Julian is a volunteer for the Research and Improvement team, and he is also an active member of the patient participation network, Side-by-Side.
At the beginning of the year Julian worked with Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) to share his journey of successfully quitting smoking whilst having a mental health condition. The intervention that helped him quit was part of the SCIMITAR research study; the study evaluated a ‘bespoke smoking cessation’ (BSC) service specifically tailored the individual needs of the patient.
The film project was a collaboration with the University of Bath and University of York, and aimed to encourage awareness of the difficulties related to smoking and mental health conditions, and to help health professionals support people who are in the same situation.
Here's Julian's story:
You can watch the other videos that were produced as part of this series on the Addiction and Mental Health Group AIM YouTube channel.