New Course Dates For 2021 Are Now Available

We’ll be starting 2021 well rested, renewed and with the expected Impact drive and energy to continue delivering our online mental wellbeing programmes.

If you or someone you know would like to join us on our first YOU Programme starting on Tuesday January 12^th, please get in touch to secure your place as soon as possible

Our first YOUR Recovery Pathways of 2021 begins on Tuesday 9^th February. We recommend, if possible, attending the YOU programme before attending our longer programme.

Other YOU & YOUR Programme details will be online soon for the remainder of 2021.

However, if you would like to know more about attending either programme, please do get in touch as this can help to secure your place!

If you are a professional and would like to know more about our programmes, we offer a service called Impact In Action, which provides professionals the opportunity to visit Impact in action and chat to our learners, online or in the classroom about the benefits of attending our courses.

Please contact the team for further details.

If you would like to register and enrol, follow the links below.

World Mental Health Day 2020 – Where Has The Year Gone!

You don’t need to answer that by the way… :-)

Since our amazing celebration for WMHD in October last year, so much has happened to us, to you, our communities and to the world.

Across the planet we have shared in our disbelief of the lives taken because of this pandemic, of the chaos and trauma it has caused and of our mutual fear of a very uncertain future.

Closer to home, we continue to worry for the safety and health of our friends, NHS staff, colleagues and loved ones; our jobs, our children’s education, our parents, grandparents lives and our dreams…

With unprecedented levels of worry, stress, anxiety and fear, the team at Impact has worked harder than ever this year to adapt our courses to live, online delivery, funded by Central Bedfordshire and Bedford Borough Councils.

We have increased access to support and learning to all of our learners with Feel Good Friday Sessions and Impact BaseCamp.

And we fully intend to celebrate World Mental Health Day this year with as many people as possible!

So, as we tentatively move into autumn and winter with changeable government guidance and often distressing daily news, how do we ready ourselves for the shorter days and our beautiful but inclement weather?

Where do we start to piece together the familiar fabric of our lives?

Our online celebration of World Mental Health Day is open to anyone who has attended one of our courses, anyone who is thinking of attending and mental health professionals or referrers who want to meet the Impact team and to find out more about our courses, please feel free to join us on Zoom on Friday October 9th, 2020.

World Mental Health Day with Words & Cake!

Impact will be celebrating WMHD on Friday 9^th October, 200, live on Zoom from 11 am to 2 pm.

If you’d like to join us, please let us know by using the registration form at the bottom of this page.

What Do I Need To Bring

The Words

This year we will be celebrating with the power of supporting words, written and given by those who have struggled with their wellbeing, still struggle and those doing their best to get through tough times.

Those who have faced fears, dedicated to help themselves and who are now journeying with us to learn all they can about how to stay well.

Our courageous and lovely Impact learners!

Words of support are being collected and compiled to create a web-Page of Love, Support & Encouragement for anyone struggling with their mental wellbeing.

This page will be accessible to everyone, wherever they might be and to help with whatever they are going through.

The Cake – Where would World Mental Health Day be without cake!

Start planning your homemade, shop bought, home delivery – whatever you decide – WMHD cake.

Let’s get together on the 9^th and talk support with cake and friends.

Let’s spend two hours giving words of love, support and encouragement to those in need.

Let’s share some time, some fun, some wisdom, and remind ourselves of the joy of being with people, appreciating our journeys and freely giving hope to those who may be ready to take the first step on their journey.

There will also be bite size learning sessions as reminders for our previous learners and to support others in learning how to stay well, particularly in these trying times.

We’ll be awarding “Best Cake”, “Funniest Cake” and other awards on the day

What’s happening on the day?

11.00 – Welcome

11.30 – Introduction

11.45 – Breakout session 1 – All about the YOU Programme – Find out more about the course

12.15 – Why Words for World Mental Health Day?

12.45 – Breakout session 2 – All about YOUR Recovery Pathways

13.00 – Practice for YOU & YOUR time

13 .30 – Show us your Cake!

13.50 – Round up of the day

2.00       End

Register here for World Mental Health Day

“How do I cope with this change and manage my feelings?”

This is an all too common question the team and I are asked, especially over the last eight weeks.

So much so, that the Jackie and I started to list some of the more common and familiar symptoms and feelings expressed by our learners, friends and family, directly relating to the impact of Covid-19 and the emotions caused as a result of the UK’s lockdown.

Here’s what we did:

We asked 80 people, a mix of learners, friends and family, to list positive and negative emotions felt as a result of the pandemic and consequently the lockdown.

Of those 80 people, 64 replied with an age range of 22 to 76 and with a staggering 92% female response.

Here’s what we found:

The most common Negative emotion felt from our study was Anxiety.

People described their anxiety in similar ways; anxious about the future, about work or money and health for their family.

A close second felt by more than 50% was the emotion Fear, which we know can cause anxiety and other negative emotions and behaviours.

Other emotions listed in our study looked like this:

• Unease
• Helplessness
• Worry
• Lethargy
• Concern
• Nostalgic
• Bored
• Overwhelmed
• Emotional
• Claustrophobic
• Frustration
• Isolated

• Lonely
• Failure
• Nothing
• Uninspired
• Lazy
• Panic
• Numbness
• Insomnia
• Agoraphobic
• Challenging
• Sadness
• Nervous

• Gloomy
• Scared
• Disappointment
• Lost
• Grief
• Cheated
• Disturbed
• Troubled
• Exhaustion
• Caged
• Disbelief

The most common Positive emotion we came across was Peace and despite all of the negative emotions listed above, more than 90% of our research showed that people felt at peace or a sense of peace as a direct result of the lockdown.

The second positive emotion was Calm. People described the feelings of calm that came from a place of rest by being at home and with loved ones, or from having expectations lifted from them because of the lockdown.

Some of the other positive emotions we found:

• Relief
• Compassion
• Hope
• Understanding
• Focus

• Contentment
• Love
• Nurturing
• Zen

From a very brief and small piece of research, Impact have been able to report that whilst the more common and expected emotions of anxiety and fear are present and very real in our study, we did not anticipate the overwhelming positive emotional responses describing peace and calm born out of a global pandemic.

In no way does this short study reflect a larger picture of the nation. However, we are encouraged and happily surprised by the unexpected positive emotions many people are feeling.

Impact hope to widen this study as we slowly move out of lockdown and further investigate if ‘we’ can hold on to peace and calm now and in the future.

If you would like to anonymously take part in any further studies relating to Unlocking Emotional Lockdown, why not get in touch.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR CURRENT AND FUTURE LEARNERS

THE SAFETY AND WELLBEING OF OUR STAFF, VOLUNTEERS, LEARNERS AND VISITORS IS OUR PRIORITY.

Following the Prime Minister’s advice on Monday 16 March, Impact will cease to deliver its programmes in the community from Monday 23rd March until further notice.

All courses will now be run online.

This difficult decision has been made in line with the Prime Minister’s recommendation to the public to adhere to social distancing measures to help prevent the spread of the virus.

However, we now have plans in place to continue to deliver courses online

Alternative Programme delivery

Impact are working hard to ensure that all those who have enrolled onto to our existing and future programmes, and who can join us online, receive the remainder of their learning.

Future online programmes & online wellbeing information

We are now delivering online courses and wellbeing support throughout the coming weeks and months to existing learners and all those in need of mental wellbeing information.

All existing and current learners will be contacted over the next few days by email, text or phone with details of how and where to access the online courses.