Day: September 29, 2020

Mental health “perfect storm” will affect millions this Winter

A “perfect storm” of mental health stresses is being created with lockdowns, economic anxiety, enforced social distancing, poor weather and isolation – meaning millions of home workers will suffer in silence this Winter.

The UK is possibly facing its biggest ever mental health crisis since the WWII this Winter as a combination of many factors will contribute to the low mood and poor mental health of millions of employees working from home.

According to the ONS (Office of National Statistics) 69% of adults in the UK are staying that Coronavirus is having a negative effect on their life and the drill down statistics are even worse:

  • 63% are worrying about the future
  • 56% are feeling stressed or anxious
  • 49% are bored

“The worrying thing is everyone is in the same boat – we are so busy fighting our own fires – many of us don’t have the time or energy to help others”, says Jonathan Ratcliffe from office company Offices.co.uk.

“People are having a rotten time of it at the moment, and this Winter will be a real crunch point for many”.

Critical stress factors this Winter include:

Lockdowns – working from home and seeing less family/friends mean increasingly isolated lives

Uncertainty – Worries over employment and the economy creating a feeling of anxiousness

Poor Weather – Less daylight, poor weather means less opportunity to leave the house for fresh air and exercise

“The big worry for myself and my colleagues is either a new National lockdown, or the schools will close, because this will tip the balance for many people working from home and just managing to keep things on an even keel”, says Jonathan Ratcliffe

Offices.co.uk offers these general pointers to those working from home and feeling the pressure:

Routine – it’s vital if you want to be motivated that you set a routine. Make sure you get up at a decent time and start work at 9am.

To do list – Start by writing a small list of work to achieve, lower your expectations and work towards ticking all those goals even if they are small.

Talk to someone – If you have a work buddy, you’d usually chew the fat with, why change? Give them a call, maybe first thing – helps you both realise you are not alone.

Food and drink – Make sure you eat properly and stay hydrated throughout the day.

Fresh air – At lunch time take a walk or sit outside, put your phone down, look around and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Finish at 5 – Don’t be tempted to work into the evening, try and finish up around the same time as you would normally.

Put the phone down – After “work” is over, try to forget about it. Enjoy time with a partner or family.

Wine O’clock – It’s tempting to hit the wine each night, we’re under stress. But you didn’t booze like this before, time to reduce intake and get a good sleep.

Sleep – Decent bedtime and try and get 8 hours solid sleep if possible.

Plan for the other side – This will end, we simply don’t know when yet, and when it does you need to be in the best shape possible to seize any opportunities. Get planning!

“Bosses need to be very aware that their remote staff might be struggling, and while they have their own pressures, they need to reach out and monitor staff daily to make sure any issues can be addressed – being sensitive and caring is upmost for employers this Winter period”, concludes Jonathan Ratcliffe from Offices.co.uk

Granton:hub Community Pantry is now fortnightly

The Granton:Hub community pantry is now open fortnighly on Wednesdays between 11.00am – 12.00pm.

All supplied kindly from Fareshare, Refugee Community Kitchen Edinburgh and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

This week Grass Roots Remedies will also be at the hub continuing their herbal remedy distribution project.

Come along to try free herbal teas, syrups, creams & balms. All their herbal remedies are FREE to residents of Granton, Pilton, Muirhouse & Drylaw.Please don’t hesitate to contact us at Granton:Hub if you have any questions.

DM us or email community@grantonhub.org for pantry inquiries

Rebuilding a fairer Scotland after COVID-19

Expertise and experience wanted to help tackle poverty and inequality

Ideas are being gathered to drive a fairer recovery in the wake of coronavirus (COVID-19).

Organisations and community groups are being asked to share ideas and evidence based on their experiences of responding to the pandemic, and their engagement with people with lived experience of poverty and inequality.

Responses will help inform the work of the Scottish Government’s Advisory Board on Social Renewal, which is tasked with building on the positive policy and practice shifts seen during COVID-19 to tackle disadvantage and poverty, and advance equality and social justice.

Analysis of responses will feed into the board’s discussions, and a report on the outcomes will be published later this year. 

Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on the health, wealth and emotional wellbeing of our communities is vital to inform our response to and recovery from the pandemic. We also know particular groups have been disproportionately impacted by the crisis.

“That’s why we established the Social Renewal Advisory Board to focus on reducing poverty and disadvantage and advancing equality across a range of issues.

We now want to hear from the many organisations and community groups working on social renewal that will have adapted, changed and repurposed in light of COVID-19. There is significant learning on this to be shared and we want to capture that expertise.

“Our call for ideas and evidence will help us drive forward our ambitions on creating a fairer, more equal society and ensure that the voices of those with lived experience are heard.”

The call for ideas and evidence will run until 16 October.

Find out more about how to take part here

Vulnerable children face crisis through missed support opportunities

The lives of some of the UK’s most vulnerable children are being devastated by a string of missed opportunities to provide them with timely and adequate support, a new report reveals today.

The Adoption Barometer, published by charity Adoption UK, also describes the dramatic impact the right support can have. Now in its second year, the Barometer is based on the biggest ever survey of adopters. This year, 5,000 people responded to the survey.

One of the main themes to emerge is the failure in diagnosing and treating brain damage caused by children being exposed to alcohol in the womb. The report reveals more than one in three adopted children in Scotland (35%) are either diagnosed with or suspected to have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

Almost two thirds (63%) of families polled in Scotland had waited two years or longer for a diagnosis, and more than half (53%) felt healthcare professionals lacked even basic knowledge about the condition, even though FASD is more common in the general population than autism.

Adoptive mother Gemma (below) said: “When Isabelle came to us at eight months-old she was described as a perfect baby. At two and a half she started headbutting, kicking and biting. Then she became obsessed with sharp knives.

“She told me she wanted to ‘cut me open and see me bleed’. We went to countless GPs, health visitors and social workers but we got nowhere. We finally got a diagnosis of FASD when she was four years old. It has made a huge difference to the support we’ve been able to access.”

Scotland is leading the field in the UK, as the first nation to establish an FASD diagnostic pathway. In 2019 the Scottish Government backed Adoption UK in Scotland to launch FASD Hub Scotland, supporting all parents and carers of people who were, or may have been, exposed to alcohol during pregnancy, including Gemma and her family.

The service includes a helpline, online support communities, one to one support, access to enhanced therapeutic support, training and information, as well as training and resources for professionals.

FASD Hub Scotland Project Manager, Aliy Brown, says: “During the month of September (FASD Month) we have been working closely with professionals within Scotland, other parts of the UK and further afield to drive the campaign around the need for awareness of FASD, both for prevention as well as support for families, which is so badly needed, as evidenced in the report.

“We are committed to doing everything we can to see the condition recognised in the same way the other neuro-diverse conditions are, and enable both individuals and their families to access early diagnosis, support and intervention to promote positive outcomes for life.”

Around three-quarters of adopted children experienced violence, abuse or neglect while living with their birth families, often with life-long impacts on their relationships, their health and their ability to learn. Despite the considerable challenges, the report shows that adopters remain positive and resilient – 73% of respondents in Scotland would encourage others to consider adoption.

But failures in policy and practice and missed opportunities to intervene mean that problems often build into a crisis. Almost half (48%) of families with older children report severe challenges, such as being drawn into criminally exploitative behaviour, including child sexual exploitation and county lines activities.

Almost two thirds (62%) of respondents from Scotland with secondary aged children anticipate they will leave school with few or no qualifications because they lacked the right support.

Director of Adoption UK Scotland, Fiona Aitken, said: “It is crucial that adoptive families are given the right support from day one, from both a moral and economic perspective.

“The survey shows 68% of adoptive families had no support plan in place, which we know can lead to crisis situations. The cost of a family breakdown is too high for all involved, particularly the children who have already experienced so much.”

The Adoption Barometer also assesses the government policies that regulate adoption. Welsh policies scored best, with three areas of policy scoring ‘good’. However, all nations score poorly in at least one area of policy. Policy relating to finding families for children scores best across the board.

Policy relating to FASD scores worst, with all nations assessed as ‘poor’, and adopter experiences also ‘poor’ in all nations, however Scotland does come across better than the other three nations in respect of their nationwide strategy.

There has been some progress since last year’s Barometer, including the extension of the English Adoption Support Fund (ASF) and the first experimental data collection on school exclusions in England, both of which were recommendations from last year’s report. In Wales there has been a £2.3m investment in adoption services.

Although respondents in Scotland were most likely to consider their social worker to be knowledgeable and understanding they were least likely to be satisfied with the range of support services on offer, perhaps reflecting the comparatively low proportion who were able to access enhanced support services.

Currently all support services are expected to be provided by agencies, with the exception of the Big Lottery Funded Therapeutic and Education Support Services in Adoption (TESSA), hosted and provided by Adoption UK Scotland.

The Adoption Barometer calls on the governments in all four nations of the UK to provide detailed therapeutic assessments for every child before they arrive in their new family, with up to date support plans to be maintained into early adulthood.