A Stockport man living with long-covid has been given the tools to cope and hope for a better future by an NHS mental health service.
The psychological medicine post-covid service, run by Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, supports people in Greater Manchester who are living with complex physical, emotional and cognitive problems following covid.
Ben Stubbs lives in Stockport and has suffered with long-covid symptoms since June 2021. Having previously been an active painter and decorator, Ben was 45 years old when he caught covid. It was months later that his symptoms worsened and started to affect his daily life.
Simple tasks such as taking the bins out, walking upstairs or cooking a meal were making him breathless and exhausted. Ben reached out for help and had a series of physical health checks and tests performed, but nothing helped to ease the problem.
He felt frustrated, confused and hopeless for the future. He felt isolated and would not leave his home for anything other than a medical appointment.
After the birth of his second child, Ben was relieved to have a new focus and distraction. Months later, his mental health deteriorated again as his physical condition was preventing him from being as involved as he wanted to be. He explains: “I felt guilty and ashamed that I couldn’t support my family in the way I wanted to. I had no energy to do anything. My life as I knew it had been taken away from me. I was in a really dark place.”
In late 2022, Ben was referred to the post-covid service. He started to see senior cognitive behavioural therapist Karen Taylor, who had face-to-face sessions with Ben on a regular basis. Ben says: “I couldn’t have asked for a better person. Karen was so understanding and validated the way I was feeling. She taught me to accept the situation and change my mindset to focus on what I can still do, rather than what I cannot.”
The sessions focused on mindfulness and coping techniques, as well as the chance to meet other people living with long-covid. “I felt listened to and truly understood for the first time. Karen explained that this would be a slow process with bumps in the road. She gave me realistic expectations,” adds Ben.
Karen worked closely with Stockport long-covid physical health service, who provide physiotherapy, to discuss appropriate treatment for Ben. These sessions helped him feel more confident in his body, as he explained: “I’d tried this route before with another provider and felt like I was set up to fail with unrealistic and complex exercises. The service understood more about my abilities and gave me slow, simple exercises that I could do in bed or on the sofa at home. It gave me the boost I needed to feel more confident, and a hope for a better future.”
Ben is keen to reduce the stigma around men’s mental health and wellbeing. He recommends mindfulness to anyone he can. Although his physical health is making slower progress, he feels that he is in a much better place with his mental health and wants to become a volunteer to support others.
For those not yet receiving support, Ben says: “If you believe you have long-covid, ask to be referred to this service. They’ll help you get your life back on track and is something positive to focus on. They have changed my life and I am eternally grateful for their support.”
Karen Taylor, senior cognitive behavioural therapist, explained more about the service: “We work with local long-covid assessment services and focus on personalised holistic care to help people self-manage physical and psychological symptoms to improve their quality of life. We’re delighted to hear that our work has helped Ben and we wish him all the very best for a brighter future.”
