Lauren-Bee’s inspiring journey to success

Lauren-Bee is a 26-year-old under the early intervention psychosis team. She was referred over to me in March 2025.

Lauren-Bee was signed off sick from her previous employment due to an episode of Psychosis. She was struggling to decide whether to go back to her employment as she felt like she was a burden to her team due to her mental health. She was lacking confidence when applying and attending interviews and being uncertain of her own skillset.

We met and agreed on a plan to return to paid employment, looking at what Lauren-Bee wanted to do, where she would like to work, and what she wanted to get out of a new role. Lauren-Bee wanted to find employment where she was making a difference to people. She felt her role at the time was her dream role, making it even more difficult to leave.

Within the first week of Lauren-Bee joining the programme, she had an interview lined up, which is a testament to how determined she is. We had several calls around her interview skills and completed a lot of preparation. Her CV was amended, and she took every piece of advice on board. This helped with her achieving her end goal.

From the very start, Lauren-Bee felt as if her mental health would not be a point of discussion with any prospective employers, as she did not want them to look at her any different. She felt this would hold her back in gaining new employment. Throughout all our meetings, we always had this topic of discussion. Lauren-Bee had then managed to secure a role at the local organisation. In our meeting after she had accepted the role, she had changed her mind and wanted to disclose her mental health to her employer. We discussed this in depth, created a Positive Health Statement and ran through a practice run in calling her employer. We created some key sentences and phrases she could use to help her word this as best as possible on the phone. Lauren-Bee wanted to call as she wanted to be as open as possible. After she had told her employer, they had the best possible reaction and offered any support that Lauren-Bee needed. This was great news and relieved a lot of pressure and bias for Lauren-Bee.

We kept to the agreed In Work Support plan and had weekly contact, mainly occurring when Lauren-Bee was travelling to work. Lauren-Bee has settled in well and we are still in regular communication, supporting her around her employment. Lauren-Bee also completed a “dry run” of travel to her workplace, where we called after to make sure she was comfortable and confident in completing the journey.

Lauren-Bee has now been employed since May 2025 and is flourishing. She has become more confident, proactive and self-efficient. Lauren-Bee has also moved out from her mother’s house, privately renting and supporting herself financially. Lauren-Bee’s employer has also praised her, being happy with how she has settled in.