A reason to wake up in the morning

Hi! My name is Rebecca. I like cooking, watching films and listening to music. I have Bi-polar affective disorder which started 21 years ago. I had a major relapse to my illness sometime ago and was recommended to join Mosaic Clubhouse via my Community Mental Health Team base. I was a bit reluctant to go at first as I felt that I could only stay in my room and not go out. I didn’t feel a reason to do anything in life. In the end I made the first step to Mosaic Clubhouse and I’m glad I did. Here’s my story and how I made progress in life.

When I first joined Mosaic Clubhouse in July 2017, I spent the first few days just wondering from unit to unit and sitting in the Café and having cups of tea. Until, I met Sinead in the Employment and Education Unit. She helped me to engage in tasks in the Employment and Education Unit. I did tasks such as: displaying educational prospectuses in the department, keeping the departmental room neat and tidy, updating the newsletter, entering birthdays, typing information into the newsletter, typing and distributing departmental memos to other departments within the Clubhouse and setting up tables and chairs within the Clubhouse.

I later joined the Business Administration Unit in January 2018, I gained even more experience in doing tasks such as: recording member attendances on the database, making birthday cards for Clubhouse members, entering events onto the database system, making outreach phonecalls to Mosaic Clubhouse members, completing financial paper entries, reception duty where I answered the intercom system and welcoming members and completing their sign-in detail for the day, typing and sending out welcome letters to send out with welcome packs and creating welcome packs.

I’m so glad that I made the first step in attending Mosaic Clubhouse as it makes me feel confident, that I had meaning to life and my concentration improved rapidly. Whilst at Mosaic Clubhouse I went from only concentrating on tasks for 20 minutes to being able to concentrate on tasks for 2 hours which is such an achievement!

I am currently doing a TEP which is a Transitional Employment Placement with the Living Well Network. The role involves: inputting referrals onto a database, creating letters on the Word software package and sending them out and the creation of welcome packs.

I found out about the TEP as I had suggested to my support worker Katie at Mosaic Clubhouse that I would like to look for some work someday. She suggested a TEP and said that some of the tasks that I do at Mosaic Clubhouse in the various units will come in handy when starting a TEP.

At first, I was worried about starting the TEP, I was worried that I wouldn’t wake up early to be ready for work or that the TEP would be difficult. I was worried that I wouldn’t know how to get to the TEP workplace. Luckily Katerina from Mosaic Clubhouse went with me on a first trip and travelled with me to see the workplace and to meet the staff there and to have a tour of the department. When I started the TEP, what a surprise! I woke up early every day to start my morning shift as there are 2 shifts- morning and afternoon. The staff at the TEP workplace were so friendly and welcoming and they still are one month into my TEP. I had great help from Katerina who sat beside me every day during my training for two weeks to make sure I got to know my TEP work inside out. Which was amazing and very helpful. I am still able to call on her if I need extra support or more training but otherwise the other staff at the TEP workplace are always easy to approach for help. My TEP with the Living Well Network is a wonderful starting point after I thought I would never work again. It gives me confidence in myself, a reason to wake up in the morning, gives me more work experience and is rewarding and its paid employment.

As my TEP is only for 9 months, well once its finished I will attend job club at Mosaic Clubhouse and I would like to register with Remploy which is UK's leading disability specialist-transforming lives through sustainable employment. I want to attend Mosaic Clubhouse and register with Remploy to keep my work options open, so I have more chances of employment. I would like to look for a job in administration.