Ellen’s story

Kirtling House Accommodation Service is in Winchester in Hampshire and we spoke to Ellen Cartwright who was previously a resident there about her experience of moving on from the service and making the transition to live in her own flat.

One of our service types at Together is accommodation, which can be 24 hour residential where an experienced team of recovery workers are onsite permanently. The second type of accommodation we provide is supported living services where people are preparing to move on to independent living, such as having their own flat for example.

Ellen appears in the videos with Anna Riviello who is project manager at Kirtling House and who met up with Ellen to help her decide on what she’d like to cover in the films. To do that Ellen wrote down the points she wanted to make which is why she can be seen reading through these notes in the videos and Anna also explained the way the team at Kirtling worked alongside Ellen.

Content Warning: Please note, these video interviews do involve discussion of self harm which some people may find distressing.

In the first clip below Ellen describes her own experience of mental distress and the process of moving into Kirtling House:
In this video Ellen explains the different coping strategies she learned while she was at Kirtling House and how they have helped her to deal with issues she has faced including self harm and managing her medication:
In this next part of the interview Ellen describes lived experience of how with support from the staff at Kirtling House she took on a volunteering role and gained independence from that:
In this next clip Ellen describes how she worked towards moving on from Kirtling House and the process of making that transition to living in her own flat:
In this final instalment Ellen and Anna discuss peer support at Kirtling House and the positive impact that has on the support provided:

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