Well, our opening month is just about over. The Bank Holiday weekend has intervened, hence the lack of an entry over the last few days.
It's been a hell of a month though. Our first program started on the 8th May with SHP and we have had three weeks so far (the BH Monday meant a break in the proceedings as the SHP offices were closed that day. It has been wonderful to actually be dealing with clients, and the feedback has been tremendous. It's just the lack of people that has concerned - which I think is out of our hands at this moment.
The ultimate aim is to be working with people on JSA with the Job Centres, or with corporate business with graduates and/or apprentices. But we are also happy to do programs with people on ESA, or out of work for other issues - as I know from first hand experience just how good this kind of intervention can be on individuals. However, as I know myself, if people have issues that can also interfere with their daily routines (or people choose to allow it to interfere - which us one of the reasons we are doing this project). People can wake up with no energy to even leave the flat or house. Just the thought of exertion can cause stress. It is sad in a lot of ways. We are trying to show people that when that happens they can either choose to allow these feelings to overwhelm them, and therefore now allow them to move on - or they can choose to say "no way, I am not going to let this control me" and find ways to move on. We can empathise, and understand how difficult it can be.
I think that is the reason why numbers have not been strong. The feedback from clients, and from SHP, to what we are doing, has been extremely positive. In fact, last week when I was in the SHP offices I was told by a key worker that they had not seen their client so upbeat before. This is about one of our clietns, Wayne, who is really pushing himself.
We had our third, and final, free visit to the St Pancras Leisure Centre Gym yesterday, and there was just myself, Dean our PT, and Wayne - but it was refreshing to see just how far he has come in such a short time. I did ask the Manager if it was possible to allow Wayne to have three or four more sessions, but he said he could not set a precedent - and he was absolutely spot on.
This week we are sorting out our ""Nutrition" week presentation - I have also several other "to-do" items to get on with. It seems never ending - and I have to be honest it can appear to be overwhelming too, so again I totally understand the pressure service users are under. But if we want to succeed we have to carry on.
No comments:
Post a Comment