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Read Salina’s Story
Background
Salina was told to self-refer to Women’s Work by Trent PTS (NHS counselling service) as they told her that she was ‘too complicated’ for them to provide her therapy. At her assessment Salina shared that she had suffered childhood emotional and physical abuse and struggled with her mental health, including severe anxiety, depression & chronic fatigue. Salina was also in the process of applying for PIP due to the impact her mental health was having on her day to day life and it had begun to affect her 10 year old daughter too. It was agreed that a referral to counselling, The Freedom Programme and Positive Parenting course would be made.
How we helped
Salina started attending the Freedom Programme and had her counselling assessment shortly after where she was offered 16 sessions of counselling. Salina greatly benefitted from her counselling sessions and it was only through discussion with her counsellor that the suggestion of exploring a diagnosis of complex PTSD was made, which had stemmed from her childhood trauma. With this she was able to go back to her GP (following the end of her counselling through Women’s Work) and get a new referral to Trent PTS where she was able to access a further 18 sessions of counselling with them. This dealt with 2 of the 4 areas from her childhood which had resulted in the PTSD.
Additionally, she was able access alternative acne medication which she was unable to previously due to her diagnosis of depression. This acne medication has made a massive difference to Salina’s skin and as a result her confidence and self esteem have vastly improved.
A few weeks later Salina requested some help regarding her PIP claim. Her brother was no longer able to support her and she was finding the whole situation very overwhelming causing her anxiety to worsen. Her project worker was able to provide her with 1-2-1 support to ring the PIP enquiry line where it was discovered there had been an error made on their end. If this error hadn’t of been chased the claim would not have gone through. Once this was solved, Salina’s project worker referred her onto the welfare rights team at Derby City Council where she was allocated a case worker. This case worker was then able to support Salina with her PIP Claim, court date and subsequent appeal (after being denied) and almost 18 months later Salina won her case and was backdated £10,000 from the DWP.
Salina now has the confidence and the ability to return to work and is exploring the option of a part time role as a seamstress with support from her project worker at Women’s Work. Salina also continues to engage with our group therapy sessions including ‘Calm your mind’ and benefits from the techniques and coping strategies she has learnt in these sessions.
