Lots of things have changed since the lockdown started. All of us have lost our routine, maybe even some of our favourite outdoor activities, but the thing we miss the most is having visitors in the Wellbeing Centre. Covid-19 will not stop us from caring and supporting our patients and families through all this. That is what we said at the first team meeting we had in March and let me tell you… it didn’t!

To start with, we faced a couple of challenges and technical difficulties, but by supporting and helping each other, we are now able to have regular online sessions with our patients. Personally, I am very grateful that I have such a supportive team, everyone has been very positive about the new way of working. The feedback we receive on a regular basis has been very rewarding and is giving us the confidence to continue the good work, for every member in our community who might need us. We are fully aware that we cannot replace the face to face interaction, but we can definitely use the Internet to keep in touch, until we are able to get together again.

Some of the patients’ comments have been:

‘’Thank you so much for inviting my wife and I to these sessions. We really need to change the scenery and see some friendly faces. Things have been depressing for us, so we are looking forward for next week.’’

 ‘’I find the session very comforting, great support and just knowing that you are here for me means a lot’’

‘’You have done a fantastic job, coming up with the Zoom sessions. I love “The Nicky & Fiona Chat Show” as I like to call it. Your ideas are great and I can’t wait to come back.’’

On another note, last week we received a very nice basket with craft supplies from one of our community patients. We cannot wait to welcome patients here again and start using these. It is really wonderful that people care for each other in every possible way.