Thursday 30th April 2020 - MH Packs, Funding, and April as a whole

Posted 2:15pm

Well, that is a month that none of us have ever experienced in our lives before. A month of upheaval, social distancing, uneasiness, and general confusion.  A time when many in our country and around the world have lost lives or loved ones. And we are all wondering what normality will be when we manage to try and resume our lives. Things will naturally change. It is up to us to adapt, challenge ourselves and be proactive.

Healthy Minds, Healthy Bods has had to do that. All our work before involved interaction with users, from our Ajani courses to our walks and fitness sessions, and that of course has all come to a stop. But we were anxious to be part of the mental health intervention.

Many organisations, us included, have gone online. And we have other plans in place around that too which we are launching next week. But we also felt it important to be offering ongoing help to people who are not necessarily on the internet, either because they do not have wifi, or maybe elderly, or because they struggle with using the web. Also, there is a lot around motivation, and if you are going through stress, anxiety or depression, it is much better to have something in your hand than on a screen.

Lazza with Issue One

So we have launched weekly Mental Health Packs to encourage, motivate and inspire people to keep focusing on their physical , mental and emotional health. The first came out on the 19th April, followed by the second a week later on the 26th. And we are greatly encouraged. Haringey Well Being Network have said it is a "great resource" and have put in on their website, as have Help On You Doorstep.  Our councillor Sue has sent them to Highbury Mutual Aid and we will continue doing that too.  Most importantly, we thank Clissold Park for week one, and Islington Council for week 2, who printed off copies that we have delivered and we can post out..

I am going to mention funding. We need a sponsor to help us print, and post to people. This is something really important, and we do not know any other organisation doing this. If anyone knows a business or company that would like to help us, please contact.  We re applying for various funds, but so are many others, and we have been turned down for the first three we applied to.

Thanks everyone for still following us.  Lazza is working hard on the third issue at the moment - first seven pages are complete.  Hugs everyone.

Sunday 26th April 2020 - Mental Health Pack No 2

Posted 9:05pm

Yes, proud and delighted to announce that we have finished our second mental health pack - our weekly look at Mind-set, Health, Nutrition and Health, with an aim to keep people motivated, inspired, and encouraged at a time of stress.  We want to show people this is a fantastic opportunity to look at ways of improving your health so you can be stronger, healthier and fitter for the long-term.

I have emailed out to many of our users, but have applied for funding as we want to be able to print off lots of copies and post off to people who are not online (many older residents for example), or people who maybe struggle using the web.

This issue is fourteen pages - the first was ten.  We have got extra photos, more information and am delighted with the content.

Wednesday 22nd April 2020 - Pack reaction - exercise - teamwork

Posted 8:35pm

We have had a good initial reaction to our mental health packs.  Haringey Well-Being Network described it as a great resource and will put it on their website.  Help On Your Doorstep have done the same.  And this is just issue number one.

I have already spoken to Luke and Dean and we are wanting to put even more in the second one out at the end of this sunday. Exciting times.  Really hopeful that someone can help us with funding with this.

I am hoping everyone is doing some kind of exercise every day. I know this can be difficult for some, due to age or other health issues. I have been heading to Highbury Fields every morning to do some high intensity work with Rosie (we are maintaining social distancing and adhering to all the guidelines). It has really helped me working with someone else. With that in mind, and we know many are on their own, I have spoken to Dean about performing some online sessions, as well as some live and providing practical work on paper. We want to ensure everyone has an opportunity to feel  motivated by working alongside someone, somehow.

This Pack has brought the team back together, which I am delighted about. Luke, Dean and myself have naturally been  self-isolating and having to deal with our own safety. completing domestics and solving financial problems. But, more than anything, we want to help our users and others, preventing mental health issues developing, and assisting those who may be suffering. We all have experienced devastating issues in the past. So we believe we understand what many may require at this time.

Monday 20th April 2020 - distributing and delivering Pack

Posted 8:10pm

Healthy Minds, Healthy Bods has had a busy day distributing our first ever edition of our new weekly Mental Health Pack.

We have to offer thanks to Clissold Park Users (on twitter) who came to our rescue and printed off a few copies for us.  Obviously, most people we will reach through email. But we are aware that some of our users are not on the internet, and others struggle with it. So it is important to have physical copies we can deliver, and Lawrence dropped off several on his exercise walk today.

We also managed to reach out to several organisations and agencies by email and through social media. We hope they like it and that people will use the pack.

I am looking forward to the feedback, as well as starting on our second edition - which I will aim to focus on from Thursday.  I already know several items we will include.

We have also reached out to funders too.  Everything costs money.

Sunday 19th April 2020 - First Mental Health Pack completed

Posted 9:45pm

I have really worked my socks off the last few days - and prepared a 10 page Mental Health Pack - something I am going to try and do on a weekly basis and see how it goes.

Ironically, my printer decided to pack up, so I cannot print any copies off. I am not happy as some of our users are not on the internet. I will put a plea out on twitter. I need to post them off to them.

But I have managed to email off copies to a few people so I can get feedback. Naturally, as this is number one, it is not the finished article as yet. It will need polishing up.

I included sections on Mind-set, Nutrition, Exercise/Fitness and Health/Routine. Tried to keep it positive and encouraging  with a few tasks to complete over the week.  I will do them too.

It has taken quite a lot of hours to prepare. There will be a PDF people can download from our website, and that will be on there from Tuesday - I will announce it on all our social media when that happens (I don't know how to do that, but our fantastic website guy Kacper will be making sure it happens.)

This week coming is going to be full of funding applications, filming for Youtube, and general domestics. Got to keep busy.

Finally, delighted to be doing daily workouts on Highbury Fields with one of our users every  morning. It has left my legs hurting, but exercising with someone else means I do more, feel better, and gives me focus.

Saturday 18th April 2020 - More funding applications; mental health packs

Posted 4:30pm

It is already Saturday, and the days just seem to blend into each other at the moment. I have some classical music on in the background, and I find that helps to destress and relax me. Years ago (over 30) I did one of those weekly CD magazines called The Great Composers, with a different one every week. I am working my way through - today is Gustav Mahler.

We have now put in three different funding applications, and I am working on a fourth. One was the Charities Aid Foundation, another was with Islington Giving, and the third I did last night with Legal and General. I am currently working on a Sport England form, and have others to aim for.  To be honest, we are small and, although we will work so hard and I know help a lot of people, I imagine everyone will overlook us. If we can get even one it would be amazing. But we must remain hopeful. That's the growth mind-set mentality that HMHB promotes.

This morning I met up on Highbury Fields with one of our users, Rosie, for exercise  (I hasten to add we social distanced, followed guidelines, but also worked very hard).  We  created our own High Intensity Interval Training session, naming it the Heartbeat.  I am definitely feeling it now, around four hours later. It felt good to work with someone else - there is more motivation and encouragement, as well as the fact it lifts spirits.

Healthy Minds, Healthy Bods has decided to launch the HMHB Mental Health Pack. We will send them out by both email and post. A lot of current mental health intervention organisations are doing stuff online - but you have to click on their app, or log in to something. Many older people, as well as poverty and isolated, either do not have access to the internet, or struggle with online. If we can get something into their hands, something practical, I believe it can make a difference. We have some cracking ideas for content, and want to send the first pack out on Monday - so I have a busy day tomorrow.  I will give more details as it happens.

Funding is important for this - printing, stationery, postage, hardware and software is required. We also will be posting online too, so it is a big job. I want to make them weekly if possible, but this is down to funding.

Tuesday 14th April 2020 - Mind-set during this time.

Posted 1:15pm

With the lockdown going on till the end of April at least, we need to remain positive. It can feel like everything is against you, that normality is far away, and you have no control. However, it is important to keep your mind-set positive and stay upbeat.

Lazza (me) would like to give you a prime example of how this helped him (me)  - in a roundabout way - a few years ago.

It was this very day six years ago I plunged back into a depression. My ex-friend and his partner had conned me out of my life savings a year before. He was becoming a train driver and got a rise of over £15000 when he qualified. Yet he was telling a court he needed all that money - and astonishingly they let him keep all of it. I was getting back £100 every four weeks, and they would not increase it. I was, at the time, struggling financially, in depression. I had been coming out of it. The decision plunged me back down.
I had just completed half of a programme that was getting me back active and towards work. I contacted the programme and dropped out. I just could not handle the unfairness of the situation, and felt the world was collapsing. It was crushing, and I could not see any way that things could improve.

So for the next few months I collapsed back into depressions, self-pity (a lot of 'why me' thoughts).
But my project was also vital for me. I knew that promoting a growth mindset could help people. I had already come through a desperate depression between 2004 and 2006. So I knew I needed to push myself, be active, and regain my life.

So one Friday in August, I picked up the telephone and called the programme people - saying that I knew it would help me, and would I be allowed back on the next course. By pure chance, the course started the following Monday - just three days later. If I had not picked up the phone I would never have known.

From that programme, I did an amazing work placement for a month at Freshfields Solicitors in London, which picked me up and improved my mental health hugely. I also met Scott - our business mentor - who was only mean to be around for six months, and in fact is still with us nearly six years later. His help has been vital in getting us where we are. I was able to focus on the project, and look where we are now - with amazing feedback, terrific contacts and networks, and ambitions for a great future.

So what am I saying?  It may feel like things are bad now, that we are living with uncertainty over our futures, and we don't know what will happen with finances, employment or health.
There are no guarantees, or promises, that being proactive will mean things will be good again. However, if you don't take positive action, push yourself forward, and create that feeling of self-confidence, then you can be sure nothing will happen anyway, and there will be no improvement.

Be active.  Be strong. Be busy. Be Healthy. You have a responsibility to make the best choices possible to work towards a happy, healthy life. Look after your bodies, your fitness, your diets, and your routines.

Saturday 11th April 2020 - Another application completed

Posted 3:15pm

It may be a weekend, but don't you find the days seem to blend into one another at the moment? I admit I woke up this morning and have to think about which day of the week it was.

But, we cannot stop in our target to help people around this time, and I have to say we have come up with a cracking idea for intervention around mental health of people in isolation. I am very proud of my idea, which I am actually going to keep to myself at the moment as we seek funding. I do not want anyone to pinch it.

We have though just completed a funding application that would cover this for the next four months - or seventeen weeks. I am hoping that people will see the potential, and that we are doing something different from others around. We did not want to copy anyone, but are naturally reliant on getting the funding to cover the costs.

I am thankful to Scott, our terrific business mentor, currently working from home, who ran his professional eye over our application and made suitable changes where necessary. It is sometimes easy to get a bit personal when you are filling in these forms, and he is able to focus on this for us.  We have asked for a total of juist over £4000 - this would cover all the costs for the 17 weeks, including four hours a week for four volunteers, a camera, some presentation packs, office paper, printer ink, and some resistance bands for exercise. We costed everything from Vistaprint and Amazon, as well as the london living wage per hour for the volunteer.

We will naturally be using up far more time than four hours each on the project. In fact for Lazza, this is almost a full time job at the moment. But it is important to cover some volunteer costs, which will include travel, and other costs.

If we get the funding I will naturally expand on the project idea.

Friday 10th April 2020 - How can we offer something different to others?

“Think of yourself as a brand. You need to be remembered. What will they remember you for? What defines you? If you have it in you, do something that defines you. Invent something, develop a unique skill, get noticed for something — it creates a talking point.”

Posted 5:55pm

Healthy Minds, Healthy Bods was created and developed to offer a something different to current intervention, to stand out from the crowd.  We are proud that so far we have managed to succeed, and garnered incredible feedback as well.

Now we are in lockdown, we are anxious to be part of the community help going around, especially for our users. I spoke with three of our older ladies on the telephone yesterday, and the first thing they all said to me was that they were bored and scared to go out. It actually upset me a bit, as none of them use the internet, and it feels like the television is their only outlet.

With that in mind, I have spoken with my colleagues Luke and Dean to see how we can offer our own unique delivery style and sessions and be part of the wonderful response from many organisations. There are some fantastic interventions online, especially around exercise and fitness, but they are all so samey. We want to be able to step it up a notch. And we have some cracking ideas around this.

It is also important to offer something around mental health.that is practical, fun and they can do on their own. We are coming up with quite a few good ideas, and I am sure we can provide some terrific assistance. That, obviously, comes down to money, so we are completing as many applications as possible, and if we are fortunate enough to be awarded some funding then we intend to crack on and complete this. There is a lot of food, shopping and contact help offered, but I have not seen any fund mental health activity packages as yet.

I just wanted people to know that we have not stopped, relaxed, or rested. We want to be part of the ongoing mental health intervention for years, as long as people give us the chance, and are desperate to help our users, and others, at this difficult time.

Wednesday 8th April 2020 - Website, Funding, and blogs

Posted 10:50pm

I am trying to be as constructive as possible during this lockdown. Part of that involves our social media, and seeing how we can grow and get more known.

We are currently updating our website. Our terrific colleague, Kacper, who is up in Edinburgh finishing off his work for his third year University degree, and Lazza have been jointly chatting and adding pages. We are looking to get five new pages on by the end of next week. Our first went live today - but we have only added a little to it, so I will give more details in a couple of days.
Lazza has never really done website work, so this is a real challenge and learning experience for him, but he is well guided by Kacper. We also made a small adjustment to our main page, which people see when they type in the web address, so it mentions the Covid virus.

Funding is becoming more important. Despite our pleas, the venue we were using in March for the course we then had to cancel suddenly due to the Covid 19 virus guidelines about staying in, has refused to budge and is charging us for the use of the site. Yes, it is in their regulations that if we do not give 72 hours notice we have to still pay, but frankly I am very disappointed.
We have put our GoFundMe page on twitter, asking for retweets and share. We had one!!! I am quite despondent. We desperately need seed funding. Our feedback alone shows we deserve our chance. But how can we possibly do anything if no-one is prepared to risk five figure sums on us? I will continue to apply for money, but this is now a time where everyone is going for the funding, and the bigger companies are bound to win. It is quite unfair.

I am loving updating our health blog with relevant and appropriate entries. I try and make them simple and how I would like to read them if I came across them. Recently I looked at the Respiratory System and the Immune System. We are wanting to encourage, motivate and inspire as much as possible.

Finally, we are anxious to get our unique intervention online. So many videos and talks just copy each other. They do not try and be original. That is us. Again though, this will come through some small funding - not a huge amount is required. I hope we can achieve this.

Tuesday 7th April 2020 - Funding plea on GoFundMe

Posted 2:35pm

Like a lot of small projects, with big ambitions, we are reliant on the kindness of funders, especially at times like this. And that can be tough, as everyone is applying for the funds available - so we need to be lucky in our attempts.

We have not been helped by a venue we were using on Wednesday 18th March. We were working with Barnsbury Job Centre to run a course with their users. On the Tuesday we were contacted and asked if we were going ahead. At that time there was still no problem, so we said yes. Luke was actually at the Job Centre at the time, promoting our course with the Legacy users (long-term unemployed and struggling).  It was during his visit that the DWP decided to close job centres and advise people to stay at home and not come in.

That left us high and dry the next day. No-one came. It was clearly not out fault, and out of our hands.
However, the venue are still charging us!!!!  They have agreed to halve the fee, but say we have to pay. I actually contacted the Chief Executive of the venue to ask if they could waiver it, as we are a small project and it was not in our control. But even he has come back and said we did not give notice so therefore we pay.  Truly astonishing!!!  I guess I understand in some small way, but surely common sense should prevail?

So it has pushed me to put our GoFundMe page back on Twitter. We get virtually nothing though. It is so frustrating. People go on the site asking for people to fund their holidays, and they get hundreds. We put on there to nothing!!!  Maybe this time, who knows?

If you are reading this, and would like to share our page, we would be very grateful.

www.gofundme.com/hmhb2016

Monday 6th April 2020 - Trying to boost our users

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained." - Marie Curie

Posted 2:15pm

It is very easy to say, but staying positive will naturally be a good thing for your mental health during this time of lockdown. As the simple message in the photo above describes, your attitude to any given situation is what defines us all.

Healthy Minds, Healthy Bods core target is to improve the mind-set of our users, as everything then develops from that. People will be more active, they will look to make better choices, and they will be proactive in improving their lifestyle and overall well-being.

Having a Growth Mindset (the belief that you are in control of your own ability, and can learn and improve) is the key to success. Yes, of course, hard work, effort and persistence are all important, but not as important as having and underlying belief that you are in control of your own destiny.

But we also like to improve interaction and that, at the moment, is not easy, as we are currently now allowed to mingle with non-family members, and adhere to the social distancing guidelines.

So HMHB is trying to speak with as many of our users at least once a week, either via email, telephone, or other internet communications - like Whatsapp and Messenger. We realise we are just a very small cog on the current wheel of organisations offering help, but over the last three years we have built up a network of users and friends (which is a good word for it).

Healthy Minds, Healthy Bods has always tried to be different from current intervention, and go that extra mile when it comes to users. Maybe that's because we are mentor led, having all of us gone through some difficult periods in our lives. It has been commented on, and praised, by our groups how they like the way we treat everyone as equals. It's how I would have wanted to be managed.

Please use this time to rebuild some lost friendships, reconnect with loved ones and friends. Life is far too short, and we waste so much on trivial events, when the really special part of being alive, being able to interact on an amazing level with others, we seem to have lost over time. Let's be ready to relight that spark. Yay!!!