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Stuart's clinical experience has covered various aspects of mental health and social care with a variety of populations. However his main interests are in working with people diagnosed with schizophrenia or other psychotic states, personality disorder and those who harm themselves. He believes that it is never enough to simply write people off as ‘difficult’, ‘unco-operative’ or ‘manipulative’ and much of his training relates to helping workers to find effective ways to engage and work with people who have complex needs.
As well as mental health-related interests Stuart has a passion for helping workers in all areas of health and social care to find the balance between fulfilling their duty of care and at the same time respecting the service-user’s right to take risks and to determine their own life choices. He says that this isn’t quite so difficult a balance to strike as many people seem to think but it does require a little thought on occasion.
Stuart didn’t always intend to be a nurse. As a boy and young man he really intended to be an actor and director. However he says that he quickly learned that he wasn’t good enough. A succession of low paid jobs to fund his theatrical dreams as well as a couple of periods of homelessness led him to realise that whatever the ‘X’ factor might be – he certainly didn’t have it.
So he began considering three different alternatives. One was salesmanship – but that wasn’t really for him. Another was a career in the church but again it wasn’t really the career for Stuart and the other option was social and health care. He got a job in the hostel he lived in and that led him into a succession of care assistant jobs until eventually Stuart applied for and began his nurse training in 1992..
Since then he's literally never looked back. Stuart says that he has found his true vocation and cannot imagine himself ever leaving mental health and social care again. He's been a registered nurse since 1995.
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