Our very own Mark Warwick, founder of Mental Health Matters, has been invited to talk at several higher education conferences, including the HEBCon conference taking place this March in Dundee, regarding the business continuity of a University following any traumatic situation that takes place, here in the UK and globally.
Mark will be specifically talking about Trauma Response and below is an overview of the points he will be covering;
Trauma Response – Ideal World v Reality
What is Trauma? What is it to you and what is it to the person next to you? How do you know?
We all have our own Perceptions and Expectations in life, with many of us having a tendency to over complicate things and so we shall be taking a simplistic look of what has become a very overcomplicated subject! Trauma is on a broad spectrum, which is impacted by people’s perceptions and prior experiences, let’s also not forget that Mental Health is very individual.
Today we will be covering the journey from Policy writing, to what happens in reality, looking specifically at the following areas – 1. How people respond to Trauma, thinking about expectations, perceptions, prior experiences, fight, flight or freeze and how this translates in reality? 2. Pastoral care, caring for the carer? 3. What power does the right training provide an individual, thinking specifically about: Self-awareness, Self-care and Self-help? 4. Train along the lines of – P . I . P . R and think Prevention over Support.
Mark Warwick is a Veteran who served 14 years in the British Army during which time, he deployed on several Operational Tours including: Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. He successfully completed varying roles and responsibilities, but mostly he was involved with the Training, Coaching and Mentoring of Recruits, regular Tri-service Military personnel and Multi-National forces.
He was officially diagnosed by Combat Stress in early 2016, as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – PTSD, combined with clinical Depression and is further compounded by a debilitating spinal injury that leaves Mark in chronic pain daily, which is tiring physically, emotionally and mentally. Regardless of this, Mark refuses his disabilities to dictate his life and works tirelessly to demonstrate that those with physical or mental injuries can compete with their peers at the highest levels.
These past three years has seen Mark on a journey of recovery, fighting his way back from being in rehabilitation with Combat Stress, experiencing a nervous breakdown, struggling with his PTSD, Depression and being in a Suicidal state. Not of course forgetting his physical disability of the spine, seven disc bulges or pro-lapsed discs and suffering continuous chronic pain.
His recovery journey will continue for years to come, yet through living his values that Mark loves so dearly, combined with the odd bit of dogged determination and in true “cheeky chappy” Mark Warwick style, he will stand in front of any audience with a big smile, bags of confidence and ensure everyone gains something of value whilst learning something new, even if they don’t agree with it!
These are very exciting times for Mental Health Matters as we also launch our all new Stress Container video, the first of its kind in the UK, which is being very well received as it reached over 5000 views through social media within only 24hrs of it being released and several new clients coming on board in the coming weeks.
You can book Mark Warwick for Keynote or Public Speaking, to talk about Workplace Mental Health, have him tell his story or whether you have something specific you would like to discuss with him, by reaching out to us HERE
