In this blog, I am going to be talking about why it is important to raise awareness about mental health, but most importantly in regards to foster children and people who are in the fostering system. This is my personal opinion based on my experience as someone who has been in the fostering system and witnessed firsthand why it is critical to raise as much awareness as possible about such an issue and subject.
As someone who has gone through the fostering system and who suffers with a diagnosis of mixed anxiety and depressive disorder, having mental health issues can sometimes make life feel very lonely and make us feel that we are alone a lot of the time. For one, I can admit, from having the condition, that a lot of the time I do feel very alone as I never know how to trust people or even know who to trust.
This can sometimes be the truth for a lot of foster children and people who have gone through care and into independence, as when having a mental health condition, a lot of the time we can stay in control of how to feel, but also a lot of the time our condition can make us feel alone and out of control with emotions, especially when we suffer from depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder.
In my experience, when suffering with these conditions, feeling like I am alone is the worst feeling in the world, but a lot of the time, it is the truth, as we never know who we can be honest with and most importantly, who we can be truthful with, as the condition can make us feel that everyone is out to get us, which is how I felt when being in care, especially in regards to my foster carers and social workers trying to support me.
But why is it important to raise such an issue in regards to mental health among foster children and care leavers?
In my opinion, I believe that it is important to raise awareness on this topic as mental health is more prevalent in children in care and care leavers. I know this from seeing this myself in my own time in the care system and even now leaving care and transferring into independence. However, from what I have seen, the fact of mental health is shown in two types of age ranges of care experienced people, which are those who are in college transferring to either independence or higher education such as university, and most importantly, children in care who are in their GCSE years, because of stress and, more importantly, the fact of overworking due to not having the same support as their peers.
Being a care experienced person and suffering with mental health can sometimes feel that everything and everyone is against you, when in reality this is not the case. A Lot of the time people who are in care have a lot of people around them that want to help and support them, but with the condition that they have, weather this is ( Anxiety, Depression, Bipolar, BPD) and so on, the condition can make them feel and see that people are against them, which in my own opinion i got this all the time when being in care for the first few months before getting counseling and being placed on long term medication.
So, a message for care experienced people both in care and leaving to move into independence. Never feel that you are alone when suffering with your mental health as this is never the case. There will always be someone around who will want to support and help you the best they can whether this is someone from school, college, work, your friends, family that you are still in contact with or even your social worker or personal advisor. There are so many people around us that are willing to help, all we need to do is take the big step and ask someone to help us.
To find advice and information on services that can help with mental health issues please visit : https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/
By Anonymous Care Experienced Blogger
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