In this insightful interview, Bailey shares his journey to employment through his diagnosis of anxiety, depression and PTSD. With Castle's support, he secured a role with Macka's Sand and Soil, progressing from farmhand to dump truck operator in the space of 6 months. He champions the positive impact employment has had on his mental health, wellbeing and financial freedom.
He also has praise for his supportive employer, Macka's Sand and Soil, and Castle, who together create an environment for him to thrive, equipped with the right tools to support him when challenges rise.
Bailey: - My name's Bailey. I've been working here for over six months now, around about. And yeah, my role started out as just a normal farmhand, just doing normal stuff, like cleaning out horse stables and everything. I got the opportunity to obviously drive dump trucks and just everything. The variety here is amazing.
I'm very grateful for Castle actually being able to get me into a job like this, because I would never see myself doing anything like this. I've been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, PTSD and all that type of thing. And I used to be really bad, but ever since I've been in programs and whatever, it's slowly gone away and become a lot better. So yeah, and work obviously helps with that, keeping me busy five days a week. So I'm not thinking about anything.
Castle has helped me through anything from getting the job to actually supporting me with equipment, work equipment, and whatever I need to actually work.
And they're always here mentally as well. They teach like bosses how to deal with me if I do have a breakdown or something. And if I need to space myself from the job, they've been taught how to deal with that. I've had one breakdown here and everyone dealt with it really well. And they all supported me through it, got me home and everything. They support me through everything.
A working environment is a working environment (here), but when it comes to it, mental health obviously comes first before work, which is really good.
Honestly, it was hard to find jobs. I had a job earlier, but it wasn't very consistent and with this I'm here five days a week, so it's very consistent. I know what I'm doing for the five days, and then I got me weekend.
Just having a job really keeps me mentally stable, gives me income, which is good, and I can actually spend money and do what I want. Look, we're no different to any other people. We can get stuff done just as long as you know the coping methods and that's about it because some people cope differently and some people need different support in other ways and if employers can see that, well then that's perfect.