A peer worker is helping to create a "community" on mental health wards by drawing on his own struggles with addiction and mental health.
Dan Buck uses his lived experience to support patients and improve inpatient care at Brockfield House, a secure mental health unit in Wickford.
He is one of more than 20 peer workers at Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) who are helping to ensure patients receive "personalised and therapeutic care".
Mr Buck said: "I went through 20 years of struggling to understand my own mental health.
"I self-medicated with alcohol for a long time before hitting rock bottom about five years ago.
"That experience lit a fire in me to help others in similar situations."
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Mr Buck does this by providing one-to-one and group support.
He helps run activities, works closely with clinical staff, and sits in multidisciplinary team meetings to help patients express their needs and goals.
Mr Buck added: "Because we’re non-clinical and have lived experience, patients often open up to us more easily.
"We can then advocate for them in a professional way and help translate clinical language into something more understandable.
"We’re helping to create a community on the ward - a space where people feel understood, supported, and inspired to move forward."
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