We need to give hope
As we started the new year people wanted change. For 2021 to be the year we can properly recover from a pandemic which has turned all of our lives upside down, and for so many, resulted in the loss of friends and loved ones.
Heading straight into a lockdown with more uncertainty, unsure on when we will be able to bounce back, those hopes were crushed.
We are seeing more and more people feeling the impact on their mental health and wellbeing, issues around finances, job security and of course concerns around health.
For me, I truly have been through a period of further discovery during the pandemic. As my mental health deteriorated over the course of 2020, I was finally diagnosed with two complex mental health conditions and able to look into how they impact on my life and how I feel.
Throughout this pandemic I have had one determination — to do what we can as a charity. Faced with a challenge, however big or small, I want to do something. To make a difference, have a positive impact.
Now the coronavirus pandemic has become much bigger than any of us surely thought back in January, February and probably early March 2020. But straight away, as Chief Executive at Citizens Advice Wokingham — an advice and information charity helping people with a huge variety of issues — I knew we had a role to play.
We instantly got in contact with Wokingham Borough Council, our local authority and said we had to step-up, and we wanted to be the helpline to help people get through the pandemic and its consequences — at the time, people worrying about their health, worrying about having to be at work, self-employed people losing contracts and worrying about how to pay their bills and be able to feed themselves and their families.
The council quickly pulled together many local charities, churches and parish & town councils to create the Wokingham Borough Community Response.
By providing the helpline we:
- helped 5,748 people with their problems, a huge 122% increase on 2019
- helped hundreds of people access essentials such as food, prescription collections and social isolation support, by working closely with other charity partners who delivered those services
- continued to provide our free high quality advice and information on rising issues such as benefits, debt, housing, employment law and relationships & family matters
- secured outcomes of nearly £1.3million of income gains, £410,000 of debts written off and reported improved mental health and wellbeing after interacting with our charity
- had 8 in 10 clients report that we helped them find a way forward with their problem(s)
- answered 95–97% of call demand each month, within 7 seconds on average — ensuring our support was as accessible as possible
But this, for our hard working brilliant team of volunteers and staff, was just the tip of the iceberg.
Our communities needed more support with essentials, such as cookers, washing machines, beds for their children — and in one case, carpets fitted in a house where nails were left sticking out of the floor which meant their children couldn’t move around the house freely.
Working with Wokingham United Charities, which provides over £50,000 of emergency grants to individuals every year, we became their sole assessor. Ensuring that any grants we approve for individuals (on average £500 per person), included more holistic support such as a benefit check, support with debts etc, to help them not rely on this type of support in the future.
We also then took on this responsibility for Wokingham Borough Council, with their COVID Winter Grant discretionary pot, paying for food vouchers and fuel for 4 weeks at a time, and boiler repairs or replacements.
As concerns around mental health grew last June and July, we became part of weekly calls with local GPs, adult services and public health to see what we could do. We promoted our services more heavily in an area of the borough which had the highest rates of depression and anxiety diagnoses. Our service then monitored their mental health and wellbeing through the Warwick-Edinburgh scale over 4 weeks (if they consented). This work has led to Mind starting to work back in the area for the first time in many years.
On behalf of Citizens Advice Wokingham I have also started delivering Mental Health First Aid training across the borough, training 60 council staff, 60 advisers across Citizens Advice in Berkshire and 72 charity staff and volunteers in other Wokingham charities, so that we can more effectively support our communities. This has been a really brilliant course to deliver, with people passionate about tackling the stigma around mental ill health and supporting people with recovery from a crisis. The feedback has been phenomenal, and I’m just so glad to play even a small part in such a hugely important topic.
“brilliant course, brilliant instructor — highly recommended”
“It provided me with much more confidence going into situations, not only at work but with friends and family. The course has taken away my fear of not knowing what to say or do in a situation. The manual is also a fantastic resource to continue learning and revisiting once the course is finished. Thank you for the opportunity!”
Each time we have faced a challenge, we rise up to it. I’m so proud that I’m leading a team of people that are passionate, determined and up for each challenge I ask them to support. We have taken on more and more, because I firmly believe that our duty is to step-up, not heckle on the sidelines. Whilst our communities need us, we’re here, we shout loudly that there should be no wrong reason or shame felt with giving us a call, to reach out if people need us, and to be confident that our supportive team will deliver a good service.
And the feedback tells me that is how people see it, just this week I received an email from another charity which said:
“On a separate note, I have had a lot of contact with your service over the past 2 weeks regarding client issues. The standard, professionalism, compassion and expertise of your team is outstanding. You’re all doing an amazing job.”
Our clients also write in to say:
“Wonderful service so very helpful and a very lovely lady called to follow up.”
“I can always say a 5 star to Citizens Advice as they are on our side and very friendly and very helpful they are I would be lost without them”
“I received very clear advice regarding support during COVID lockdown.”
Personally, for me, going through such a tough personal journey with my complex mental health, I’ve again been blown away by our team. In such a challenging time they’ve shown resilience, in our annual and quarterly surveys their responses have remained high:
➡️ 96% say they would recommend Citizens Advice Wokingham as a place to work or volunteer
➡️ 96% also say that we have effectively supported their wellbeing throughout
Heading towards the end of the year, I was absolutely honoured to win a national award for ‘excellence in leadership’ recognising our work and wider impact during the pandemic on supporting colleagues mental health across the Citizens Advice service. From the start of the pandemic through to the summer, I chaired weekly calls for Chief Executives and leaders of the Citizens Advice services across England & Wales, providing a great opportunity for peer support.
I just wanted to write this because, we’ve got even more uncertainty to come. Once the vaccine is rolled out and the health risks are reduced, we still have to rebuild, we will still have many people in financial difficulties, with job insecurity and many other challenges for years to come.
We’ve had a huge impact on the lives of hundreds and thousands of people across our borough over the last year, and many charities up and down the country have had a similar impact, in their own way.
If you can help lift peoples spirits, to support them with the challenges they face — then please do… but if you can’t then that is ok, help them find a service that can.
We can all do our part to move forward from such a challenging time.
