Vaccine passport?

Considering that I have had both jabs already I thought a vaccine passport could be handy for traveling to Europe. It seemed rather discriminatory at first as not everyone can or wants to have the jab and some just were not offered both jabs yet, but it seemed promising at first.

The thing is: I am vaccinated.  Europe at first suggested they will welcome anyone coming from the UK with the vaccine passport. BUT it’s unsure now due to the stance of Germany and the current increase of the Delta variant in the UK.

The thing is, I have aging parents in Europe. I last saw them in the autumn of  2019. As I was leaving I promised to come back to see them again in the spring 2020. But it still did not happen as the pandemic made it difficult.

I nearly went there in summer 2020 as it was possible for a while, however, in that possible window, we [anon and their partner] finally succeeded in our bid for accommodation. The move on was and still is a very good thing, but we had to move on the council’s terms. That meant moving suddenly while the place was not yet ready. By the time we moved and settled at least a bit, the cases started creeping up and my usual travel by bus across the whole of Europe become unsafe and downright impossible again.

So I promised to come to see them in spring 2021. By then, it got even more complex with the complications caused by Brexit. Nevertheless there was another lock-down. That is now ending, but travel still appears very confusing and insecure. 2 weeks quarantine on both sides or even one side? Expensive tests on both sides? I just cannot afford that and it can be imposed suddenly and at short notice on any traveller.

So the original idea of unrestricted travel with a vaccine passport, for me at least, does not look so bad after all. But will this happen? Nobody is completely sure.  And it just does not look as straightforward as I was hoping for any more.

Additionally, I wanted to hold a solid document for  a vaccine passport. A letter, such as suggested by Malta, would do actually. I do not have NHS app and I am not really keen on it and do not even know how to use it. I also cannot be sure about my phone, as I can never know if the battery would die just before the border crossing (possible after 16 hours on the bus) or if there would be no signal for my network. The question is how do you provide your documents including a vaccine passport via a phone that is switched off due to a flat battery? Would a solid piece of paper laminated to keep it water and tamper proof not be a better option? For me it certainly would.

And then another thing – the issue of using a Covid passport within the UK. Would I like to show a document with my health information, my name and age to be looked at every time I may want to have a coffee at a coffee shop? No, definitely not. But nowadays people are expected to swipe their NHS app to go anywhere at all, even to Costa.

Result? I do not go to have a coffee or food anywhere. In fact this all puts me off and I just avoid going anywhere and mostly avoid leaving the house all together just in case I would need to go and sit down somewhere or needed to use the toilet. So sadly I am in a kind of self-imposed quarantine to keep myself safe, but also to avoid the stress about using any apps or being suddenly asked to isolate.

However, when it comes to a vaccine passport it is rather discriminatory against those who do not have it and in a way also to those who do. Would I really like to show how old I was? No! And any ID such as the vaccine passport would very likely show too much of our information. Would I like to show my details to every receptionist, waiter or similar? No. It nearly looked like this would not be happening, but now it is not so sure as each establishment will make their own rules with apps and similar as far as I understand.

However, on the other hand the possibility of having to have a test every time I would go anywhere is putting me off even more. And the possibility of being suddenly turned away. No! It’s too anxiety provoking. I guess I am in a self-imposed quarantine for now. But for how long? Is it for ever? Will I never see my parents, will I never again set my foot into any night club ever? I’m not sure and I really hope it will pass.

So all in all a tangible vaccination passport made of laminated paper would be would be the better option  for me. But of course this is not the case for everyone so perhaps the answer to the question over which form the passport should take is to give people a choice. People could chose to have a laminated paper document, an app or both.

A couple of weeks ago Laura – one of the mobile reporters on this project – featured in a new podcast series called The Kind Place, where people experiencing loneliness get together to discuss what it actually means to be lonely, what it feels like, and what they’re doing to get through it.

In this episode, Laura and Phil met for the first time to discuss their experience of being transgender, and how they are working to get their voices heard in a society that often does not want to listen. Laura also talks to Phil about how communities can help those experiencing homelessness to feel less lonely.

In his latest piece, Paul reflects on the recent Conservative party conference and the idea that we are, in fact, not all born equal.

Audio Transcript

If you’ve been following the conservative party conference this week, you are probably in as much shock and awe as I am. I’ve been around for a while and I’ve been around party politics for a little bit in actual person, being the PR representative of an MP in Cardiff when I was a student there. But I’d never, ever witnessed anything as insane as the past week. We have Therese Coffey, the Head of the Department of Work and Pensions, the person that actually is responsible for the Universal Credit uplift being cut this week, just before winter, when costs are rising, inflation is going to go through the roof. Gas prices have gone up 40%. And she’s dancing on stage and singing about having her best life. That’s insane. 

That wasn’t the worst bit. The worst bit was Sajid Javid saying, don’t expect the state to do anything for you. Get on with it yourselves and expect your family and friends to pick up the bill. These people have no understanding of their role. And in truth, that’s our fault, as the electorate because we’ve let them get away with that. We’ve let them believe that the state isn’t us. The whole purpose of government is to redistribute money. That’s it. To make laws to appease society and redistribute money. Our money, not theirs. The state isn’t some ephemeral thing that creates wealth and then hands it out. The state collects money from us and redistribute it to us. 

So when Sajid Javid is saying, oh, you don’t want to be dependent on the state. What he’s saying is, you don’t want the money that you put in back. Are you mad? Of course, we want that money back, we as a society said, hey, what a brilliant country. We’re a cohesive country, we’re a society that believes everybody should have equal opportunity. To do that, it means we have to balance things out. Because we’re not all born equal. Some are born with disabilities, some are born into poverty. Some are born into circumstances beyond any of our control.

We are not all born equal. But what we we, as a society said is that everyone should have equal opportunity. 

So we created a government, we said, hey, we’re going to have this thing called National Insurance. That means we all pay in, but only some people take out. That is not state intervention. That is state distribution. So when he’s talking about don’t rely on the state, then why have a government? Why do you have a job? Why are we paying you money? If the state isn’t there to intervene, to support us. And again, I reiterate, this is our money. The government doesn’t raise money in any other means than taxation. So it’s our money, their salaries are paid by our money. That building is maintained with our money, the government does not make money for itself. So when he tells you, hey, you go and pay for your carers and you go and sort things out and you support each other and have friends get to do the things that they… he’s in essence telling you, you are mugs, we’ve caught you to pay into your insurance scheme and we’re never paying out. This is just money for our salaries. 

Do you know how hard it is to live on £82,000 pounds a year, with £1000 a day expenses, you have no idea how difficult that is, none, no. Those people who are homeless, those people who are on Universal Credit, you don’t understand how difficult it is to live on £82,000 a year. I mean, seriously, I mean, I have no idea how you expect us to do that. Well, actually, what we expect you to do is work for free. If you want to be ruling the country, you mustn’t be there because we’re giving you money as employment, you must be there because it is a calling and the right thing to do. We should give you a house, a menial one. And travel expenses, which actually will just give you a London Transport card, and a travel card for those travelling to London. And that’s it really. And food parcels, we should give you food parcels. But you don’t need to have lavish lunches or drinks or spend 40 quid on a breakfast. You don’t need any of that to run the country. Thank you very much. 

And the audacity, the audacity of Javid to make that speech. Should tell everybody in this country that these people are not fit to govern, they do not understand the operation that they are in charge of. Universal Credit took 5 billion pounds out of our economy. Now when you give money to people, I say give when you circulate money to people, the people that you most want to circulate it to if you’re going to buy into capitalism and the idea of an economic system, our poor people. Why? Because they spend it all. The last people that you ever want to give money to are rich people. Why? Because they’re rich, they don’t spend money, therefore, they are not a contributor to society, therefore they have no purpose in getting taxpayers money. 

Yet for some reason, Universal Credit is paying people to be in work. People that are working for companies that are earning trillions in the case of Amazon, who could easily pay all their staff 25 pounds an hour and still be making billions in profit. But now much better than you, or all of us, the taxpayers, whether that’s paying tax on income or paying tax on purchases, the taxpayers are subsidising Jeff Bezos, his company by paying his employees, yet Javid gives no support for people who need it. Just support for billionaires. Are you seriously going to tell me anybody in Britain is going to vote for that? The sad reflection, I know is that there will be, but there shouldn’t be. 

But to top it off, Boris Johnson goes house buying, house buying is the most important thing, buy your home. Yes, own your home. Well, no, that is an economy that is destined to failure. House prices are insane. And the reason that they’re insane has nothing to do with supply and demand. It is to do with the way our properties are now owned by corporations and hedge funds. And it is in their interest and their company’s interest. The prices go up, prices go up so share prices go up, and shares are the only thing companies are interested in. 

And again, truly across, think about the fact that we now have local authorities giving rental holidays of 4.5 million pounds to a company called WeWork. WeWork in its entire existence has never made a profit. Nor indeed has Uber or Netflix. We now live in a world where companies are looking to be monopolies. And on that proviso, shareholders are happy to sustain them at losses whilst the shares go up in value. That’s an insane world. That is not a world where you’re free to choose anything. Any politician suggesting you’re living in a free market is insane. You are living in a monopolised market. You were living under banking rule that taxpayers paid for in just under a trillion pounds to bail out banks that, under capitalism, would have gone. 

So when Javid is talking about help yourselves. Help yourselves, get rid of this government. Get rid of all governments, change the way we do things in society and let’s bring Britain back to being great.

Related links:

Therese Coffey laughing at a starving, freezing, dying public. – https://news.sky.com/story/conservative-party-conference-therese-coffey-under-fire-for-singing-time-of-my-life-as-universal-credit-uplift-ends-12427214

While Gas Prices go up 40% to a record high – https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gas-prices-surge-to-record-high-3jrsql3w6

Sajid Javid totally misunderstanding Government’s role in society – https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sajid-javid-health-nhs-family-b1932886.html

MP complaints about £82,000 per year salary – https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-mp-salary-peter-bottomley-b1933668.html

MPs Can Claim Breakfast as part of Hotel Expenses of up to £150 per night – https://fullfact.org/online/how-much-can-MPs-claim-for-breakfast/

The economy loses £5bn from Poor People who no longer have it – https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/07/why-cutting-universal-credit-even-worse-you-think

Boris Johnson peddling buy your home propaganda. Affordable housing is only for the rich. We propped up the property market from the taxes of hard working families who can’t get on the property ladder. – https://hqnetwork.co.uk/news/johnson-promotes-home-ownership-in-conservative-party-conference-speech-4013/

The failure of using a Housing Market as economic growth – https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/01/16/home-ownership-is-the-wests-biggest-economic-policy-mistake

While those on Universal Credit expected to get on with it – https://theconversation.com/universal-credit-uplift-was-a-lifeline-during-the-pandemic-our-research-shows-cutting-it-will-leave-families-with-impossible-decisions-169195

Local Authority gives WeWork £4.5 Million Rental Holiday from Tax Payers Money – https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2020-06-25/spelthorne-council-gives-wework-4.5m-rent-holiday-as-covid-crunch-hits

While WeWork Has Never Made a profit – https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-not-close-to-profitable-loses-hundreds-thousands-every-hour-2019-7?r=US&IR=T

Tax Payers underwrite Banking up to over a £1 Trillion – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2011/sep/12/reality-check-banking-bailout

As the cost of living goes up and the government continue to hike up prices as if it was a World Cup final, unwittingly they’re hiking up the cost of supporting and tackling the homeless crisis we’re facing. Surely with all the price rises there would be bigger pools of funding to aid the struggle volunteers go through trying to do their bit and help give homeless people the essentials to survive.

It’s clear to say the homeless issue in the UK is a situation the government is struggling to tackle, which makes things like soup kitchens, foodbanks, outreach work, and so on, a bare essential in combating an ever-growing crisis.

I will try to explain the lack of support and safety measures for the sorts of people that go about their day-to-day jobs and then give an hour of their free time to feed people experiencing homelessness or do a street count at 6am on a cold frost-bitten winters morning.

There’s a local soup kitchen in our town-centre every Monday night. I say soup kitchen but it’s just a few tables, a small team of women and one male (who’s a gentle fella) and they work solely off donations. They each take it in turns to cook a big, huge pot of something like a stew or a curry or a casserole.

They have a WhatsApp group so they can plan and communicate between themselves how each Monday night session will work-out. Each person in the group constantly (or as much as time allows) searches through social media for people gifting useful things. They’ve came up with the idea to sell some of the backlog of clothes donations on an app called Vinted to put funds back into buying more functional things such hats, scarves and gloves.

I’ve been getting to know this small team over the past two maybe three months and it’s clear to the lack of everything they need to do what they do. There’s no real safety measures in place for them compared to a soup kitchen based in a church or other building. I’ve been to a soup kitchen in another city that’s ran by a Sikh temple, and they’ve had people from their families and local community that are SIA (Security Industry Authority) registered helping by doing their jobs as security guards.

My local soup kitchen’s smaller team of volunteers has nothing like this and are quite open to any sorts of incidents. Over the past few months, I’ve seen it all go a bit downhill yet this team keeps fighting and doing what they do. There’s been incidents of drunken abuse, volunteers’ phones being stolen and arguments over a lot of minor things.

Last week was the only time in two to three weeks that a police officer had a regular presence, even this didn’t stop a barrage of abuse from a drunk person.

Something really needs to be done to support the smaller groups of ordinary nine to five people that are making more of dent in the homeless crisis than any politician.

Photo by Mat Amp Instagram @matamp67 

As this project has gathered speed and reports have started to come in more regularly, reporters have, understandably, been asking about the impact of their reports. While it’s not always easy to quantify impact it’s important that we try.

The experience of being homeless often makes you feel invisible, like nobody is taking any notice and that you have no place in the world. As the Victorian top down model of charity provision has given way to a more holistic model of care, some people experiencing homelessness are finding more of platform to express their voice. But to be able to speak is only a part of the equation. Talking on its own changes nothing without someone listening. 

Last week Olivia Butterworth spoke to our community reporters about how the information from their reports is disseminated and acted upon. Although she was asked at short notice, Olivia found an hour to talk about the journey of reports from the front line to her desk and on to her colleagues  It was immediately evident just how galvanising that was for reporters because it was for me. I think we should always remember just how important it is to let people know how their words are being used to impact policy.

[Mat Amp Groundswell’s Point of Contact for this community journalism project]

Transcription.

Hi, this is Mat Amp. This Is a very short message to talk about the importance of feeding back to reporters or basically anyone experiencing homelessness involved in research. But in this case, I’m talking about our community journalism project run between On Our Radar and Groundswell. And what I really want to talk about is the importance of feeding back to the reporters, the impact of their work and their words and their videos and so on – all reports. Last week, we got Olivia Butterworth to come in and talk to reporters and tell them exactly what happens to their reports, you know, how they land on her desk, how she disseminates that information and how it gets fed back into the way everyone works. One of the quotes she made was ‘you are being heard and you are being heard in an authentic way.’ And what she was really talking about, that was the fact that this news is unfiltered. It’s straight from the heart, straight from the soul, and it’s straight from the front line and how that is being passed very quickly and undiluted to policy makers. So the policy is change and something is done and the people are actually heard and their words are acted upon. You know, I think as an industry this this sector has to take a bit of time to feed back to the people on the frontline doing the work, whether it’s research or whatever, just the importance of telling those people how their words are heard and how they’re acted upon. And it can be a difficult thing to do to, you know, list every single way in which someone’s words are acted upon. But it’s important that we try, it really is, and the impact of Olivia Butterworth coming in last week and talking to our reporters has been amazing. It really has. You know, it’s it’s just had a real galvanizing effect on people. It has on me. And I knew this stuff anyway. But just to listen to it straight from her mouth. It’s been you know, it was incredible. It really was. And, you know, I think there’s a lesson to learn from that. You know, like I said, we need to take the time to let people know. So thanks. [00:00:03][0.0]

As part of my regular nine to five job I occasionally observe digital inclusion coaching sessions. These are when someone with good digital skills helps try and teach someone else with less good digital skills. I watched one session and decided to make an observation to the person being helped, Janet.

Janet’s response was lengthy and quite rude. Then the tutor John then started having a go at me too. I was a bit shocked and surprised. I was just trying to make an observation. I had been helping a friend with poor digital skills and she has really developed, and the thing she most appreciates is the fingerprint reader on her phone. It stops the need for written down passwords. It is quick and easy. I said that once Janet got to this point then her confidence would grow really quickly.

It was the use of the word confidence that really needled Janet, who is an intelligent and feisty 80 year old. She really got quite pissed off. I tried to listen, but it was difficult while she attacked me. It took me a few days to understand the exchange and after a few weeks there was a mutual apology session between us both. Janet repeatedly apologised for being snappy and rude, I apologised for being a patronising idiot. Janet deserved that.

Because I had already discussed the exchange with the friend that helped, who then heaped further blame and recrimination on me, this time with as lot of rather salty language. I felt assaulted. But I wasn’t. I was clearly in the wrong.

But what had actually happened with Janet?

Janet feels that every time she goes for help people talk down to her and patronise her (the current tutor John is not like this at all). She goes to charities who get funding who offer her help, but the sessions aren’t what she wants. Worse, they aren’t frequent enough, and she constantly hears the word confidence, or it’s implied lack, which is in some way her fault. She feels that people have an opportunity to talk down to her, due to the fact that she has missed this particular technological boat. This doesn’t make her at fault. What makes her angry is that no one asks her what she needs and how she needs it delivered. Worse she feels forced to learn these things, and feels quite resentful of this. One particular bugbear is online banking. Old people want to go into banks and do their banking in person, apparently. It is part of the routine and structure of their lives.

I also discover that touchscreens don’t pick up old fingers very well. Quite a lot of the elderly need to use styluses as their fingers don’t register properly. This is a very bizarre bit of embedded prejudice in the technology they are trying to use. Why have these devices never been tested properly?

I have found this whole series of events has caused me to personally reflect. Firstly on my incredibly poor abilities as a digital skills tutor. But more importantly on the way we can belittle and talk down to people without even realising it. I have nearly a decade of lived experience of intermittent homelessness. I have very rarely been listened to, at all. But sometimes you are doing your best, you are bad at it, and you make mistakes. You don’t help, you inflame, you anger. Because unintentionally you have been prejudiced and belittling – in my case – by using the word “confidence”.

Now, Janet is now progressing really well. Which is great. But the thing that has made her keep going is Whatsapping her family and friends, not digital banking. She is delighted to be in contact with them.

A lot of this stuff would be much simpler if we just asked people what they want and tried to listen properly. I have a far easier time with another person, digital Tony. Who at least partly knows what he wants. And I have a far easier time because I ask: “Why are you here?”

He knows at least some of the reasons. But he doesn’t know that he also wants to come and speak about pottery. Some of us are just a bit lonely too. Sometimes you aren’t just digitally not included, you are just not included. Perhaps old people want to go to the bank because it makes them feel part of the world.

Let’s not talk about what lack of digital inclusion means for access to health services for the digitally excluded. That is the subject of another piece of writing. Tried to ring your GP lately or go into a surgery and book and appointment? You really need an eConsult. For an eConsult you need digital skills.

Accommodation

Mental Health

Recovery

Support and Relationships

Hi I’m Tess, I work for Groundswell and have a long history of mental illness. During a particularly bad patch I sofa surfed for a while. I have a very opinionated cat and live near Manchester, although I’m formerly from Stoke-on-Trent.

Read all of Tess’s articles

Accommodation Mental Health Recovery Support and Relationships

I was shocked by this situation where people are left on the streets while at the same time told ‘Stay at home, save lives. The hypocrisy!

‘Everybody in’ initiative was a great opportunity and a great hope. However, I cynically fear, it only happened due to the general spirit of the 1st lockdown. There were some campaigns and acknowledgment of the problem by organisations such as Shelter. The problem of homelessness in the pandemic was also discussed on the national radio. It was a little bit like the Marcus Rashford campaign, so the government could not ignore the problem. Now people are more fed up, fatigued and the spirit of the 1st lockdown is not there that much anymore. Additionally, nobody knew in April what will happened with the pandemic. It could had been like the plaque and having people on the streets could have meant not only tragedy for homeless people but also a health danger to general public. The government must have feared that they will be blamed if lots of people die because of it, homeless or not homeless. So they had to do something. Now they feel less pressure.

I was shocked by this situation where people are left on the streets while at the same time told ‘Stay at home, save lives. The hypocrisy!

I have actually noticed when looking into the published rules that one of the permitted legal reasons to be outside is homelessness ??? Shopping for essentials, obtaining mediation and medical care and … homelessness? Then I looked further into the news and realized that ‘Everbody in’ is not happening any more. WHY? We are told this waive is worse than the first one. Children do not go to schools so clearly homelessness is not safe either (if it ever was).

Furthermore, Everybody in was helping people with no access to public funds who do not receive help by other channels, such as housing benefit, as they do not have access to benefits. Some of these people are foreign born people who live in the UK legally. With the absence of ‘Everybody in ‘ they are not receiving the support they need.

However, the government have come up with an ingenious alternative to the problem! Changing the law, so that any homeless foreigner born person with no access to public funds living here legally, may have their visa overturned and could be deported. Such a clever solution to the problem! Deported people would not be on the street of UK anymore! So there would not be a visible problem! They may be on the streets somewhere else, but that is not visible to the UK voters.

Additionally I would like to report that there are currently many people visibly sleeping rough in NE London. And there must be many who camp in less public places, too. The numbers increasing. Some people are permanently camped up underneath the post office, and some clearly homeless people ride buses with all their possessions on board. Bus drivers tend to be kind, accommodating this, while possibly putting themselves at risk of all sort of trouble. The bus drivers must be anxious to go to work in these dangerous times, and yet they are kind to help just a tiny bit, to keep a homeless person out of the cold. It would be nice if the government followed this example.  Did they not notice that homelessness can be deadly at the best of times, especially in winter, so how about in a pandemic!??

I am also surprised about the change of approach, where a hostel is seen as settled accommodation, while it clearly isn’t. But to be honest, I am not as shocked as I should be. When surveying people for a project, we attended a men’s hostel in the centre of London, pre-pandemic. There was a man in his late 60/ early 70s. He suffered from dementia and struggled to engage with the survey process.  He had lived in this hostel for 26 years! I feared for him – would he ever come out of there alive; other than to a nursing home to die or to a mortuary. It’s shocking and this certainly should not be the norm. This is not ok!

If people are put in a decent clean room and given the support they need, it might prevent years of homelessness, health emergencies, criminality, imprisonment, destroyed lives. What a difference it could make! Is there a way to reignite the good will from the 1st lock down, to change the whole approach and start to heal? I wonder, there must be a way to show that prevention is cheaper than an emergency. Why is it that the decision makers do not want to know?

What went right? It’s such a simple question but quite difficult to answer. So much time spent reflecting after being in services is about what went wrong, how things could be improved, where opportunities were missed… It’s incredibly easy to pull countless examples of those things out and dissect them at length for whichever audience is present. But the good things? Not so much

It makes me think about something I realised a few years ago – after so long of being in and out of mental health services I’ve become at ease with talking about the majority of what has gone wrong in my life. I can talk about some truly horrible things I’ve experienced and it not bother me in the slightest. But ask me about something trivial about myself – favourite type of crisp, books I like reading, what makes me laugh – and the barriers will go up. I’m simply not used to talking about the good in my life, what brings me joy

Even when I do talk about the good, I’ll spin it into something negative – I’ll both praise and criticise something in the same breath, be self-deprecating, pretend I hate something I enjoy so it can’t be taken away from me or used as a weapon. If I can make someone laugh in the process, then it’s win-win but often the affect is to make me feel like crap

I asked my boyfriend recently (via text so these are the actual messages) if he thinks I’m capable of being happy

He responded: “Yes but on the occasions you accidently discover you are, it unsettles you markedly for days. Quite the loop”.

I replied, “Would it be fair to say I generate drama to prevent myself from feeling happy?”

His answer: “Maybe to create the familiar and hence known and comfortable. But I think we all have that instinct to create drama”

Why is it after so much interaction with mental health professionals I’m more comfortable with discomfort? Why is it that I can’t sit with happiness? Is this something I should be seeking further help with or will it only exist to create more opportunities to talk about all the occasions I’ve felt sad, and therefore have to dwell on it and continue the “comfortable talking about bad things” cycle? Is it appropriate to be wondering these things in a blog I’m writing for work?

But contained in those words I just typed is the answer to “what went right”. People. It’s the people I have around me now, and some of those who I’ve met along the way, who have made things right…

• It’s my incredibly patient boyfriend who takes me seriously when I ask weird questions about happiness out of the blue
• It’s people who force me to see the things I do well
• It’s the people who call me on my negative attitude and make me allow a crack of happy to shine into my life
• It’s the people who encourage me to be silly and make it safe to drop my guard
• It’s the nurse on the ward when I was waiting for a crisis team assessment who spent her break with me talking about telly and sharing some cake
• It’s the people who encouraged me as a volunteer and made me feel capable, trusted, wanted and valuable
• It’s the people who decided my mental health wasn’t bigger than the good I could do and offered me employment
• It’s the therapist who repeatedly told me that it wasn’t my fault
• It’s the counsellor who never expressed any doubt in what I told her
• It’s the support worker who understood the importance to keep my cats with me when I was homeless and fought to keep us together
• It’s the people who come to me when I believe I’m the worst human on the planet and listen without judgement before telling me all the reasons why I’m wrong
• It’s the people who aren’t like me that give me hope that I could be happy
• It’s the friend offered and drove 30 miles to pick up me and my cat and drove another 30 miles to our new home just because she was happy we were going somewhere I knew we could be safe and where I could build a real life for myself
• It’s the person who dealt with me at my worst and decided to be my friend at the end of it
• It’s the people who included me despite being so different but never made me feel I didn’t belong
• It’s the people who listen and hear me
• It’s the people who stay

During our last meeting I mentioned a TV series I’m watching and, although it’s fiction, it’s well researched and the topics are dealt with great accuracy, replicating true events.

This drama begins in the East End of London, and they’ve produced episodes spanning from 1957 to 1969.

What shocked me is that nothing has changed – the social issues that are dealt with are still as bad today. Why in nearly 67 years are we still talking and complaining about the same things? Why haven’t things changed? Why haven’t things improved?

During the sixties the housing crisis was as bad as it is today, most of the tenants were living in squalor, in cold, damp, and rat-infested properties that were leased by private landlords. Tenants were evicted if they fell behind with the rent regardless of health or employment status. Does it ring a bell?

The working class didn’t have access to dentists, so people were extracting their own teeth, pain and gum disease was rife.

Homelessness and alcohol abuse was becoming a serious problem in the 60’s and these people were stigmatised and judged exactly as they are today.

People struggled with untreated mental health issues and there was a shortage of medical resources, exactly like it is today.

During the 50’s and 60’s, England was trying to rebuild itself; its communities, services, buildings, etc – after all it was post war. A lot of improvements and new ideas were being put in practice, the NHS was growing and starting to provide better health care and dentistry, council housing was expanding, families were being rehoused and the privately owned slums were being condemned. On the whole the country had some hope and a vision of better things to come.

So, if nothing has changed in seven decades, we can only ask what has gone wrong, do politicians really care, do our votes really matter?