Keynote speaker to kick off AGM
Clarke Carlisle, former English professional footballer, will be speaking at the SAIF AGM on Friday 29 March from 2.30pm to 4pm
It’s the final countdown to this year’s SAIF Annual General Meeting and all members are invited to attend the event from 29 to 31 March 2019.
Preparations are well under way and the keynote speaker has been announced as sportsman and charity campaigner Clarke Carlisle. Clarke played professional football for 17 years, the last 13 of those while suffering with Complex Depressive Disorder. The combination of an undiagnosed illness meant he developed coping strategies that were destructive and compounded his depression.
“The consequence of this was that, while being extremely successful in my profession, I lived a duplicitous life of external lauding and internal loathing, a quite disgusting concoction,” he explained on his website.
“It was only after two suicide attempts that I was admitted to psychiatric hospital, where I finally received an accurate diagnosis. My recovery is ongoing, ‘Small Steps’ being my and the charity’s motto, and it is with increasing self-awareness that I am able to manage my illness and not allow it to manage me.”
Clarke has subsequently set up the Clarke Carlisle Foundation for Dual Diagnosis foundation in order to fund a purpose-built Dual Diagnosis treatment facility.
He added: “Such a facility doesn’t exist as of today, in the world. The NHS system, as energetic as it is, still asks sufferers to choose which condition to treat first, even though they know that independent treatment is utterly futile.
“We have a four-year plan that culminates in the opening of this facility, which will revolutionise the blueprint for Mental Health care in general.
“In tandem with this, we are developing a system that will give instant access to talking therapies. This will totally eliminate the waiting time that is currently imposed on the population, and hopefully alleviate the burden on crisis centres and the NHS services.”
Clarke will be joined at the SAIF AGM by his wife Carrie to share her experiences of living with someone with his illness.
Find out more about Clarke’s background and charity work online. Check out the SAIF website for more information on the SAIF AGM.
Tags: 2019, AGM, charity, Clarke Carlisle, Colchester, keynote, SAIF, speaker