To mark Mental Health Awareness Week (18-24 May 2020), here’s a request from our North of England network. Please contribute if you can, and help us get some conversations going to support one another through the lockdown.
They write:
The pandemic has presented us all with new challenges that until recently seemed to belong to the remit of movies. Periods of rapid change require rapid adjustment, and incorporating these changes into our lives at such short notice can take its toll on our mental health.
To mark Mental Health Awareness Week (18 – 24 May), we are inviting people from across the IP community to share their reflections on how they’ve managed to adjust to new situations recently. All contributions and observations, no matter how small, are welcome. Whilst we cannot physically interact with each other, we can support one another by letting others know that they are not alone in their experiences.
If you would like to participate, please email [email protected] with approximately 100-200 words providing your comments on (i) your new situation (in a personal or professional capacity, or both), (ii) if you feel you have been able to address any issues arising from that situation, and (iii) if so what you have done to move yourself towards a positive space. It is our intention to mark each day of Mental Health Awareness Week with stories that we can all hopefully share in and relate to. All submissions will be posted online anonymously, so please try to avoid using any personally identifiable information in your submissions.
To provide some guidance – do one or more of the following resonate with your situation over the last 6 weeks:
- Is a member of your household a key worker? Have you had to change how the household is run as a result?
- Have you had to juggle childcare and working from home? Is support that is normally available to you (eg grandparents) no longer available due to social distancing?
- Adapting to a new working environment – have your roles and responsibilities changed as a result of working from home? Have your working hours changed?
- Feelings of social isolation – whether that be distancing from close relatives, friends, or partners. Are members of your household having to live elsewhere?
- Cancellation of personal or professional events eg birthdays, weddings, christenings, holidays, health appointments, examinations, personal development courses, etc.
And since this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week theme is “kindness”:
- What particularly special acts of kindness have you come across, say from people you live or work with, during lockdown?
Please let us have your submissions no later than Friday 15 May 2020. We look forward to hearing your experiences.
Best wishes
IP Inclusive North of England Committee
6th-05-2020
Juggling the normal workload with taking care of two preschoolers is proving very hard and my level of patience has severely decreased. I am fortunate to have a garden to spend time outdoors, but I really miss the social contact with people outside my household and cycling. I really look forward to being able to meet my friends alone for a bit to re-charge my batteries and find balance. Meditation and yoga are helping me through this period, and I try to practice daily and I try (not always succeeding) to go somewhere alone and breathe for 10 minutes when I notice I just want to scream to the kids or my partner. I am working on accepting the new situation as it comes and try not to make plans for the future to avoid frustration.
Clara