THE winter lockdown has been challenging for many people but for the elderly the isolated, carers and children, it's been particularly tough.
The Covid pandemic has shone a spotlight on the need to look after one's physical well-being but the knock-on effects of lockdown have led to fears of a mental health crisis in Northern Ireland.
With this in mind, the Healthy Living Centre Alliance, which has 29 members, has been running a series of online wellbeing programmes to help beat the third lockdown blues.
Funded by the Department for Communities, the Warm, Well and Connected programmes are expected to reach at least 18,000 vulnerable people by the end of March. From meditation to mindfulness, food tips to flower essences, the programmes have been designed to boost mood and to promote positivity.
Alliance Regional Coordinator Tony Doherty explains: "The lockdown has been a long and difficult stretch for everyone, especially older people, carers, children and young people and people living in poverty.
"Hundreds of families have been bereaved and have buried their loved ones often without neighbours and friends surrounding them. And, while we've had good news in relation to vaccines, there is still some way to go until we see clear light at the end of the tunnel.
"This is where we come in. Through our healthy living network, working with a large team of managers and staff, we have created a diverse series of 220 online activities which will get the creative juices flowing and the heart pumping out positivity."
When Co Fermanagh mum-of-two Kelly Ann Graham noticed her eight-year-old son Jamie biting his nails a lot more and displaying classic signs of anxiety, she reached out to Oak Healthy Living Centre in Lisnaskea for advice.
Aware that her son was a natural worrier, she wanted to help him reduce his mounting stress over the Covid pandemic.
Kelly Ann was put in touch with Connected Kids, one of the many online programmes offered as part of HLCA's Warm, Well and Connected project. She signed Jamie up for the six-week programme, which includes meditation for children, and says she has seen a huge change in him over the short period it has been running.
"Jamie is a wee worrier by nature but from Covid hit last year, I noticed he'd got a lot worse," she says. "He was always biting his nails or the skin around his nails and was so afraid of catching Covid, or me and his dad or his grandparents taking ill.
"We tried to keep him calm by switching off the news but you could tell he was still stressed by it all."
Connected Kids gives the children a space to try relaxation techniques, to chat to their peers and to open up about their concerns.
"The kids do things like mindful colouring-in and are shown ways to calm themselves down if feeling anxious," says Kelly Ann, who also has a one-year-old baby boy, Luke.
"And Rita, who takes the sessions, is brilliant with the children. She encourages them not to keep things to themselves and talks them through their worries and helps them to rationalise them.
"It was tough on Jamie, being away from his school pals and having to have home schooling but as the programme went on, I started to see a big change in him. He looks forward to it every week and it definitely helps him feel calm. He's a very different wee boy from when he started it six weeks ago."
In the Lisburn area, an Intergenerational Cooking and Chat programme has proven so successful, it's been extended from six to 12 weeks. Devised by Resurgam Healthy Living Centre to share cooking skills between older men in the Men's-Shed and the younger generation, the programme is being delivered online by Adie Bird, director of Resurgam Ltd.
Each week two members of the Men's-Shed join Aide in the community hall at Laganview Enterprise Centre, where they set up three, socially distanced tables, cooking utensils and ingredients, to try out their culinary skills. Under the guidance of Adie, the men learn how to cook anything from soda bread to fish chowder. Between them they develop a weekly menu, which is shared on social media.
The food that is cooked goes home to the men and their families, but when there's enough made, it's shared out among the young people too.
"Anyone who is interested in cooking the food contacts us through social media and we go out, get the ingredients, deliver it to them and then they can cook it themselves," says Adie.
"We have different men coming in every week to learn to cook and the feedback has been brilliant.
"One 82-year-old man surprised his grandchildren by cooking an Indian-style chicken curry.
"But the truth is, it's not really about the food. It's about mental wellbeing. There is a lot of isolation in the community and a rise in the numbers of people with mental health problems. Covid has greatly added to that.
"Through this programme, we encourage people to engage online and to talk to other people. The food is just a conduit to address mental health. And it's a great way of connecting old and young."
Since the first lockdown last March, the New Lodge Duncairn Community Health Partnership has been involved in the community response to Covid-19. Unable to deliver face-to-face services for those most at need, the partnership devised remote programmes as part of Warm, Well and Connected.
One of these is Flower Essence and Aromatherapy, which has been hugely successful in helping service users cope with stress, as well as promoting better sleep. Bach flower remedies are made out of watered-down extracts from the flowers of wild plants. As well as providing online guidance on how to use flower essence and aromatherapy oils, those who take part in the programme are given a bespoke wellbeing pack, containing a specially made-up flower essence remedy bottle and carrier oils.
With four children at home, two of whom have special needs, Marcelina Cooper from north Belfast, was frazzled and exhausted during the first lockdown. Trying to home school and being cooped up inside put even more pressure on her, so she reached out to the New Lodge Duncairn Community Health Partnership for help.
"My stress levels were so high and I wasn't sleeping at all," says Marcelina. "The night I tried the aromatherapy oils in the bath was the first time I managed to sleep.
"The wellbeing pack we are given is tailored to our own needs. The flower essence drops have to be put into water three times a day, so that encourages me to drink more water too.
"We also have massage classes via Zoom, showing us how to massage our own hands, shoulders and face.
"Before I got the pack, I was climbing the walls. But I'm much calmer now. I'm able to get out for a walk as well every day because I'm not as tired and I'm definitely sleeping better too."
:: For information on the full range of programmes log onto hlcalliance.org
