was too scared to see another person, I now want to get back into nursing. It was my life and I loved it.
“The only reason I’m not dead is because of Penny and the Living Life Well Neighbourhood Mental Health Team.”
If you need mental health support, the Tameside and Glossop living life well neighbourhood mental health team is here for anyone in the borough who needs help with their mental health. People can phone 0161 716 4247 or ask their GP or another health professional to refer them to the service via the borough’s mental health open door (single point of entry).
More information is available on this website .
The Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust 24/7 free helpline is 08009530285.
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