Psychosis patients set sail on adventure therapy

The scheme is part of the Voyage to Recovery project

A mental health trust is using sailing as an adventure therapy for psychosis patients.

Twelve people under the care of Tees Esk and Wear Valley NHS Trust are taking part in the Voyage to Recovery project.

The patients and staff are sailing from Hartlepool to Ipswich, arriving next Thursday.

The trust said the project, now in its fourth year, had "proven to support people on their recovery journey".

Gary Hall, from Stockton, says he struggles to leave the house and only feels safe outside with headphones on.

But, when his mental health nurse offered him the chance to go on the sailing trip, he snapped it up.

"It's going to get me out of the flat, it's going to get me around other people who have the same problems as me, I'm looking forward to it," he said.

Gary Hall said he was excited and has never been on a boat before

The 43-year-old said he came into the care of the Early Intervention in Psychosis Team (EIP) after having a bad mental health episode and hearing voices.

"It was getting to the point where it was people that had hurt me in the past, I was hearing their voices and I didn’t know what was going on," he said.

Mr Hall said he wanted to break the stigma around psychosis, having lost friends when he told them he had started hearing voices.

"They were thinking he's crazy, he's going to hurt us," he said.

"The more you run away from people who've got psychosis problems the more they're going to think 'I'm crazy'."

Jodi McQueeney said early intervention was key for psychosis patients

Jodi McQueeney, an advanced practitioner for Stockton EIP, said people experiencing psychosis could report "feeling isolated, feeling alone in their experiences and not being able to come out of the house".

She said "adventure therapy" could help through "team building, looking at people's resilience, self belief, increasing self confidence".

The Tees, Esk and Wear Valley Trust has taken on the 10th leg of the Voyage to Recovery nationwide sailing trip.

"People that have been on in previous years come back and report a massive sense of achievement," Ms McQueeney said.

"It's really challenged the outlook on their recovery journey."

Sarah Scott said she lost her job and friends due to suffering psychosis but was excited to get her life back together

Sarah Scott, 26, is another crew member taking part in the voyage to recovery.

"I was hearing voices for a while and I didn’t tell anyone and just kept it to myself, there’s so much stigma about it which is why I didn’t tell anyone about it," she said.

"They think you’re going to hurt them, but you’re more of a danger to yourself, than other people and people need to understand that more."

She said the trip would be "challenging" but she wanted to get "out there, build my confidence up meet new people".