Produced by Katie Toulmin - Peer Support & Volunteer Development Worker Hi All, Following in the footsteps of our SLT team, I wanted to share my reflections around the topic of loneliness, particularly whilst living with persistent/chronic pain. (4) Mental Health Awareness Week - Chronic Pain and Loneliness - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSZuP80ztAs
Written by Quenby Harley - Community Health Development Analyst – Data & Intelligence. Loneliness has always been difficult for me. While I enjoy time to myself as much as the next person, the feeling of being lonely or isolated is one of the main triggers for my depression. Building and maintaining connections to other people is absolutely crucial for my own mental wellbeing. It’s great to see this all too
Written by Finn Dobson - Peer Support Worker in Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service In a world in which we are increasingly spending more time on our own – either through working from home, shopping online, doing solo hobbies, or spending time on social media rather than face to face with friends – loneliness is becoming a problem that affects more and more of us. During this Mental Health Awareness Week,
When is Ramadan? The Islamic calendar is calculated according to the lunar cycles, so the month of Ramadan begins when the new moon is sighted. As a result, the start and finish times change from year-to-year, usually advancing 10 days earlier every year. Ramadan lasts for 29-30 days and ends with the celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr. This year Ramadan is due predicted to start on 2nd April and will last until
Blog by Mark Robinson - Touchstone Business Development Officer As a Business Development Officer, I spend a lot of time writing about the services that Touchstone deliver. I usually get my information from our website, quarterly reports and from phone conversations with service managers. We are doing quite a bit of work around Crisis Cafes / Safe Spaces at the moment, so I thought it would be really useful to
The third Monday of January has been awarded the gloomy name 'Blue Monday' due to a combination of post-festive blues and cold dark nights. At Touchstone, we're challenging the title by asking our amazing service users, volunteers and staff what things they do to keep well. Let's turn this Blue Monday into a You Monday! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLlqEmO83SE Important websites and numbers: West Yorkshire mental health 24/7 support line, provides confidential
Touchstone as an organisation is committed to supporting the 16 days of action to end the global violence experienced by women and girls. The campaign runs from 25th November (UN Day For the Elimination of Violence against Women) to 10th December 2021. The 16 Days of Action campaign is an important opportunity to raise awareness and call for changes at an international, national and local level to end violence against women and
November 13th-19th is Trans Awareness Week, culminating in Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) on 20th November. TDOR is an annual observance that honours the memory of trans people whose lives have been lost due to transphobic violence. We at Touchstone stand in solidarity with our trans, non-binary and gender-diverse communities. Bigotry, exclusion, discrimination and hate resulting ultimately in the death of fellow human beings demonstrates the ongoing need to consider the rights
Intersex is an umbrella term and describes variations in sex characteristics from the stereotypical ones medically and socially associated with “male” and “female”. Differences in sex characteristics are a normal and natural part of the human experience, and much of the oppression faced by those who are intersex is caused by society and the medical community’s insistence on placing us all into two distinct categories. Variations can affect any sexual
Intersex is an umbrella term and describes variations in sex characteristics from the stereotypical ones medically and socially associated with “male” and “female”. Differences in sex characteristics are a normal and natural part of the human experience, and much of the oppression faced by those who are intersex is caused by society and the medical community’s insistence on placing us all into two distinct categories. Variations can affect any sexual