Cath Pickles, founder of Restitute and research collaborator
On this week's Mental Health and You podcast, we hear from Cath Pickles, founder of Restitute. She shares her experiences of her daughter's disclosure of sexual abuse. Cath has learnt so much through supporting her daughter (often through desperate internet searches at 2am whilst waiting for her to go to sleep) and she explains how she has gone on to help carers of survivors of sexual and violent abuse by setting up Restitute.
Cath explains on the podcast the effects the trauma has had on her daughter and the knock-on effects for the whole family. Cath felt she learnt so much from her experiences that she had to share her knowledge and offer her support to other families in the same position. Surprisingly, it is sometimes a skip and help with a clear-out that can help the most for families who are living daily with trauma, guilt and shame.
Using her lived experience Cath is now working with NSFT on one of our projects ASPIRE representing the voice of carers and parents of children who have experienced ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and giving advice on how the intervention can be more effectively delivered.
Cath is a big supporter of research and Restitute is part of our NSFT Researching Together Network which encourages charities, schools and community groups across Norfolk and Suffolk to join our group to hear about research opportunities, suggest research to us and to share knowledge. If you are interested in finding out more about the Researching Together Network please email researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk or visit the Researching Together Network page.
Find out more about Restitute here.