9.05.22

Twining Enterprise come together for Mental Health Awareness Week 2022

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This week is Mental Health Awareness week in the UK, which provides a time for us all to think about, understand and manage our own mental health, as well as consider the mental health of others we encounter.

This year’s theme is loneliness – something which has always been present - but the pandemic has exacerbated it for so many.  Even as we move out of the pandemic, it leaves its legacy in a world that has moved online.  From workplaces to GP appointments, we now conduct our lives through a lens.  Efficient and accessible for some, but sometimes lacking in the warmth and connection that only an ‘in person’ meeting can create.

At Twining Enterprise we spend every day supporting people with mental health conditions get back into work – to help them find purpose, structure, identity and connection.  So this year, for Mental Health Awareness Week, Twining Enterprise Manager and Senior Employment Specialist, Amina Deane, was inspired to write a poem about one of her clients who is experiencing isolation.  Amina explained,

“I wrote the poem with one person in mind, she was a highflyer – had a fantastic job until physical health followed by mental health set in.  She lives in a small flat with no family, no friends around her.  She avoids others and won’t even go out.  For the first time, in many months, I made her go out of her house, met her in town last week.  I offered her a coffee.  Baby steps.  I am not a therapist, but a person who cares, and that is all it took to show her that she is not alone.”

Some of the Twining Enterprise family have come together online to read the poem and you can find it on our You Tube channel right here: https://youtu.be/MwIyJ--8IMM

Alternatively, you can read the poem below… and we hope it helps you to know you are not alone in your thoughts, and perhaps we could also help you to find meaning and connection in the workplace?

We’re a London based charity looking to support people aged 19 or over who suffer with mental health conditions find sustainable work.

Our services are free of charge and it might just be the step you take to change your life.  We warmly welcome hearing from you if you’re interested to learn more and you can contact us by:

*emailing us direct on info@twiningenterprise.org.uk; or

*calling us on 020 8840 8833

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Come over for coffee…. (A poem about loneliness, by Twining Manager and Senior Employment Specialist, Amina Deane)

 

Surrounded by love and plenty,

Green meadow, cherry blossom at twenty

Could you see me?

Dancing in the sunshine, blessed with a sense of belonging…

My bursting heart, was swinging.

 

Ahhhh – that was then.

Plenty of friends, a wonderful life and a job.

Here I go again!

Reminiscing, eyes closed, thoughts undulating into a sob.

 

Today. Look at me. In this cold empty space.

Filled with yesterday’s dreams to face.

The sun is still shining outside for others.

Not for me, for my heavy soul and mind are wrapped in shutters.

 

No one here for me. No one.

No one to call, feel or share this deep anguish and pain.

No one to rinse my eyes with hope, or my mind with rainbow drops.

 

Not even the cat.

Independent and fat.

He is fine with his glorious long chocolate and honey fur.

All he ever seems to do is purr.

 

The once blue walls of my room have turned grey.

Sad with flaws, almost black.

One picture on the wall, one nail holding it back.

What's the point, even to stay?

 

I am the prisoner of my thoughts in this un-made cradle.

I feel lost, invisible, unhappy and unstable.

I thought, I heard rustling or maybe a knock on the door.

Does anyone even care anymore?

 

The wind blows the curtain open.

No one. Not a soul. Not even a ghost.

Is it time to make a move and speak the unspoken?

 

Sigh. Time to let go, of being morose.

 

Come on, Betty. Go and meet someone; anyone.

What’s the point?

They deserted me one by one.

What they don’t see, they don’t know….

 

Ok then!

Go on and have a shower. Show them!

Get up. Get up now!

Get away from the dark tower!

Go and open the window! The air is better outside!

Get dressed and fake a smile! Mean it from inside!

 

Now put on one shoe. And the other one!

Open the door.

Don’t forget the key.

 

You are almost closer to the crowd.

Breathe IN and OUT.

Slow it down.

Your silly voices you can drown.

The park is only a few steps further no doubt.

 

You made it Betty.

See, it wasn’t so bad.

Children playing, birds singing, your neighbour approaches

“I have not seen you in a while…

come over for coffee…”

 


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