Five Minutes With - A Senior Support Time Recovery Worker

Hi Anthony, please could you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do at Team BSMHFT

My full name is Anthony Ikechukwu Ogbu . Although my team members address me by my first name, Anthony, I would really love to hear them say "Ikechukwu" with their scintillating accents. As a Nigerian registered nurse and registered mental health nurse who is awaiting his UK?license,?I am currently working as a Senior Support Time Recovery Worker and this is my?eighth?week with my team, Yewcroft CMHT, at The Barberry Centre.?

My job in this current role is supportive in nature. While I am unable to practice as a nurse yet, I still utilize my nursing skills to make mental status examinations and risk assessments, note signs of progression or deterioration, evaluate medication compliance and utilize available resources to support our service users. I understand the place of the family or support system in their recovery process and so, I make an inquest into family history from wherein some precipitating, predisposing or even perpetuating factors to their condition could be unveiled. I observed that most of the work we do here at Yewcroft bears sharp resemblance to my previous experience in Nigeria. However, the striking difference is the legislation, the Mental Health Act, and this is an important aspect of my work here which I am learning.?

I have read incredible things about the NHS and the impression so far is a welcome relief and an opportunity to advance my career and contribute immensely to this great institution. While this phase of my journey is challenging, it is much more fulfilling both in my professional and personal life. Just seven weeks ago, about two months?after?we landed in the UK for the first time travelling outside the shores of Nigeria, my beautiful wife, Joy, gave birth to our first child, Munachiso. This is a bundle of joy to us and a big inspiration to explore the uncharted horizons of life.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in mental health specifically?

I found flair for this wonderful aspect of health during my clinical posting to a psychiatric hospital as a student of general nursing sometime in 2014, in Benue, Nigeria. After the ward round, a man walked up to me and introduced himself. He was a psychiatric doctor, a poet, musician and a multi-talented learned gentleman. He encouraged me to remain studious and serious in school and think of ways to support service users in whatever specialty I decided to go into. He acknowledged my questions and contributions during the ward round and gifted me his book. He left me with these words that arrested my reflection, "I am a psychiatric service user too, with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia." Anyone who understands how clinically significant this condition is would be amazed at the level of the man’s functionality.??

It suddenly dawned on me that anyone, at any age or profession, can suffer with their mental health and that the mental health service in my country was a skeletal bone that needed a passionate person like me to flesh. This encounter spurred me to write a book entitled?In the Madness?in the quest to correct various misconceptions that were contemporary in the Nigerian society. Delving into mental health nursing became timely, in a craving bid to meet this goal and explore other modern therapeutic approaches to the treatment of mental illness and addictions.?

I should also mention that my mum is a nurse and a midwife, and my aunt too. Having come from a home surrounded by nurses and specialist midwives, I wanted to do something different.

What first drew you to BSMHFT and how have you found it so far?

I have been a regular follower of BSMHFT on LinkedIn even before I thought of applying. From the series of posts and updates, I knew that the Trust Values completely aligned with my personal and professional goals. So, when my mentor whispered to me that they were recruiting from overseas, I applied immediately, but I wasn't shortlisted for the interview. Thankfully, I wasn't ghosted like many other organisations where I had also applied. They got back to me with the obvious e-mail "Sorry, Anthony..." I thanked them for the feedback and after about four months, I reapplied and I was shortlisted, interviewed and the rest became history.

So far, right from the first day of my induction, 5 June, I knew I had found myself in the right place. Listening to the Chief Executive,?Róisín?Fallon-Williams talk to us at the opening of the training, great scholars and even learning from the experiences of some service users was all an incredible experience. I like how the Trust is structured and most importantly, I love the fine humans that work here. If it was not my team leader then, Gill White (who recently retired)?keeping close communication to maintain accessibility and group solidarity, it would be Sean Dale, seriously glued to his desk and swift to offer IT assistance. The continuous values I get from Justin Kumire is laudable and I enjoy every home visit with him, just as I enjoy Eleanor Lowe's too and her teaching. I like the contagious smile of Claire St Jean?and the lively presence of my colleague, Nicola Robotham. Every member of my team has got admirable attributes and I am so privileged to be in the team. Their support has been amazing. The first time I arrived at The Barberry, Gill came to the reception to usher me into the office. She spoke to me about the team and what they do. Sean eventually took me around for orientation and when it was time to leave, Gill accompanied me to the bus stop as she understood I was a newbie in the big city.

Has there ever been a stand-out moment in your career that has made you pause and reflect?

I think one of the outstanding moments in my career was in 2019 when I sat on the stars and wondered if they ever twinkled. I had just lost my dad halfway into my post basic studies. My dad was a businessman who had a brief formal education but was determined to support our education to any level we wanted to attain.

What pained me most was that he did not fully reap the fruits of his labour. I wanted to make him proud and return the sacrifices he made for me. This experience strengthened my compassion and empathy and made me think that to be a good nurse, one must consider a service user’s family too. Losing my dad in the nick of my career was the biggest motivation to move on to the fore despite the foes of life in the understanding that the great height (which was made difficult to attain by dad’s demise) is yet within my might. I am fulfilled that through my mum’s determination and our collective resolution, we are achieving the very feats that dad would have been proud of us if he were alive.?

My immediate younger brother graduated from the University with First Class, the third and the fourth have written their final exams and the last born is exploring his career in medicine. This story is much more significant in my country where education, healthcare, basic amenities, including portable water and stable power, have almost zero funding by the government and the average Nigerian can only afford these only if he worked his fingers to the bone.

Tell us something that people might not know about you

While people easily identify me as a nurse, I think a lot of people do not know that I peddle words for a living too. If you lock me up in a room and open the window to usher in fresh air of inspiration and give me a book and a pen, you might find the book fully worded. Then if you confine me in a garden, you may be greeted with romance stories and poems. I typically evolve in my writing career given environment, experience, knowledge, intuition, inspiration, you name it! You may think I will forget to mention “conscience” because I am guided by moral rectitude, values and principles. I have seven published books which cut across the genres of literature, and I am currently building a platform where people can easily access my books.

I am also an ardent advocate for mental health awareness and campaigns. With my experience across leading mental health hospitals in Nigeria, my passion for health advocacy/ visits was flamed up and I extended this burning passion into community sensitization and referred a copious amount of people to rehabilitation and psychiatric hospitals. This is remarkable especially in the aftermath of?EndSARS, a peaceful protest by Nigerian youths that resulted in military clapback. The outcome was deeply traumatic. To cushion the friction of post-traumatic stress disorder, I and my team member, Chinelo, a Clinical Psychologist, volunteered.

Describe yourself in three words

I don't really know the most appropriate words to describe myself, but if you would permit me to differ from your question, I would say that I have a kind heart so large that it continuously hugs humanity in warmness and love despite existential differences.

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