Action Mental Health (AMH) New Horizons in Enniskillen changes the lives of those living with mental ill health and promotes resilience and well-being to future generations. During the pandemic, AMH staff have continued to support their clients through daily phone calls and providing online courses. As the government has began to ease lockdown restrictions, which is a relief for many people in the community, AMH staff are aware that for their clients this can be a challenging time, particularly for those who experience anxiety.

“There’s fear about that whole thing of adjusting again, with the ‘new normal’, the challenges that they are going to be facing,” said Kathryn Hughes, Client Development Co-ordinator at AMH New Horizons.

She explained that for some people lockdown is now a safe place to be: “They’re in their house, they’re safe but it’s that thing of not knowing. There’s maybe even a wee bit of mistrust of what the government are telling us with regards to the regulations and what they should do.

“They are also seeing people breaching the regulations and there’s fear around that, it’s just the whole idea of the unknown. Not really knowing how it’s going to pan out, that fear factor.”

“If you have anxiety at the start, it kind of fuels more of that anxiety. It’s those types of things that I’m sort of hearing from our clients. There’s confusion over what’s happening, they are sometimes overwhelmed,” Kathryn commented, adding: “It’s that thing that they’ve kind of been safe for the last few months, now they are expected to adjust to it and the confidence isn’t there, whether it’s on themselves or through others.”

Although currently working remotely, Kathryn noted that throughout lockdown she has been ringing clients every day to provide support: “We have been doing that fully from the start of lockdown, giving one to one support to our clients every day from Monday to Friday.”

She continued: “The majority of our clients have engaged with us on Zoom training and we are doing courses such as exploring your emotions and anxiety management, personal motivation and a lot of meditation. A lot of our clients have engaged through Zoom and that has really helped and supported them.”

Giving advice for people who are experiencing anxiety at this time, Kathryn shared: “The first thing is not to feel overwhelmed and take each day as it comes.”

She went on to highlight that the basics of getting good sleep, exercising and having a good routine can really help. Not bombarding yourself with news, eating well and talking to a friend can also be beneficial.

“You do your best for that particular day and that’s okay. Be kind to yourself,” Kathryn advised.

Noting that people can also avail of services online or seek help from AMH, Kathryn said: “You can be referred from your GP and Mental Health Team but you can certainly make a call to us and we can tell you how to get referred to ourselves.”