Nurses leader Catherine and fitness coach Jermaine have teamed up for Camberwell’s Feel Good Festival. They talk to Marie Staunton
Jermaine, track-suited and alert after six hours of coaching at the Camberwell Leisure Centre, believes in the power of community. “I came from poverty in Kingston, Jamaica. But we shared rice and salt, diluted eggs with milk so there was enough to go round. It was each one help one.” Jermaine was the fifth fastest schoolboy in Jamaica. Sport was taken seriously. It was a way out of poverty. At 16 he migrated to London with his parents, became a printer and then a youth worker at the Damilola Taylor Centre in Peckham. He coached boys and girls from 11 to 19, inspired by Damilola’s father Richard Taylor, who died in March. “A very good man: thoughtful, warm and engaging.” Jermaine often had to break up fights in the centre which was in an area notorious for gang activity (see PYG Black Gang on You Tube 2009). The hardest part of youth work is getting young people to open up. They can be very shy. “Young people become free when they do something they love.” One well-known gang member who came to the centre after a prison stretch did not talk till Jermaine started training him. He found release through boxing. Gradually, he shared his worry about getting out of gangs. The centre helped him to become a chef. Now he has a family and Jermaine regularly sees him in the Leisure Centre. With Steve Verrall, the Damilola Taylor Centre manager, Jermaine successfully lobbied parliament to include boxing in the school curriculum. He received the Jack Peachey award for outstanding services to young people in 2011. To further his career, he left to work in gyms: everything from boot camps on the steel warriors in Ruskin Park to Camberwell Leisure Centre, which, he says, “is a significant local institution welcoming a diverse community”. Jermaine is setting up his own gym Winners Fitness, in Brayard Road. When Catherine, one of his clients, was wondering whether to take on the organisation of the Feel Good Festival, he offered to help. “Fitness is not a look, it’s a feeling; a more acute mindset. Physical and mental wellbeing brings communities together. If we all walk together, we can have a laugh together. Walk alone and your mind can turn in on itself.”
Catherine describes Jermaine’s attitude as infectious, positive, inclusive and “well worth catching”. She never intended to become a nurse. At 17 she went through a car windscreen and became a “bit wayward”. Nursing was a way of reassuring her parents about her future. In general nursing, she says, you get to see a person but don’t get under the skin. So she specialised in mental health. Through friends who were squatting in Comber Grove, she got to know Camberwell and moved from Manchester to the Maudsley. As a charge nurse, she had her own flat on the eighth floor of Princess Marina House, a block on the site of the present Ortus. “A great view, good parties and interesting people who gathered at the Grove Tavern.” She remembers the impact of the Peckham gangs. When one patient would not let his family leave their flat, her colleagues explained that this was not an indication of phobia but very sensible as the estate was dangerous. Camberwell is one of the most researched communities for mental health. Soon Catherine was working on a big new study headed by Professor Leff on whether teaching nurses how to work with families of people with psychosis could improve their social functioning. The late Professor Leff encouraged her to teach and eventually the approach was the subject of some 80 courses. After a distinguished clinical academic career, Catherine, a fellow of the the Royal College of Nursing has just retired as its professional lead for mental health. She reflects on the lack of parity of esteem between physical and mental health care. “In my 30 years in Camberwell, King’s has seen great investment, like the enormous intensive care unit. The only noticeable change to the Maudsley across the road is a new front door.” But there have been innovations in treatment. Mobile phones have helped people who hear voices blend in. One 19-yearold would get agitated at the busy McDonald’s crossing, talk loudly and cause disruption until he was given a dummy mobile phone. Now passers-by assume he is talking to someone. She says, “The unique and humbling thing about living in a place for this length of time is that I see people I have nursed in their darkest moments who are well now.” Her aim for the Feel Good Festival is for people to understand the myriad ways of improving physical, mental health and well-being that Camberwell offers. The Feel Good Festival will be held this year on Camberwell Green on July 6 and at Ruskin Park on July 13. Both events start at 11 and finish at 3pm
