Warwickshire in Lockdown
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Members in Warwickshire have been finding different ways to cope with the changes lockdown has made to their lives.
Prior to COVID-19 KeyRing’s Rugby Hub met at Rugby Methodist Church once a fortnight. The Hub allowed Members to share their knowledge of wellbeing resources in the community and organise fun group activities.
During this difficult time peer support has never been so important, so Steph, a KeyRing Member who is currently in the process of becoming a volunteer for us arranges a weekly Friday night Hub meeting on Facebook. Our Members get to chat about their week, share resources and provide emotional support to one another, and even have a drink together. You can read more from Steph below.
Members, staff and volunteers can also keep in touch via our Coronavirus Support Facebook group, which has led to events such as quizzes, singalongs and a popular weekly bingo session!
We are working to match up Members from different parts of the country who would like to write to, chat to, or share a video call with someone.
Other Members have been telling us about how they've been looking after their mental health and wellbeing during the lockdown.
Anne
As I work on my pages about Communication issues on Facebook by designing pictures and short phrases to have an impact on many, there all this talk about being in a lockdown. This lockdown has caused a lot of anxiety and stress to many but for me and others not much different than our normal life.
Being part of me with vision impairments and learning difficulties, life is never straight forward or as I put it, I do things different. There is no problem being different as it would be boring if we all do things the same way. This difference has helped me through the lockdown cus I am not good at being social as going out. Also my normal life I do all my shopping online anyway.
As part of my normal routine I design pictures on my phone for my pages which help to take my mind off anxieties and stress but the pictures can help to express my emotions.
In fact this lockdown will be a good education to many in a lot of ways.
Lynsey
Hello my name is lynsey and I am 31 years old and writing to say how I survived the lockdown so here goes....
Lockdown is boring especially when you haven't been able to go out anyway for the past 6 months. I've felt like I've been on lockdown forever just before restrictions were in place I was supposed to move to a ground floor place because I am disabled and have been for the past 6 months due to having a very very painful back and not knowing what it is. I am sick of watching TV sick of going on Facebook and sick of hearing about coronavirus as it's just as bad as brexit as that all you hear about is coronavirus.
To get thru this I have reborn dolls. For people who don't know what these dolls are they are hand painted and carefully created dolls made to look real and are very expensive. With these dolls I change their clothes nappies cuddle them put them down to nap/sleep. I feed them and also take them out in a pram (before I became disabled). To me my reborns aren't dolls they are babies I have 5 reborns and their names are Ryan, Rebecca, Charlie, Isla and Mylee-Rose. They help me with anxiety and depression as my children are fostered, 1 is adopted and 2 have passed away.
Hopefully I will be able to take my reborns out in their pram again.
Mandy
Hi my names Mandy.
I've found lockdown hard like most people have. The things that have really helped me get through this is spending time with my son, we've done science experiments, played pokemon go together and played games.
I've also had my love of reading and films that have helped also netflix boxsets (sons of anarchy is amazing lol). A major thing that has helped is knowing I have people to talk to, friends family and my caseworker at KeyRing.
Steph
As a single mum in lockdown it has brought new and different stresses and anxieties, I’ve had to be creative in how I entertain myself and my daughter, we have been in the garden for the first time since moving into the house last year. It’s not all child friendly and I can’t make it so, we spent some time making an Easter bonnet outside and I have sat with my crochet out there too, we are currently trying to grow a pear tree from seeds and learning how to take care of a raspberry plant.
Night time is a little harder, I have to entertain myself, I’ve spent more time on my crochet than ever, I’ve played on the Xbox and started watching game of thrones. Socially I have been keeping up with friends and family, I spent some time thinking how I could bring people from the hub together and every Friday night we now have a video call (and maybe some alcohol too) but those chats on a Friday night have bought some routine back into my life and adds a day back to the week (all my days have become mashed together, I spent most of the day on Sunday thinking it was Monday).
The last 6 weeks have been hard and I’ve worried about my daughters mental health more than my own, I’ve got the tools to know how to help myself but my daughter at 4 years old doesn’t and sometimes I don’t know how to help her, she misses her grandma and grandad, she gets upset that she can’t see our friends and they’re little girls, she doesn’t understand what is going on and thinks all our friends and family have gone on holiday, we’ve gone from having days out to spending all our days at home.
Wendy
Hi my name is Wendy and what can I say about the covid-19 lockdown and what it’s doing to my mental health, so here goes.
Before the lockdown I met my keyworker Mel a couple of times and I felt very at ease and we discussed what we going to do for the next 4-6wks and to get my confidence back up again. We all knew that this deadly virus was going to be among us but no measures were in place as people were scared to approach one another. I was getting concerned because we had all seen it in the papers and on the TV news about the pandemic what is doing to the other countries and having to deal with it and they are in lockdown and this country wasn't so I was getting worried and concerned and getting frustrated about the government not acting upon it quickly enough.
I'm already fighting with my personal life i.e. depression, anxiety and menopause and now the virus.
Before the virus I never spoke to my family much but now we have a chat and a laugh on video chat and pull funny faces at one another and we have became closer and my nephew told me some good news that he's going to be a dad and that means I'm going to be a great aunt, me being a great aunt at my age (50) lol
And some exciting news that Captain Tom Moore raising £32 million for the NHS, what a hero. This country needed something to raise our spirits up as everyone was feeling down....
Ronnie
During lockdown I have been doing my gardening! It's something I really enjoy and is very simple. It is also very peaceful and could be classed as another form of self-care. To anyone that is struggling during lockdown I hope you find something that helps you cope and I do suggest gardening.
You can find out more about our Wawickshire mental health service on the Community Links page.