A very warm welcome to

 our new Chairperson Mr David Simpson, when accepting the position he said

“I am honoured and delighted to be appointed Chairperson of Perth Six Circle Project and work with such a dedicated and caring Team.”

Dave has taken over this position from Gordon Hunter who has dedicated 20 years to Perth Six Circle Project.  Committee members, staff and service users want to thank Gordon for all his support and are confident that his interest in the Project remains in his heart and he will always be part of the Perth Six Circle family.

The month of May has been busy; the easing of restrictions has allowed the groups to venture to new activities and places. We managed to have our first social distanced BBQ of the year, which was a great fun filled afternoon.  

We are delighted to announce our new service users representatives are Ross and Colin, they will be the voice for the service users for board meeting and organise regular meetings to improve and develop the Project.

This month we are raising awareness and providing information for National Walking Month and Mental Health Awareness week.  Our service users have enjoyed participated in-group discussions and sharing their strategies and tips to stay well.  We participated in the National event The Great British spring clean, we collected litter in our local area to keep our environment clean and tidy.

Activities this month have included giant garden games, dodgeball, putting, driving range, IT, litter picks, information workshops, dancing……

Some of the comments made from our service users are as follows……….

‘Good wee chat’

‘Enjoyed the physical side’

‘Didn’t think we would get it up’

‘Had a great day’

Happy with learning about the ipads’

‘Good Laugh’

‘Good bunch of guys’

‘Relaxing’

‘Good stress release’

‘out and about’

‘Great discussion’

‘Great to have a dance’

‘Amazing to see everyone’

In our last post, we mentioned that additional funding, which allowed us to expand and develop our services to support service users in more holistic way, during these challenging times. This funding has now ended, and we are back operating our usual days and times. 

We, at the Project, welcomed the easing of restrictions, as this means we have the opportunity of venturing further afield and visiting places of interest. 

As a Project, we will be supporting our service users to deal with the anxieties and challenges they have been facing recently, when getting out and about and socialising.  We will be delivering a range of workshops on Social Reconnecting and our activities will encourage our service users to increase social connections, feel better connected to their local community and reduce feelings of loss, loneliness and isolation.

 

The Project has been running small cluster groups of activities outdoors and these have included foot golf, basketball, baking, arts and crafts, cycling and many more…  As April is Stress Awareness month, we are running informative and practical workshops on how to recognise stress and ways to manage this.

 

                                                                                                                             We also ran an Easter Competition, where we asked our service users to design a boiled egg.

Our winner was Kye with Humpty Dumpty

 

Below are comments that our service users have made in their small clusters……

 

“I was excited to come”

 

“Good laugh”

 

“Good, was weird baking outside, haven’t done that before”

 

“Relaxing”

 

“Really fun”

 

“Good to be back after illness, I missed everyone”

 

“Great company”

 

“Great to speak and form friendships”

          

Perth Six Circle Project recognises that Covid 19 has been hard for everyone and for some it has led to depression, mental health issues and further isolation and a deep sense of loneliness.  Funding and support from the National Lottery has allowed us to continue supporting service users, albeit in a different way.

Thanks to additional funding, including that from The Gannochy Trust, we have been able to increase the days, times and services we currently offer our service users – all whilst adhering to government advice.  Below is just a ‘snap shot’ of the services offered:

• Home Visits – to assess needs…..
• 121 Walk & Talks – within Perth & Kinross and service users own areas including Pitlochry, Cupar Angus…..
• Walk, Talk & Exercise – stretching, breathing exercises, cycling, putting…..
• Practical Support – helping service users get their house back to being a home, shopping…..
• Medical Intervention – medication collection, booking medical appointments and supporting attendance, attending crucial video conference appointments to help relieve anxiety…..
• Wellbeing Calls – to assess needs, ensure stability and sometimes just to remind service users people do care about them…..
• Activities – cycling, pool, basketball, arts & crafts…..

In addition to this, funding through Perth & Kinross Council’s Community Investment Fund has allowed us to ‘Enhancing Community Participation Through Technology’ with service users receiving tuition with:

• Online shopping – help to purchase products…..
• Personal laptops/computer – Guidance through updating systems…..
• Internet Safety – how to keep safe and spot the ‘scammers’…..
• And much more!

To support service users on a more holistic scale we have more recently referred some to external support agencies, some for specific direct support and for others allowing them to get out of the house more often.  These and other agencies have also referred a number of service users to the Project.

Some ex-service users have returned to the Project after living independently for year, as a direct result of the impact of COVID, and although it is sad to see the impact we are pleased they felt they could seek support in a time of need. 

We would never have been able to do this without the funding so….

Thank you from everyone at Perth Six Circle Project