It’s all about that four letter word…. H…E…L….P… HELP! When I grew up under Thatcher in the mid to late 1980s everything was about customer service.  How do you make a better experience for your customer without them even asking. That approach even seeped into the charitable and public sector too, for a little while. […]

So, my health journey continues with my trip today to the teeth police, or dentists to be more polite. Thankfully, I get a reasonable pass for my work! – although I could do better with my brushing technique, hence a recommendation to spend time with a hygienist on top of the £40 cost for today’s […]

Myalgic encephalomyelitis [ME] aka chronic fatigue syndrome [CFS] is a serious long-term condition that impacts multiple systems in the body.  Sufferers can experience severe fatigue and persistent insomnia, while symptoms can be severely exacerbated as the result of physical, mental and emotional exertion, no matter how minor.[this phenomenon is known as post-exertional malaise]. May 12th […]

The report mentions substance misuse I was a regular visitor to A&E, GPs and dentists. I was a real burden on an already struggling NHS, but in my defence, I was in the grips of addiction, I was a lost soul, frightened and mentally unwell. I have fallen down the stairs knocking myself unconscious, I’ve […]

They say that one person can make the difference. That’s true, but I’ve generally found one voice in a deafening crowd gets lost within the maelstrom of noise but add our voices together, then just maybe, just maybe, we can be heard and have influence for the good. They say that one person can make […]

Hello everyone, it’s John Chiko. So today I will be starting a series called Emotions For Our Future, which will be focused on the emotions I believe will help humanity solve its many problems and build a better future for us all. The first emotion I want to talk about is empathy, which I believe […]

One night between lockdowns, after a rare excursion out of the borough, I return to Brixton by tube. It’s nearly midnight. A ghost town. Don’t think I’ve ever seen the high street so empty except, perhaps, at four in the morning. There’s a chill in the air, after all it’s October. A fine drizzle clings to […]

A woman I met at a chatty ‘get together’  asked me what I did. I hate the question, not because I’m ashamed of what I do but I think people are too quick to define each other by the work they do and the status that gives you. When the work I did wasn’t strictly […]

Hello everyone, it’s John Chiko once again. Today I will be talking about the migrant community of Coventry, which of course I am a part of as a national from Zimbabwe. So, Coventry has a very diverse migrant community, as with the whole of West Midlands. There are people from all over the world, with […]

The pungent aroma of freshly ground coffee, the delicious odour of croissants baked with almonds, the hustle and bustle of many feet as they clamour for attention at the counter. I notice a reflection and I stare through myself as I gaze longingly at the reaches beyond my reach. My eyes sting from the bitter […]

TEXT FROM AUDIO There’s a difference at the moment. There are a lot of people who are computer illiterate but nowadays people start using tablets and phones from a very early age.  So, it‘’s not so much of a problem for them as it used to be for the older generation who have never used them […]

“Prior to the pandemic we would highlight people with health needs who were rough sleeping.  Get them off the street, put them into ICN beds and have kind of wrap around physical health support with me, and the specialist homeless GP practices, and give them respite.  It prevents hospital admissions basically. So the model for […]

These are stone cold facts for me, anyway. Some guy is at the centre of this Coronation who doesn’t represent one iota of the masses. Meanwhile people have been running around Tescos buying paper plates and jelly to celebrate. I get that people want an escape and all that but there is no out.   We’ve […]

My major issue is not drugs, it’s mental health. Put it this way, my reality is just different from others but I see addiction and mental health issues as being indivisible. They are both symptoms of homelessness rather than direct causes of it. For example how can OCD be mental health and addiction not, when […]