Time to Talk Day is a reminder that conversations about mental health don’t need to be perfect — they just need to happen. In a world where we’re constantly connected but often feel deeply alone, taking a moment to check in with someone can be transformative. Not because we have all the answers, but because we’re willing to listen.
Talking about mental health isn’t about fixing people. It’s about creating space.
Space for honesty.
Space for vulnerability.
Space for the truth that everyone carries something unseen.
Through my work in psychological safety, trauma‑informed practice, and lived‑experience leadership, I’ve learned that connection grows when people feel safe enough to speak and valued enough to be heard. A simple “How are you, really?” can open a door someone has been waiting years to walk through.
For carers, families, and trauma survivors, these conversations are not just helpful — they are essential.
“Remember that you have a voice”: Why Young Carers, Families, and Unpaid Carers Must Be Heard
One of the most powerful pieces of work I’ve been involved in through Healthwatch Essex is the project “Remember that you have a voice”: Involving young carers in research.
That message — remember that you have a voice — captures everything I believe about trauma‑informed communication and mental health advocacy.
Young carers and families often grow up in silence:
● Not wanting to burden anyone
● Not being asked how they feel
● Not being included in decisions
● Not recognising themselves as carers
● Not knowing they are allowed to speak
This project challenges that silence.
It shows young carers and families that their experiences are valid, their insights are essential, and their voices can shape research, policy, and practice.
For me, this work is deeply personal.
I was once that young carer who didn’t know she had a voice.
Now, I help create platforms where carers, families, and young people can speak — and be heard.
Healthwatch Essex: Changing the Narrative Through Lived Experience
My work with Healthwatch Essex focuses on amplifying the voices of young carers, unpaid carers, families navigating complex systems, people affected by trauma and communities who feel unheard.
Through research, storytelling, and involvement, we challenge the narratives that keep carers invisible. We highlight the emotional impact of caring. We show how trauma shapes people’s interactions with services. And we advocate for systems that listen — not just when things go wrong, but from the very beginning.
Time to Talk Day aligns perfectly with this mission.
It’s about creating space for honesty, vulnerability, and connection.
It’s about recognising that mental health is shaped by the systems around us.
And it’s about ensuring that every voice — especially those carrying trauma — is heard.
Healthwatch Essex Trauma Card: Empowering Trauma Survivors to Communicate Safely
A key part of trauma‑informed communication is giving people tools that help them feel safe. That’s why the Healthwatch Essex Trauma Card is such an important resource.
The Trauma Card was created to empower trauma survivors to communicate their needs without having to relive or explain their trauma. It allows people to discreetly share that they may:
● Become overwhelmed
● Experience triggers
● Need space, time, or support
● Struggle to communicate verbally during distress
The card gives survivors a way to advocate for themselves in moments when speaking is difficult — or impossible.
For carers and families who have witnessed or experienced trauma, this card can be a lifeline. It protects dignity. It reduces re-traumatisation. It opens the door to safer, more compassionate conversations.
This is trauma‑informed care in action:
choice, voice, safety, and empowerment.
Carers and Families: The Emotional and Mental Health Impact of Caring
Research consistently shows that carers and families:
● Experience higher levels of anxiety and emotional strain
● Carry trauma from repeated crises or distressing events
● Often feel overlooked by professionals
● Struggle to balance caring with their own wellbeing
● Rarely receive the mental health support they need
My story is one example. I didn’t have a carer’s passport. I didn’t have structured support. I didn’t have professionals asking what I needed or how I was coping.
That’s why I now advocate for:
● Carer passports
● Flexible working policies
● Involvement in decision‑making
● Recognition of emotional labour
● Support for young carers and families to reach their goals
Carers and families are experts by experience. Their insight is not an add‑on — it is a critical part of safe, effective, trauma‑informed care.
Turning Lived Experience Into Tools, Resources, and System‑Level Change
Over the last few years, I’ve turned my lived experience into practical, accessible, trauma‑informed resources that support carers, families, patients, and staff across Essex and the wider NHS. These include:
The Trauma Buddy Passport
A tool that gives people a voice when they are triggered, distressed, or overwhelmed — without needing to explain their trauma.
The Healthwatch Essex Trauma Card
A discreet, empowering resource that helps trauma survivors communicate their needs safely and without retraumatisation.
The ERCA Carers Pack
A resource that validates the carer identity, explains rights, and signposts support for families who often don’t see themselves as carers.
Simulation and Reflective Practice Training
Workshops for NHS apprentices that embed empathy, communication, and trauma‑informed practice into the workforce from day one.
Carer Passports, Involvement Standards, and Mental Health Liaison Guidance
Frameworks co‑produced across NELFT, EPUT, EEAST, and Healthwatch Essex to ensure carers and families are recognised as partners in care.
All of these pieces of work share one purpose:
To make sure carers, families, and trauma survivors are recognised, included, and supported — not as an afterthought, but as partners in care.
Why This Matters on Time to Talk Day
Time to Talk Day isn’t about forcing people to share their trauma.
It’s about creating environments where they could, if they wanted to.
The resources I’ve helped create — the Trauma Buddy Passport, the Healthwatch Essex Trauma Card, the ERCA Carers Pack, the simulation workshops, the involvement frameworks — all exist to make those environments possible.
They help people communicate safely.
They help staff respond compassionately.
They help carers and families feel seen.
They help patients feel understood.
They help organisations build cultures where conversations can happen without fear.
This is what trauma‑informed, carer‑centred, psychologically safe practice looks like in action.
My Hope for Time to Talk Day
I hope today encourages:
● Carers to feel seen
● Families to feel supported
● Young carers to know they have a voice
● Trauma survivors to feel empowered
● Staff to feel confident having trauma‑informed conversations
● Organisations to embed psychologically safe communication
● Communities to recognise the emotional labour of caring
● People with lived experience to know their voice matters
And I hope it reminds us all that mental health advocacy isn’t just about raising awareness — it’s about changing the conditions that make people feel unsafe to speak in the first place.
That’s the work I’m committed to.
That’s the work of Healthwatch champions.
And that’s why Time to Talk Day matters.
Megan
Healthwatch Essex Trauma Ambassador