Paula Talman experienced difficulties growing up in Ireland, where she struggled with her school work and was corrected and criticised to the point that she feared going to school. But voluntary work at her local hospital exposed her to an industry where she was able to thrive. With her natural Irish chattiness – the gift of the gab that comes from kissing the Blarney Stone – she began speaking to lonely patients who had suffered serious injuries.

Getting to know these patients, giving them a connection and allowing them to express their fears had a profound effect on their mental health and in turn helped them with their recovery. This fuelled a passion in Paula for engaging with people and helping them to get better, and she went on to study both paediatric and adult nursing.

As part of her studies, she delved deeper into the mental services available to children, finding that staff lacked the knowledge, the skills and the tools to offer effective support. Wanting to change this, she moved into education, working in the medical department of a school and teaching the PSHE curriculum.

In this role Paula explored the inadequacies of how children are taught about mental health and began devising her own methods of making it easier to understand. She moved away from words like ‘depression’ and ‘anxiety’, developing more suitable terminology and creating relatable characters that allow children to talk through scenarios.

This simplified curriculum was the basis of her company iSpace Wellbeing, which helps school to teach their pupils how to verbalise thoughts and feelings, and develop self-awareness from a young age.

Paula’s is a fascinating story and she spins a heart-warming yarn of her time spent on children’s wards and working with terminally ill patients. These stories, and her experience of caring for patients in a way that improved their mental health, serve to show us how we can take more time to make a connection with others and how it can help to improve their physical health.

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'Life Happens' is the podcast that helps you build mental fitness, speaking to inspirational people about life’s ups and downs, how they’ve overcome setbacks and what it means to them to be mentally fit.