Mental Health Champions
With the upheaval caused by the effects of the lockdown and changes in home, work, and personal lives more and more people have opted to look for help. If you feel like you are struggling with your mental health, we're here for you.
We aim to promote the wellbeing of all staff, eliminate mental health stigma in the workplace and support employees who have a mental health condition.
We have over 100 volunteer mental health champions who are trained in Mental Health First Aid and are located within Council services to listen and support colleagues with mental health, to sign post to specialist individual and services and to promote wellbeing activities and activities within Directorates and local Service Areas.
More information is contained on Sharepoint Mental Health & Wellbeing Resource Pack
Our focus this week on one of our Mental Health champions is Janice Jardine who is a Learning & Development Officer. Janice wrote the article at the beginning of lockdown. Thanks for sharing!
My name is Janice Jardine and I am a Learning & Development Officer based in Dumfries at Cargen Tower. I became a Mental Health Champion 3 years ago. Having had experience of mental health issues over the years both personally and with family and friends, I thought this would be a good thing to learn more about mental health and how it affects people in different ways at different times in their life. I struggled a bit after the birth of my children and more recently with the early onset of the menopause. I was lucky enough to find the right treatment early enough, but I am very aware that others are not so lucky. I took part in a BBC documentary about 3 years ago about the menopause where I met several women who had had all sorts of experiences, some good, some bad, some funny and some sad. We were lucky to be part of a workshop which gave me an insight into the many different symptoms surrounding this (up until recently) very taboo subject and the effects it has on our mental health, and the impact that has on the people around us, including those we work with.
I signed up to become a Mental Health Champion shortly after this and found the training we were giving invaluable. So interesting to learn about different mental health conditions but also to understand that we are all affected by this. We are not experts and cannot tell anyone what to do but we can try to direct you to the right people for help and offer a listening ear, and sometimes that is all that we need – just to feel like someone hears what we are saying.
During this lockdown period, like all of us, I have had good days and bad. My working team has had a Keep In Touch Teams group so we all check in with each other regularly and just today, we had a coffee and cake video chat and it’s lovely to see everyone’s face (and a wee sneaky peak at their homes 😊). It’s important that we keep in touch with our colleagues at this time as it is very easy to feel isolated from everyone when you are not “going into work” every day. Routine can be important and I found that has been the one thing I had to keep doing – getting up at the same time as I normally do on a working day and going through the same morning routine helps set me up for the day and a lot of people I have spoken to say that lack of routine or structure has been something they have struggled with. Exercise of any kind is also a good way of helping our mental health, particularly out in the fresh air when possible and it’s been good to see how many people are out when I go a walk – and how many people say hello and smile. Think the good weather has had something to do with that, but it is lovely just to smile at someone and see them smile back.
I have seen friends, family and colleagues go through their own struggles recently and understand how difficult it has been for many of us. One thing I do know is, we need to talk about it and we soon realise we are not alone in how we feel.
Janice is one of over 100 volunteer mental health champions who are trained in Mental Health First Aid and are located within Council services to listen and support colleagues with mental health, to sign post to specialist individual and services and to promote wellbeing activities and activities within Directorates and local Service Areas.
More information is contained on Sharepoint Mental Health & Wellbeing Resource Pack
|
During the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and uncertainty caused by the subsequent lockdown, more people are reporting feeling lonely, with young people feeling a greater impact.
Research in Practice resources look at the key messages concerning loneliness and how they can be applied in social care practice.
 Re-Connect CBT is a series of short mental wellbeing group sessions delivered online via Zoom, to help people cope during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
You can book a session or refer someone by following this link: https://www.thewisegroup.co.uk/re-connectcbt/
Kerbside Recycling Q&A
We recently held an online Q&A session with senior politicians and project officers. Give it a watch to find out when the new Kerbside Recycling arrangements will be rolled out, how it will affect you, how much it is costing and much more.
Here’s the link to the online Q&A - https://youtu.be/mT7E165Wnbc
New Seats at the RBCFT
A projectionist’s job is never simple. The Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre’s Senior Projectionist Alex Murray has been assisting with the installation of new seats ahead of the cinema’s reopening (tentatively planned for September 2020). He also enlisted the help of Marc Wiffen from the Radio Communication Unit to fix an issue with the 5.1 sound feed for live streaming events at the cinema. As some of the equipment used to stream the signal is located at the office in Irish Street (on the roof of the building), this has necessitated a few trips to install new equipment.
 And here is what Alex faced at the top of the Irish Street building (this is the old unit):
PPE2U
Andy Witts, who is a leisure attendant at the Ice Bowl, has, for the past 12 weeks, been instrumental in distributing PPE all over the region. Here he is loading up his pool car with gloves, masks and aprons before heading to Newton Stewart and Stranraer. Well done Andy!
Museum Blog Posts
During lockdown staff and volunteers linked to the Council’s museums and galleries across Dumfries and Galloway have been sharing their personal thoughts and stories inspired by the amazing objects in our collections through blog posts on the DGCulture website.
Read the latest ones here https://www.dgculture.co.uk/blog-posts/.
|
Community Council - Review of Scheme
Community Councils in Dumfries and Galloway are governed by a Scheme for the Establishment of Community Councils. The Scheme details how Community Councils operate including elections, meetings, boundaries and finance.
We want to ensure that the Scheme is effective and meets the needs of our Council and Community Councils.
At the Meeting on 25 June Members of Dumfries and Galloway Council agreed that the Scheme for the Establishment of Community Councils should be reviewed and there should be a period of public consultation on proposed amendments of the Scheme.
The Scheme is now under review until 14 August. Further information is available at - https://www.dumgal.gov.uk/ReviewScheme2020
|
