Both Sides Of The Medication Cart - With Bill and Kate

The further adventures, if we can call it that, of Kate and her mental health struggles. In this episode, we find out that Kate has been welcomed back in to the fold of the hospital as long as she stope threating suicide. She feels well enough to go home for a visit to her mothers and sister, but this has disastrous consequences as Kate breaks all the house rules set by her sister and whilst at he mom and sister house, Kate overdoses and tries to take her own life. This is the first and last time Kate ever did this.

de of the medication cart, having been told by many she was going to be famous. Had that gone to her head? In this episode she admits it did. We also find her now, in the long term psychiatric hospital, the notorious Whitby; she starts to feel worse and even threatens to take her own life, the consequences of which are devastating. The ward was locked and Kate confined to her bed space. Then, the whole ward decided to have a meeting, and it was the whole ward, from cleaners to patients and the staff too. They put Kate in the middle of a circle and took a vote on whether or not Kate should stay on the ward or not. Even though Kate liked being the centre of attention, she did not mean like this. Here she felt like An enemy of the People.

Moving on with Kate journey of her mental illness struggles. We now find Kate in the talked about Psychiatric Unit, Whitby Psychiatric hospital. Here she decides it is not that bad until the night time, when she, for the first time encounters a self harmer. Things get that bad for Kate she stops bathing and doing here laundry, till eventually she runs out of clean clothes. She now fells even more ill than she did before she arrived and as she says, she felt warehoused. justask@steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

More in the story of Kate and how she ended up on the wrong side of the medication cart, having been told by many she was going to be famous. Had that gone to her head? In this episode she admits it did. We also find her now, in the long term psychiatric hospital, the notorious Whitby; only it seems to be not that notorious. But again, Kate feels hopeless. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

Another powerful episode in which Kate reveals that she is now very scared of the prospect of being sent to the Notorious Psychiatric Hospital - Whitby. Hospital which is only spoken about in whispers. It is a place where people where sent to and never went home again. She tell us about the tear and about her single bed space, This is a very gripping episode of the girl most likely to succeed but sadly, at this point in her life, didn't. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

Continuing the story of the Canadian actress, Kate. In this episode we find her at home with her mother and sister, having been discharged from the general hospital, again! But, Kate's road to recovery hits a pot hole when she gets over exited about going to the movies with her brother. Unbeknownst to Kate, she passes in to the world of psychosis when she becomes convinced that she is the star of the movie and believes herself to the wife of the crocodile hunter in the box office hit, Crocodile Dundee. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

Another great podcast about the girl who was going to be the next great Canadian actress and found her self in the psychiatric hospital many many times. In this episode, she finds out that she is being sent to the notorious Whitby psychiatric asylum for long term treatment; on her notes it says for several months plus. Kate has other ideas and again hatches a plan. She gets dressed in out door clothes and escapes from the hospital and hitch hikes her way back to her mother and sisters house; only to be told that they knew all about Whitby and the fact they had agreed to send her there. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

Continuing the story of the girl most likely to succeed. Kate, having rejected the idea of living in a psychiatric group hope, again finds herself in hospital. She is only there a short time and goes back to her mother and sisters, again only for a short time as they also send her back to the general hospital and now she finds herself back on the psychiatric ward. In and out. Out and in. Now, a decision has to be made and the hospital did just that. They gave Kate the paper work to fill out, giving the consent to send her to a long term psychiatric unit for several months, to try out some revolutionary psychiatric techniques. She threw the paper in the air and yelled ''How Dare They''. But, inside, she was falling apart.

Continuing the story of how the girl most likely to succeed in Canadian theatre, ended up in a psychiatric hospital many times and whilst there the chained her to a bed and given a cocktail of different medications; treatment. They released her from the chains and decided the best thing for her was long term psychiatric medication care. She was then sent to a groups hostel to live with other people who had mental illness, in the hopes this environment would be better than going home. This did not work out and Kate wanted to leave and go back home, to her mothers and sisters house. This too did not last and Kate once again, found her self back in hospital having fought against the system again! She was, in her own words, her own worst enemy. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

Continuing the story of how the girl most likely to succeed in Canadian theatre, ended up in a psychiatric hospital many time and whilst there the chained her to a bed and given a cocktail of different medications; treatment. They released her from the chains and decided the best thing for her was long term psychiatric medication care. She was then sent to a groups hostel to live with other people who had mental illness, in the hopes this environment would be better than going home. WARNING: This episode may contain mental health triggers to some. Listen at you own discretion. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

Continuing the story of the girl most likely to succeed to finding herself on the wrong side of the medication cart in the psychiatric system. Here Kate tells the story about her fourth readmission to the psychiatric unit of the general hospital. This time, the admission was not like the other; she found herself heavily sedated and chained by her wrist and ankles, to her bed, with no means of escape. Afet a few days, they unchained her and then confined her to her room, again, heavily medicated and checked on every fifteen minutes. She was, at this stage, very very ill but, still saw herself as the centre of attention. As she thought; this is ''all about me''. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

Continuing the story of the girl most likely to succeed to finding herself on the wrong side of the medication cart in the psychiatric system. Here Kate tells the story about her readmission to the psychiatric unit of the general hospital. Kate having been discharged for the third time once again, within two weeks, finds herself back in hospital for a fourth time. She is only i for a couple of weeks and then is sent home to her mothers and her sisters Many family issues have happened and Kate has to realise that she is a major part of the problem, To celebrate her home coming, her sister and her mother have a small party with good food and wine. Kate has one glass of wine and the next thing she remembers is waking up three days later, in hospital, chained to a bed in full body restraints. She has no clue how she got there. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

Continuing the story of the girl most likely to succeed to finding herself on the wrong side of the medication cart in the psychiatric system. Here Kate tell the story about her readmission to the psychiatric unit. Kate has now been admitted for a third time and this time no definite ''go home'' date has been set. She given a cocktail of psychiatric medication in the hopes she will respond to one of them. She has now realised that there is something wrong with her and spends more time alone in her room, crying. She misses being part of the Toronto bohemian lifestyle and declares, that even though she loves her mum and sister, they don't drink herbal tea like her friends do.

Continuing the story of the girl most likely to succeed to finding herself on the wrong side of the medication cart in the psychiatric system. Here Kate tell the story about her readmission to the psychiatric unit. She spent two weeks back in hospital and then discharged to go home to her mothers and sisters. She got one big wake up call when she found out how much her prescription was going to be and hatched another plan to get herself re-admitted to hospital to get free medication and prescriptions. She was upset by what was going on and so where her family. Was Kate coming to terms with the fact she was ill or was this just another one of Kates of the wall plans. We will see. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

Continuing the story of the girl most likely to succeed to finding herself on the wrong side of the medication cart in the psychiatric system. Here Kate tell the story about her readmission to the psychiatric unit. This is the second time she has been in this hospital and it is now becoming clear to Kate, she is mentally ill. Nothing has changed in the hospital except Kate. She still has not come to terms that she has some kind of mental illness and just carries on as though nothing is wrong. She is in stage four, which means she has on her street clothes and is allowed to come and go as she pleases. She is getting on well with the other patients and loves to hear all the gossip. Much bonding is going on over tea and toast as every one gathers together at the big round table. justask@steppinstonetheatre.co.uk

Continuing the story of the girl most likely to succeed to finding herself on the wrong side of the medication cart in the psychiatric system. Here Kate tell the story about her readmission to the psychiatric unit. This is the second time she has been in this hospital and it is now becoming clear to Kate, she is mentally ill. Nothing has changed in the hospital except Kate. She is now starting to feel very vulnerable and alone. No friends visit, no family visits; she only sees the friends she has made on the ward and still carrying some feelings of grandeur, Kate is demined to have fun regardless of her illness and how she is feeling. Alone, scared and confused, she just carries on being Crazy Katie. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

Continuing the story of the girl most likely to succeed to finding herself on the wrong side of the medication cart in the psychiatric system. Here Kate tell the story about her readmission to the psychiatric unit. She was now coming to terms that she was mentally ill. She through, the guidance from the staff, started to behave and resigned herself to the fact that she was, mentally ill. She took her medication and this made her feel calm but worse. Not only had she lost the will to fight but, she did not feel herself at all. Withdrawing from everything, she felt nothing.

Continuing the story of the girl most likely to succeed to finding herself on the wrong side of the medication cart in the psychiatric system. Here Kate tell the story about her readmission to the psychiatric unit. She felt alone, afraid and eventual sad when she realised she had lost her reason to fight the illness. She was now coming to terms that she was mentally ill.

Continuing the story of the girl most likely to succeed to finding herself on the wrong side of the medication cart in the psychiatric system. Today we find out about how her brother offered her a lift to down town Toronto only to make a detour to Kate's sisters to pick up a case full of clothes and then finding herself back in the front entrance of the General Hospital. She felt Betrayed and Guilty.

More about the girl who was told she was going to be the greatest Canadian actress ever only to find herself on the psychiatric ward of the general hospital. In this episode, Kate is now back in Toronto and has been discharged from hospital with a prescription for Haldol, a anti psychotic medication. It cost over $70 and had to be taken everyday but, Kate had other ideas. She took it when SHE felt like it. Her mom booked a cottage by the beach to stop Kate and her sister arguing and Kate decided to bring a friend. She also took a shine to the boy next door to the cottage and was wanting to see her brother, who lived very near to the cottage. It was all going Kate's way, another plan; until she did not take the medication.

More about the girl who was told she was going to be the greatest Canadian actress ever only to find herself on the psychiatric ward of the general hospital. In this episode, Kate meets some experts who take everything she says literally and Kate still thinks the whole thing is still not real and she continues to have fun and takes the micky out of her situation. After a week, they decided to discharge her with a prescription in hand and send her home to her mother. Was this the best thig for her, Kate is still not sure as she is still unclear as to what is wrong with her.

More about the girl who was told she was going to be the greatest Canadian actress ever only to find herself on the psychiatric ward of the general hospital. In this podcast, Kate meets her day nurse and is then sent to have a lesson in bio-energetics, having been told it will be good for her. After that, she goes off to see her phsycocycleist, or at least that's what she thinks he is. Back on the ward, she asses her day and realises she is now being given Haldol, which is commonly know as a 'Chemical Kosh'.

More about the girl who was told she was going to be the greatest Canadian actress ever only to find herself on the psychiatric ward of the general hospital. In this podcast, Kate is invited to attend a ward meeting. Not knowing what this was, she followed suit and just like every one else, hastily ate someone else's breakfast and joined the others in the common living room and ready herself for the ward meeting. She was disappointed that she was not allowed to be the meeting secretary, so much so, the her only request was to be discharged immediately. No one took any notice of her so Kate sheepishly went back to her room, closely followed by another stranger who introduced herself as, Kate's day nurse. Mental health is here to stay and Kate and Bill hope these podcast will offer a better insight as to how it can affect and strike at any one; it is not selective. It is hoped that by sharing Kate and Bill's stories, it may help others to be open about their own mental health challenges. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

More about the girl who was told she was going to be the greatest Canadian actress ever only to find herself on the psychiatric ward of the general hospital. In this podcast, we hear about how Kate, wakes from her psychiatric drug induces sleep to hear someone banging of her room door ordering her to get up now. Kate does not like this, she want's to carrying on sleeping, but it is breakfast time and no one is going to bring Kate her food. She is instructed to go to the ward kitchen where she is handed some food only to discover that, she has been given 'Someone else's Breakfast', a fellow patient who had been discharged. This get her thinking, that maybe she is not in a hotel after all Mental health is here to stay and Kate and Bill hope these podcast will offer a better insight as to how it can affect and strike at any one; it is not selective. It is hoped that by sharing Kate and Bill's stories, it may help others to be open about their own mental health challenges. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

More about the girl who was told she was going to be the greatest Canadian actress ever only to find herself on the psychiatric ward of the general hospital. In this podcast, we hear about how Kate, now has been taken up to the top floor of the hospital, the "PSYCH" ward to be given some treatment and be assessed by a night shift nurse, Cathy. Kate still thinks she is a super star and the nurse is there to interview her about her career as the great dame of Canadian theatre. Kate is given her own room on the ward and her sister has brought clothes and as Kate falls to sleep in her new bedroom, still thinking she is a spy and the second coming of Christ, she tells herself that everything is, "Falling Into Place". Mental health is here to stay and Kate and Bill hope these podcast will offer a better insight as to how it can affect and strike at any one; it is not selective. It is hoped that by sharing Kate and Bill's stories, it may help others to be open about their own mental health challenges. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

More about the girl who was told she was going to be the greatest Canadian actress ever only to find herself on the psychiatric ward of the general hospital. In this podcast, we hear about how Kate, who has been pushed to one side in the A and E of a Toronto hospital, hatches a plan to get seen by a doctor and be treated for her chest cold. She finds herself a costume and starts her own theatre show in the A and E department in the hope of getting some treatment. What she got is not what she expected or what she deserved, being the second coming of Christ and a world renowned spy. Mental health is here to stay and Kate and Bill hope these podcast will offer a better insight as to how it can affect and strike at any one; it is not selective. It is hoped that by sharing Kate and Bill's stories, it may help others to be open about their own mental health challenges. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

We are now moving on and Kate is now back home. Episode eight, how does the girl most likely to succeed end up on the wrong side of the medication cart. In this episode, Kate is now home in Toronto and has been discovered sunbathing naked on her mothers picnic table. Her family rally round and send her to rest. During her time resting, Kate slips deeper and deeper in to psychosis, so much so she thinks she is now the second coming of Christ. A very common delusion but, in her mind she was right! It was then, when she asked her family to, '' Touch The Robe'', that they made the decision to take her to hospital. That trip turns Kate from just being the second coming to becoming a spy and then a celebrity as she goes around in A and E healing people. Bill is getting more interested as to how this has happened and is learning more every podcast. Mental health is here to stay and Kate and Bill hope these podcast will offer a better insight as to how it can affect and strike at any one; it is not selective. It is hoped that by sharing Kate and Bill's stories, it may help others to be open about their own mental health challenges. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

We are now moving on and Kate is now back home. Episode seven of how does the girl most likely to succeed end up on the wrong side of the medication cart. In this episode, Kate is now home in Toronto and has been discovered sunbathing naked on her mothers picnic table. Her family rally round and send her to rest. During her time resting, Kate slips deeper and deeper in to psychosis, so much so she thinks she is now the second coming of Christ. A very common delusion but, in her mind she was right! It was then, when she asked her family to, '' Touch The Robe'', that they made the decision to take her to hospital. Mental health is here to stay and Kate and Bill hope these podcast will offer a better insight as to how it can affect and strike at any one; it is not selective. It is hoped that by sharing Kate and Bill's stories, it may help others to be open about their own mental health challenges. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

The journey continues here is episode six, Seeing the signs, of how does the girl most likely to succeed end up on the wrong side of the medication cart. In episode five, Kate goes back home to Toronto to seek fame and fortune. She does this, but does not spot the signs that she is in the early stages of psychosis. Even thinking she was the second coming. Mental health is here to stay and Kate and Bill hope these podcast will offer a better insight as to how it can affect and strike at any one; it is not selective. It is hoped that by sharing Kate and Bill's stories, it may help others to be open about their own mental health challenges. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

The journey continues of how does the girl most likely to succeed end up on the wrong side of the medication cart. In episode five, Kate goes back home to Toronto to seek fame and fortune. She has to do this other wise she fails and this is not an option. Mental health is here to stay and Kate and Bill hope these podcast will offer a better insight as to how it can affect and strike at any one; it is not selective. It is hoped that by sharing Kate and Bill's stories, it may help others to be open about their own mental health challenges.

The journey continues of how does the girl most likely to succeed end up on the wrong side of the medication cart. Mental health is here to stay and Kate and Bill hope these podcast will offer a better insight as to how it can affect and strike at any one; it is not selective. It is hoped that by sharing Kate and Bill's stories, it may help others to be open about their own mental health challenges. In this episode Kate reveals herself in more ways that one to the real person behind the mask. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

Number 3 -Hitting The Wall. Together Kate and Bill have performed in 29 countries; promoting good mental health through theatre. For the past 5 years we have worked with people in our local Lincolnshire community here in the UK; all of whom have lived experience of mental illness and the everyday challenges they face. Episode three - The story goes on. In this episode we hear how Kate, as a young drama school graduate, found her self hitting the wall and spiralling into mental illness. She was told that she would be the next Canadian Grand Dame only to discovery no one would give her an acting job. Her behaviour became more erratic and out of character. Still ,she did not see what was happening to her, but her friends did. www.steppinstonetheatre.co.uk

This is the second Podcast of Both Sides Of The Medication Cart. We, the directors, Bill and Kate Rodgers, each have 35 years' experience working in theatre as actors, directors, writers, facilitators and mental health advocates. Together we have performed in 29 countries; promoting good mental health through theatre. For the past 5 years we have worked with people in our local Lincolnshire community here in the UK; all of whom have lived experience of mental illness and the everyday challenges they face. This episodes talks about mental health can just happening without you knowing. It is not selective and can happen to anyone. Find out more about the work done by Kate and Bill here. www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk

This is the first Podcast of Both Sides Of The Medication Cart. We, the directors, Bill and Kate Rodgers, each have 35 years' experience working in theatre as actors, directors, writers, facilitators and mental health advocates. Together we have performed in 29 countries; promoting good mental health through theatre. For the past 5 years we have worked with people in our local Lincolnshire community here in the UK; all of whom have lived experience of mental illness and the everyday challenges they face. Through theatre workshops we have developed a theatre company for services users and people with mental health challenges called Stepping Stone Theatre For Mental Health. Together we have created several testimonial plays which have been written by our members. Our members have then performed these shows at the local Arts Centre, Gainsborough and other venues, such as mental health conferences and mental health groups in and round the Greater Lincolnshire area. All our shows have received great accolades and feedback from the general public and health professionals alike. So much so we are now a multi award winning community group. We have received the High Sheriff of Lincolnshire award for services to well being in the community, the West Lindsey Council Well Being in the Community Award and the Small Charity Big Impact Award in the East Midlands Charities Awards. https://www.steppingstonetheatre.co.uk This all came about because Kate has an extensive history of mental health problems, including bipolar, anxiety, psychos and sometimes severe depression. She has had these symptoms for the last 30 years. Bill is her husband and sometimes, when needed, carer. Together they fill a much needed gap in their field. Someone to speak not only for the sufferer of mental health issues but also we need to hear the voice of the carer. Who, in Bill's case, has had a lot to learn and understand. This is where our stories will come form. The voice of lived experience, from "Both Sides Of The Medication Cart". Please sit back, take off your shoes, grab a cuppa tea and join Kate and Bill as we share our open, often witty, wry and frank stories "From Both Sides Of The Medication Cart".