How has home isolation affected us all?
We’ve all now lived at home for at least two months in self isolation. Depending on where we live, our immediate surroundings and how much we can move about within our home, means we all have different experiences in isolation, making a big difference to how it has affected us.
There has been a lot of discussion around how this time of isolation and staying away from other people will affect our mental health in coming months once we get back to some sort of ‘normality’. Many experts predict that there will be a huge increase in cases of people developing mental health issues. With this week being ‘Mental Health Awareness week’, it is being widely discussed and is of great concern to us.
The World Health Organisation identified “In populations already heavily affected, such as Lombardy in Italy, issues of service access and continuity for people with developing or existing mental health conditions are also now a major concern, along with the mental health and well-being of frontline workers”.
Are we becoming a more understanding society because if the pandemic?
With most of us having a considerable degree of fear, worry and concern; are more people feeling the effects of being in isolation at home and being unable to go out? Has there been a greater awareness in more people’s views? It’s becoming acknowledged that there appears to be more empathy and understanding towards disabled people now who can feel more isolated and may have felt like this in their normal (before Covid) day to day life.
The home we are in living in does make a huge difference. Of course if we can get around in a spacious home with an office, plenty of room for separate time and able to go outside, this makes a massive difference to how one feels in isolation.
But we’re concerned about for those who are confined to one room, unable to get up the stairs to use the toilet or get outside at all…
Independence and freedom within the home.
It is widely observed that having independence and freedom within the home increases wellbeing and this can be taken for granted, because it is something we all need and our recent blog by Carrie-Ann Lightly explains the importance of her accessible home.
“Our homes are our refuges, our safe places, where we relax and spend quality time with the people we love. For disabled people you could say that’s even more important; we live in an inaccessible world, and even the places that are accessible won’t suit everyone’s requirements. Ultimately our homes are ours– our own little piece of the world that we can adapt to be exactly what we need.” For the full blog: https://www.branchproperties.co.uk/how-lockdown-has-made-me-even-more-grateful-for-my-accessible-home/
This just goes to show the important our home and environment is to how we live and our happiness. We all need to feel safe, independent and have a sense of freedom at home, even during isolation…
Let’s hope we will come out of this as a better society
We’re hoping that Covid 19, its restrictions, our isolation and restricted movement will help make us a better society. As Jay Muthi wrote in his blog we so enjoyed said perfectly:
“Maybe after this, the ‘normal’ world will be more appreciative of people with disabilities or mental health challenges. Because now everyone is stuck at home – like a lot of disabled people – and everyone at some stage will feel low. So ideally, we’ll come out of this as a better society.”
Read his full blog here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6668861579762647040/
Finally, we leave you with a poem which touches on all these points above and is a poignant reminder to us all. Thanks to Fran our Senior Manager who wrote this during lockdown…
Stay safe, take care, think of others and be kind…!!
#stayconnected #mentalhealthawarenessweek #kindnessmatters #accessible #property #disability
If you have any questions, queries or thoughts – please do get in touch:
Stay safe, take care, think of others and be kind…!!
#stayconnected #mentalhealthawarenessweek #kindnessmatters #accessible #property #disability
If you have any questions, queries or thoughts – please do get in touch:
