Since lockdown, Being There have launched an online wellbeing group on Zoom. It is an invaluable opportunity for people in touch with all of their five branches across Greater Manchester to come together with their counselling team to discuss issues relating to wellbeing.
It is a structured six week course and each week has a specific theme to explore and participants bring as much as they like to each session. This week they looked at anxiety and ways to manage this in an ever-changing world. It was a chance to explore all of the uncertainty and to think about ways, as a group, to manage that.
Flora, group facilitator, said, "We would usually run a face to face social support group, where people could just have a general chat, a brew and also take part in activities. We found it important to continue to offer a space for our clients, as more often than not they can be found in the shielding category and therefore have had little opportunity for social interaction. It is important to us that we provide this platform, so they can engage with each other.
A lot of our clients are older adults. If they do not know how to use the newest technology, we are happy to support them to encourage their participation in our groups and hope that we can remove any barriers to engagement with the sessions".
Being There's clients are already dealing with life limiting illnesses and on top of that, they are dealing with the complexities of shielding and Covid-19. This is having a detrimental impact on people’s mental health. Supporting people to develop the tools to manage all of the uncertainty is what Being There are trying to achieve. They have two counsellors who facilitate the group. Their first six week course has just begun and they started with five participants. They believe it is important, in a group like this, to keep the numbers to a maximum of six. This provides people with the space to really talk and engage with the support and with each other.
The key impact of this activity on participants is the chance and opportunity to socialise. They hope it gives people the tools to manage wellbeing issues like fatigue, anxiety, pain management and learning how to be a bit kinder to ourselves.
Find out more about Being There at:
https://beingthere.org.uk/
https://twitter.com/BeingThereGM
https://www.facebook.com/BeingThereForYou