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‘Jussdeserts’ – Flash Flood flash fiction

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

People with intellectual disabilities want to be like everyone else which means they want jobs. But first, there aren’t enough jobs; second, there aren’t enough jobs for people who need support; third, what jobs there are often don’t pay; and fourth, the people who take them with hope and gratitude are frequently bullied straight out of them. Those things are fact; Jussdeserts is fiction, but only juss. Flash Flood, June 24th. Edited 24/06/17 to include direct link Continue reading ‘Jussdeserts’ – Flash Flood flash fiction

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Sleep Apnoea and why you should know about it.

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This is not fiction but it is a horror story many people don’t know they’re living in. This video was recorded by a friend, worried by his wife’s interrupted breathing at night. It’s here with their permission because he used it to convince his GP she had Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) which is a killer. There are different kinds of OSA, some central – to do with the brain – and some more peripheral involving blocked sinuses or collapsing nasal canals. They all stop the sleeper from breathing, sometimes hundreds of times a night, without them noticing. They wake up … Continue reading Sleep Apnoea and why you should know about it.

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Sleep Apnoea and why you should know about it

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This is not fiction but it is a horror story many people don’t know they’re living in. This video was recorded by a friend, worried by his wife’s interrupted breathing at night. It’s here with their permission because he used it to convince his GP she had Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) which is a killer. There are different kinds of OSA, some central – to do with the brain – and some more peripheral involving blocked sinuses or collapsing nasal canals. They all stop the sleeper from breathing, sometimes hundreds of times a night, without them noticing. They wake up … Continue reading Sleep Apnoea and why you should know about it

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Collections in Progress: Fat Mo and a flock of tiny tweet tales

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Fat Mo’s Taxi to Huddersfield and other stories of resistance. [working title] Excerpt: Mo considers the price she has paid, learning to be right. Merv would call it an investment – a cost for a benefit – and it occurs to Mo that in fact she has quite a portfolio of these. Most she has kept in her head, but there are others in the backs of filing cabinets and the bottoms of drawers. Mo reviews some of them: there are letters Merv does not want sent on; the envelopes he does want sent on, and the girl at a house … Continue reading Collections in Progress: Fat Mo and a flock of tiny tweet tales

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Dupuytren’s Contracture – impact on work & leisure

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

These are my hands. They haven’t always been like this but my mother’s were, in her later years, and at the time I really didn’t understand the implications. Somehow, I managed to believe that not uncurling her fingers was almost wilful and that she could if she really wanted to. Now I know she couldn’t. See the tiny nodules and pads on my right hand, white against pink? They’re quite new, the disease is active. See my left hand? If I fell off a cliff I could dangle from that pinky for hours because it doesn’t move and nor would … Continue reading Dupuytren’s Contracture – impact on work & leisure

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‘BBC Dad’ – a viral video and a flak storm

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

There can’t be many people who haven’t seen the unfortunate chap trying to give a serious interview on live TV while his children invade his home office and a woman in the background does one of the best unscripted comedy extractions ever seen. The interviewee was political scientist Prof Robert Kelly, an expert on North Korea, and Mission Impossible Woman was his wife. At almost the same time as the ‘comedy gold’ took off, the internet laid into Kelly with judgments ranging from accusations of abuse (he’s a controlling, authoritarian man of whom his children and his wife are clearly terrified) to assumptions … Continue reading ‘BBC Dad’ – a viral video and a flak storm

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Free Audio – poems & short fiction

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Rapture by Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, notable South African poet, performance artist, and PhD candidate with Lancaster university. Rapture was First published in the 2013 anthology For Rhino in a Shrinking World (Ed Harry Owen). Shadow by Lyn Jennings, poet and past Educational Psychotherapist for children with learning difficulties. Shadow is ‘dedicated to our neighbours at Shoreham with respect and sympathy for all who died or suffered in the Air Show disaster [West Sussex 2015]’. Ducks in a Row by Suzanne Conboy-Hill, short story and flash fiction writer. This was also written after a Hawker Hunter jet ploughed through traffic waiting for the lights to change or … Continue reading Free Audio – poems & short fiction

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learning disabilities, psychology, terminal careLeave a comment

‘What does psychology have to offer at end of life?’ – an EAPC re-blog

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

In her well-articulated article, Dr Jenny Strachan, Clinical Psychologist, Marie Curie Hospice, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, talks about what it is that psychology has to offer when there is no mental health problem to treat: The ‘science of mind and behaviour’ has many branches. Developmental psychology explores how our minds and behaviours are shaped by our early years’ experiences. Cognitive neuropsychology investigates how they are determined by the structure and functions of the brain. Social psychology considers the influence of the groups, large and small, in which we belong. If psychologists in palliative care stick to a narrow, ‘clinical’ interpretation of the role, … Continue reading ‘What does psychology have to offer at end of life?’ – an EAPC re-blog

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Feeling anxious? Try this breathing gif

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

What with all the various political shenanigans and turmoil, it’s not surprising more of us are feeling anxious. If that’s you, maybe give this a try. It comes via Michelle Vargas (@VargasSTL) who points to Giphy as the source. #mentalhealth #anxiety @respectyourself pic.twitter.com/zEnPJMxjUQ — Michelle Vargas (@VargasSTL) August 4, 2016 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js   Edited to show Giphy as the source of the graphic. Continue reading Feeling anxious? Try this breathing gif

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