Martin and Ingeus UK transcript

Content warning: This video contains content about suicide and alcohol abuse.

Martin: My name is Martin Clark and I'm a personal wellbeing mentor with Ingeus.

I used to run businesses to try and generate the sort of income to support my wife and three kids and give them a half-decent lifestyle. I hated it but I was sort of stuck in it because I owned shops.

It was high pressure, high stress, 2025 employees and I felt like I couldn't get out.

How I came into contact with injuries was I'd received 25 months imprisonment for VAT and tax evasion.

Drinking just got steadily more and more working.

Too much stress, drinking too much, parties, sessions out for days, not concentrating on what was happening with the business, lost control of what was happening with the money, making sure that bills were paid, making sure that money was put away for the tax, for the VAT, things like that.

And then before you know it, then getting investigated for fraud.

Obviously, the worry about going to prison turned to drinking substances even more so when I was inside in prison, serving my sentence. I'd done a course, a therapeutic community course, and that helped me with my sobriety. I was also an English mentor on the wing when I was there as well.

And I quite enjoyed helping people. A lot of the population in prisons are on recall. And I thought that's something I'd really like to get stuck into, try and make a difference.

When I'd first spoken to my probation officer, and I'd explained I would like to try and make a difference within that, like people who are coming out of prison in whatever way I can, really. And she was like, right, well, injuries are the people to see for this or referred as injuries to the PIA mentor course. And yeah, I mean, the rest is history.

You know, it was really good. I used to do one day a week at their payment Academy course and then I used to do one or two days a week volunteering as well.

Within injuries, an impact on people's lives and try and make a difference. Injuries supported me so much into getting a job with injuries. Another person came and did CVs, got our CVs, absolutely top of the range.

Another person did interview techniques with me and it was really supportive and guided through and then I was successful as a personal wellbeing mentor.

I feel my lived experience helps other service users because I can relate to where they are. I've been there, done that into prison, you know, like stress, depression, anxiety. I am in a good position to be able to suggest things that can make a difference and can help them because I've come from that to where I am now.

You know, we do some fantastic work and some excellent work for changing people's lives. I feel really good. I feel really proud of myself and I feel really happy for them because people don't want to reoffend, people don't want to be imprisoned, people don't want to be addicted to substances.

You know, they just want help and if I can be there for them to help them, brilliant.