Being in-work positively impacts on my mental health

Matthew had found the search for work difficult, particularly paired with experiencing anxiety and depression, and needed some extra support to get a full-time job again.  He visited a local jobs fair and met Tracy, who was staffing the Twining Enterprise stand.  Tracy told Matthew about how Twining supports people back into work and things started to change for Matthew from that moment!  Tracy started working with Matthew and he’s now in full time work and his mental health is much better.  Here he tells us his story, in his own words…

In September last year I went along to a jobs fair in Uxbridge.  At the time I was looking for work and went along to the event to see what opportunities there might be.  That’s when I found Twining Enterprise – they had a stand at the fair.

I went up to the stand and asked a bit about what Twining did.  I thought it would be helpful for me because they support people with mental health challenges to look for work.  I have suffered with my mental health in the past – mainly with anxiety and depression – and so I thought Twining might be able to help me.

I was particularly interested in the employment support aspect – I really liked the idea of help applying for jobs and writing CVs – as I found this whole process very difficult.  Sometimes it just feels like a waste of time with little coming back.

Tracy was on the Twining stand and I gave her my details and she got in touch with me soon after and we went through the sign up process.  Then we had regular meetings and we looked at different jobs, developing my CV, and I got a fresh pair of eyes on things.  It was good to get another take on my CV.

I ended up having quite a few interviews in different companies and before each interview I tried to get an appointment with Tracy so we could go over potential interview questions in terms of what they might ask me.

I then got a job!  I started my new full-time job in January!  It felt so good to get offered the job.  I had been doing a bit of agency work before, so compared with the agency work, it was a massive relief.

The job is definitely keeping me busy.  The company has been really supportive.  My mental health has also been good, as having the job really helps my mental health.  It gives me structure, and I know from being in-work versus being out-of-work, that being in-work positively impacts on my mental health.  When I don’t have much to do – I do less.  It’s like my brain tells me to do less… so I end up getting up late and not doing much and getting quickly stuck in a rut.

Tracy was just so supportive throughout the whole time and was easily contactable and available to talk if I needed her.  It was also useful to have someone neutral to speak to.

I would definitely recommend Twining Enterprise to anyone.  It’s a really good way of getting back into full-time work.