I worked for many years with people experiencing severe mental health issues. I'm not sure how that happened, but it did. Almost by accident, I moved to carer support, working with the families and partners of people who were supporting someone experiencing these conditions. I stayed there for 15 years. These carers were trying to help with, amongst other things, psychotic or mania episodes, extreme distress, self-harm, suicide attempts, drug use and often frequent enforced admissions into hospital. I was amazed by how these families coped, often with little helpful information or emotional support themselves. Professionals were often busy, focused on the wellbeing of their 'patient' – carers often had minimal contact. It was hard to know how best to cope, what was the 'right' thing to do.

My Fellowship looked at how New Zealand and The Netherlands approached this issue – did they do carer support better than the UK? I discovered several useful ideas that I introduced to the service I managed. I have also written a book since retiring, pulling together all the ideas, inspirations and advice I learnt from the Fellowship and my experience, but mostly all the family carers that I met.