Last month, we published a story about Richmond Fellowship, one of the biggest voluntary sector providers of mental health care in England. Richmond Fellowship offers a wide range of housing, care, employment, and community support across more than 120 services around the UK. In the south east specifically, the charity is the lead provider of Community Connection services that provide access to a range of short wellbeing/personal development courses in the community.
With the new announcements detailing the planned easing of lockdown restrictions, many of us may be experiencing a wide range of mixed emotions. These feelings might include happiness, anxiety, excitement, worry and confusion. For those struggling to process the overwhelming prospect of a return to pre-Covid life, there are many support services available to help us manage potentially conflicting emotions.
At the beginning of April, Richmond Fellowship are launching two new courses designed to help people boost their confidence levels and deal with a scale of challenging situations.
The Emotional Health and Wellbeing programme is a five-week course that commences on 6 April 2021. This course has been structured to help others improve their self-esteem, manage their anxiety and response to stressful situations, handle conflict, pursue their goals, and enjoy a greater quality of life.
The Building Confidence and Self Esteem workshop will also run for five weeks, starting on 12 April to the 10 May. This course has been designed to help attendees regain confidence as we begin to venture outside of our homes during the coming weeks and months.
To learn more about these courses, and Richmond Fellowship as a whole, visit:www.richmondfellowship.org.uk. Alternatively, visit the Surrey Virtual Wellbeing Hub:(https://virtualwellbeing.healthysurrey.org.uk/) where you can search using the filters to find a wide range of online activities, crafts, exercise groups and courses offered by Community Connections providers across the county. All services on the Surrey Virtual Wellbeing Hub are available free of charge to residents over Surrey over the age of 18.
A Richmond Fellowship client comments on what they have learnt from previous wellbeing courses:
This month I learned that bereavement and mental health recovery is not a linear process with a time limit on it. There are ebbs and flows and it is important to be kind to yourself when you are in the depth of an ebb and celebrate the everyday during a flow.
