Depression is one of the most common forms of mental health challenge that people face in the UK. According to Mental Health First Aid England, 19% of all diagnosed mental health conditions each year are linked with depression.

Everyone can feel sad or low sometimes, but usually this is short lived. A clinical depression is one that lasts longer (at least two weeks) and affects a number of areas of a person’s behaviour.

Symptoms include feeling down, teary or upset but also things like a loss of energy, a loss pleasure in life, feeling restless or agitated, struggling to sleep, isolating yourself or getting down on yourself and low self-esteem.

Many people describe depression as being like having a big black dog travelling round with you. Check out this video below.

Depression can be caused by many things and can take many forms but it is often treatable. If you’re concerned for yourself, a friend or the older neighbour you befriend, then we suggest a visit to the GP is the first point of call. Why not offer to go with the older neighbour you befriend? They might feel like it’s a “fuss” or that there’s “no need to worry,” but a GP would rather they had a chat than not, even if it does turn out to be “nothing to worry about.”

Self-care is a vital step in caring for someone struggling with depression so we’ve suggested three ideas below.

ME: MINDFULNESS

The practice of Mindfulness is one of the ways the NHS encourage self-care for those struggling with depression. Mindfulness in simple terms is the practice of becoming present in the moment and becoming aware of all you think, feel and are experiencing. There are lots of ways to do it, and we recommend apps like Headspace for those who want to find out more. But below is our Mindful Meditation which you can download.

GIVE AWAY: MOOD DIARY

A mood diary is a simple tool to help gauge what’s going on each day with an older neighbours mental health and to encourage them into some more healthy self-care practices. This video explains more.

DO TOGETHER: GET INTO NATURE

A natural way to enhance mood and help someone feel better is to take them outside into nature. This could be a drive, a walk if they can manage it or even just getting into the garden. Even tending to an indoor plant can help. Below is an article which explains the theory a little more. You can also listen to the audio file below called ‘Curiosity Time’ for some ideas & inspiration about what is possible.

WANT TO FIND OUT MORE?

MIND are a wonderful charity who are doing brilliant things in regard to caring for people with mental health challenges including depression. Have a look at the web guide they’ve created on the subject of depression.

These have been tough times. We have all been facing difficult and particular challenges as we’ve navigated the COVID pandemic. As a befriender, you may be hearing about anxiety about getting back into the world. There may be the temptation to isolate and this can have an impact on a person’s wellbeing. Maybe you share those concerns.

We wanted to share some ideas and resources around resilience. This can sometimes be used in a throw-away way, but at it’s heart being resilient gives us the ability to adapt to all of life’s circumstances. It doesn’t assume bad things won’t happen, but instead helps us develop the skills to adapt as life affects us.

ME: THE RESILIENCE TREE

Rather than thinking of resilience as being tough, or of emotional hardness, we think resilience has more to do with our roots. Like a magnificent tree, our ability to stand is often based on what’s underground, rather than how tough we are. These exercises help us to consider those ideas a little further.

Use this when you want to consider how and where you draw strength.

GIVE AWAY: stress ball

Sometimes worries and anxieties can hit us in unexpected ways and in unexpected places. Using something like a stress ball is a very helpful give-away to an older neighbour who struggles with worry.

Use this when unexpected worries come up.

DO TOGETHER: RESILIENCE QUESTIONS

This article - called ‘How to Build Resilience Now’ gives us a number of questions to discuss with your Older Neighbour. As a Befriender you could introduce this as an exercise to do together, or use these questions over the course of many visits. Check out the link below.

Use this when the topic of resilience or keeping going comes up in conversations.

WANT TO FIND OUT MORE?

Check out this article from our website.

You may have noticed that the terms ‘Mental Health’ and ‘Wellbeing’ get used alongside each other without much explanation.

Mental Health generally describes those elements of health which reflect the mental/thought/emotional sides of us. Here you might be diagnosed with a condition but we all have mental health - either good, average, minimal or wherever we are. This is almost like a scale.

Wellbeing is a connected but different scale. This is about our wellness - our ability to function day to day and cope with all of life’s stresses and strains. We all need to manage our wellbeing and even if you’re diagnosed with a Mental Health challenge, you can still have excellent wellbeing as you look after it day to day.

Here at Space to Breathe, we think the crucial idea that helps our wellbeing is “self-awareness.” If you can understand yourself, understand how you work and understand our strengths and our weakness - then we are more able to move forward with life.

Psychologist Carl Rogers said “"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I change."

These three resources will help you and the older neighbours you work with to grow in their wellbeing through self-awareness.

Me: Breathing

A Breathing Exercise is a wonderful activity to settle yourself and bring calm when things feel stressful or difficult. Breathing brings oxygen to the brain, bringing a sense of calm. It also returns us to the present moment, reminding us that our worries in the past or our anxiety about the future are both places where we can’t do a great deal - the only moment we can live is, in the present.

Use this when you feel unsettled and need to find some calm.

GIVE AWAY: THE POSTCARD

This PDF uses the concept of visualisation, to remember and experience a happy or safe place. Imagining the sights, smells and memories helps us feel calm and then we can bring calmness into our daily life from that experience.

You can print off and share this PDF but you might also want to ask your older neighbour where is a special place for them and maybe find pictures or postcards that can be a reminder for them.

Use this when you want to help someone find a calm or safe moment in the midst of difficult times.

do together: MAKE YOUR OWN SNOW GLOBE

Sometimes life can shake us up and we can feel unsettled. Maybe new Coronavirus restrictions, a change in routine or a problem with our health. The Older Neighbours you’re befriending might find these changes hard. We use a Snow Globe as a picture of these situations. We can feel shaken up but eventually time allows things to settle. They remind us to take time, to find a place of calm and then to face change with a sense of balance rather than worry. Watch this ..

Why not make a snow globe with your neighbour or give them the things to make their own Snow Globe. Get a Jar with a Lid, put two tea spoons of glitter in the bottom and fill it with water. Then seal the lid and shake …

Use this when your neighbour needs reminding that time helps us manage difficult times or change.

FIND OUT MORE

Want to understand more about growing in your wellbeing? Check out these ideas and resources from our website.

Anxiety is something everyone experiences at times, and feeling anxious is a perfectly natural reaction to some situations.

But sometimes feelings of anxiety can be constant, overwhelming or out of proportion to the situation and this can affect your daily life. It can make our heart race, we might feel sweaty, shaky or short of breath. Anxiety can also cause changes in our behaviour, such as becoming overly careful or avoiding things that trigger anxiety.

These resources are aimed at helping to lift anxiety, helping us to rethink it in a more positive way and ways to settle when anxiety is getting on top of us.

ME: CATCH IT, CHECK IT, CHANGE IT.

Check out this video.

Use this when you feel concerned by an anxious thought.

GIVE AWAY: THE ROOTED TREE

This is a great little exercise that you can print off and share with an older neighbour who’s struggling with anxiety. They can do this anywhere. The exercise gets us to imagine roots going down into the ground from our feet. It makes us feel more stable, more secure. Just to note, if standing is a problem, you can even do this sitting in your favourite chair. Download it below.

Use this when you want to remind someone that they have overcome things before.

DO TOGETHER: THE NOSE BLOW

The Nose Blow helps us calm when we feel stressed, increases blood flow to the brain and enables us to feel calmer and able to face things when we feel worried. Do this in a gentle and fun way and make sure your older neighbour feels comfortable whilst doing it. You might start by demonstrating this yourself.

Use this when we want to help someone feel a little calmer.

WANT TO FIND OUT MORE?

We really recommend the NHS pages on Anxiety which are excellent and full of further information and ideas to help.