It’s ‘Time to Talk’

“Time to Talk Day is the nation’s biggest mental health conversation. Happening every year, it’s a day for friends, families, communities, and workplaces to come together to talk, listen and change lives” – MIND 2023.

This year, ‘Time to Talk’ took place on 2nd February, run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness. Springfield Healthcare got involved to raise money to donate to MIND to enable them to continue to offering their services. Springfield continue to try reduce the stigma surrounding mental health by encouraging family, friends and colleagues to talk about their struggles.

Residents at Mayfield View enjoyed a game of Bingo in The Mayfield Arms with a selection of drinks and cakes whilst staff encouraged them to have an open discussion. Staff were also invited to come talk and enjoy some delicious homemade cookies!

At Seacroft Grange, staff were offered a supply of nice pamper treats whilst encouraged to take some time out of their day to chat. This was also an ideal opportunity to involve residents, their visitors and any visiting professionals in the open discussions.

At Springfield Care Home, we organised a coffee, cakes and chat afternoon which was a huge success. Our Wellbeing Ambassadors spent some time with both staff and residents for a big group talk!

Wellbeing Ambassador, Richard Roberts, said “I explained my role as ambassador and my background knowledge and qualifications, along with why I invited them to the table! It was great to see people opening up about the difficulties in their lives and it was a fantastic and empowering feeling knowing I could listen and advise them where necessary. We even did a group ‘true or false’ quiz revolving around mental health statements.

The cupcakes went down a treat and the person who I bought gluten free ones for was overjoyed with them.

Overall, today was a success and I managed to balance both roles nicely. Especially with including residents who wanted to be included and mixing the roles together. Garforth Springfield now has posters in places where staff walk regularly to remind them that they can talk and hopefully someone will listen.”

At Seacroft Green, Wellbeing Team Leader, Sam Enright, asked Deputy Manager and Regional Clinical Development Nurse – Jennie Fieldhouse, to be the host for their afternoon discussions. Jennie is a qualified Mental Health Nurse and created a wonderful PowerPoint presentation to share and discuss with residents.

She said “I joined the residents to have an informal chat about our feelings. I chose the topic of anxiety because it is something we all experience on a day to day basis and especially if we are experiencing health difficulties. Moving into a care home can induce anxious feelings whether the placement is permanent or temporary. We talked about what is physically happening within our body when we feel anxious and why our body reacts like this. We then talked about how these feelings make us feel and the actions we take to try and make ourselves feel better. Residents had some very good examples and scenarios that they shared with everyone and we then discussed how we can support each other. It felt like a very open forum and it ended on song about being happy. It was a pleasure to spend time together and it felt inclusive and helpful to know that we all have these feelings and we are here to help each other”.

Residents at Seacroft Green tucked into some delicious treats during their ‘Time to Talk’ session