Time to Talk

At a recent Dignity and Inclusion Network meeting – our Dignity Champions discussed awareness days and campaigns that may be of interest to the people we support. This included Mental Health awareness week, with a theme this year of ‘loneliness’. Dignity Champion, Melissa, understood that loneliness is a real issue for many of the people she supports and decided to arrange a wellbeing event to help people to reflect on this.

A group of customers and staff met at Westmead to take a moment to think about the impact that the pandemic has had on all our lives, both the positives and negatives. Customers recalled the impact of isolating, and then the fear of returning to their old social circles and activities. They recalled tentatively returning to the day service, but then how quickly they were able to settle back into familiar routines.

A lot of the conversation people shared was the impact of being alone, when everyone was told to isolate, and the affect this had on their wellbeing. Customers acknowledged the lifeline that services provided during this time, even in smaller, more controlled settings the value of time together was really appreciated.

This was a great opportunity to offer the time and space to talk openly about how people are feeling and let people know “it is ok, not to be ok”. The group agreed that the time and space to talk was very valuable and proposed a monthly catch up going forward.