Ipswich Town Community Trust provides the light at the end of the tunnel for Chris with Kickstart placement
Chris Moore has recently joined Ipswich Town Community Trust as a Health and Well-being Activator to give back to the same community that helped him after an ongoing battle with his mental health.
For much of the last 10-15 years, Chris has been fighting severe depression and anxiety but even more recently active psychosis. Consequently, he found day-to-day living difficult without even considering the huge impact a new job could have.
Despite this, with the help of his family, close friends, and mental health services in Suffolk, Chris is now at a stage where he can manage the symptoms and voices he incurs every day.
He heard about the opportunity with Ipswich Town and “felt this was a perfect way to give back to the community and services in Suffolk.” Although, mental health is a problem he faces 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Chris is determined to “prove to others that a mental health diagnosis is not the end, that young people with mental health issues can make it through, and that there is help there for everyone.”
As Chris takes a big step in his journey, one that wouldn’t have seemed possible before, he praises the Community Trust’s understanding of his circumstances. He said: “My new role allows me the freedom to get involved with what I’m passionate about helping the community. As well as being hugely supportive of my mental health conditions and workplace adjustments to make me more comfortable.
“I want to just say thank you to my support network of my Friends, Family, My Support worker & mental health care team, and last but not least, my new colleagues within the ITFC Community Trust team. Because if it wasn’t for all of you, I would not be in the place I am today, and I couldn’t help the community that helped me”.
Chris’ passion and desire to ensure he can help as many people as he can is evident in such detailed ideas and plans through his new role. He has already using his experience to help students at the local Suffolk One sixth form college in their future prospect.
He highlights: “I’m aiming to set up a scheme in the new year that combines the use of sport and exercise to battle the symptoms of mental health issues, whilst at the same time teaching members of the community about health and well-being factors relating to their own and others mental health conditions.
As well as this I’m also in the intermediate stage of setting up day trips to the stadium for game days and sport sessions, at the moment I’m involved in talks with management at Ipswich Hospital to get some of the dementia patients and staff day trips to games and sports sessions.”
Although Chris has experienced some very dark moments in his ongoing journey with his mental health, Ipswich Town Community Trust has provided him with the light at the end of the tunnel to give back and support his community.
