At work:
- More evaluation sessions in schools. Kids are amazing and funny, I love these. Have also been speaking to head and deputy-head teachers about the programme as part of the evaluation.
- Been writing up notes from the pop-up consultations I did last week. Next week, working on the report for the evaluation sessions.
- Attended an event by Our House on rethinking democracy and encountered some trolling in the chat by 2-3 people who joined the event with the intent to disrupt. Was so unexpected that it took me a good while to realise that was what was happening. (Wondering if I engaged *too much* – you know, don’t feed the trolls etc.)
Deliverables this week:
- Internal project notes on the pop-up consultations.
- Mentoring sessions that are ongoing with senior managers in a health board, to support the adoption of co-production at strategic level.
Development this week:
- Had a scoping chat about designing a strategic away day for a team to develop their next EDI strategy.
At home:
- Haven’t set up the wildlife camera yet, it’s just sat there looking at me.
- Did quite a bit of Welsh study but feeling rusty this week – some weeks I really feel like I’m taking more in, and some weeks I feel like I’m forgetting everything I’ve ever learnt! Did some reading out loud to my friend to work on my pronunciation though, that was nice.
- Finished Another Kind of Madness by Stephen Hinshaw, which I’d been at for a while. As a psychologist himself, he draws on his family history to talk about mental health and particularly schizophrenia and bipolar diagnoses, and about the stigma that still surrounds mental health. Harrowing and hard going, but glad I’ve read it.
- Read Happiness by Aminatta Forna. It was very excellent, and I recommend it. My neighbour dropped it off in case I was interested and I loved it. It talks about urban foxes which is what drew me in, but it’s mainly about relationships and trauma and resilience, building connections and looking after those you care about. The writing is stunning.
Photo by Tj Holowaychuk on Unsplash