Hi I’m Steve Walter. This site arose out of my thinking on spirit and sustainability before the Millennium and my experience of breakdown, and later my interest in mental health. After my first breakdown in 1997, reaffirmed by my second in 1999, I was diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder.
I first ‘came out’ and told my story in 2001 and became an Ambassador for the Department of Health’s mind out for mental health campaign. I began working with the Business Disability Forum in 2003, became an Associate and played an active role in many conferences, seminars and workshops on mental health. I am now also involved with Business Disability International.
I performed a show at the Brighton and Edinburgh Festival Fringes, with spoken word, music and song, between 2009 and 2012 based on my first book: Fast Train Approaching… a memoir, and later, drawing on other people’s stories in Voices; mental health survivors, carers, therapist, family and friends. By sharing our stories I believe we help give other people permission to share theirs and help to dispel stigma.
I bring my personal experience to play in developing lively and engaging training sessions on mental health. My mission is to have mental health discussed over coffee, over a drink, or at work, without fear of stigma or gossip. I have presented on emotional resilience, and am looking to help ‘break the silence’ in organisations…
(I am also a Chartered Member of IOSH and a Chartered Environmentalist. I first qualified in biochemistry and chemistry, and then environmental health, and as a Principal Environmental Health Officer, completed my MBA in 1994. While working with EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation I specialised in occupational health. I was then a Global HSE Manager for a manufacturing company, and now a travelling fire and health and safety consultant.)