Wench Wars | Lockdown Playlist

1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a WENCH WAR!!

My good friend and fellow wheelie wench, Lucy Hudson, and I are battling it out once again!

Here is the long-awaited sequel to our first Wench War, in which we presented our top 5 Disney villains.

Top 5 Lockdown Songs

This was a challenge!

There are soooo many songs that in some way represent life in lockdown, it was difficult to limit the list.

1. The Police, Don’t Stand So Close To Me (1980)

When all this Corona craziness hit home, people panicked. Understandably so.

Don’t touch me, don’t cough near me, don’t breathe on me, don’t look at me!! 😱

2. Queen Ft. David Bowie, Under Pressure (1981)

And so lockdown begins. Society starts to feel the pressure. People are unable to go to work, parents are home schooling, families are forced apart and the NHS is put under great strain.

3. Queen, I Want To Break Free (1984)

The days turn to weeks. We get up, we eat, we go to bed. We’ve basically adopted the dog’s lifestyle!

Everyone is bored and frustration is setting in. For those like me who are considered high risk, the four walls of home become more of a prison than a sanctuary.

4. Peter Gabriel, Don’t Give Up (1986)

Weeks turn to months. We’ve lost track of what day it is. We’re lethargic, lonely, lacking in motivation, low in mood and missing our loved ones.

When will this come to an end…?

5. Fleetwood Mac, Don’t Stop (1977)

There is finally some light at the end of the tunnel! It seems we’ve hit the peak and restrictions are slowly being lifted. We are far from the finish line but we’re holding on to hope.

“Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
It’ll be, better than before,
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone”

Lucy’s Top 5 Lockdown Songs

Guest Post | Wealden Rehab ~ Occupational Therapy

Wealden Rehab Equipment Specialists share the benefits
of having an Occupational Therapist in the team

Care equipment specialist Wealden Rehab works alongside in-house and external qualified occupational therapists (OTs).

Our in-house OT, Gayle Cardwell has 20 years experience, benefiting the team with clinical skills that can
be transferred into private practice. The collaboration between care equipment
providers and clinical experts results in a truly personal service.

Gayle offers her knowledge and understanding of both mental and physical health and wellbeing to the product advisors at Wealden Rehab, emphasising the importance of a personal approach being necessary to achieve the best
outcomes.

Assessing each client holistically encompasses the environmental considerations, which improve solutions for installation of ceiling hoists and
more detailed clinical considerations for seating.

Installation of multiple celing hoist units at Foreland Fields School

Upon prescribing a piece of equipment, the occupational therapist must clearly show their clinical consideration. Gayle has devised and shared documents to encourage clinical reasoning when prescribing Wealden Rehab’s most popular
products. The documents are aimed at prescribing OT’s to consider the individual, environment, the task and to help justify the most appropriate outcome for the end user.

Gayle has provided a rigorous training program for all of Wealden Rehab’s product advisors, through individual and group training sessions. Her ongoing program is designed to enhance the assessments and the training they offer to their customers, which brings extra value.

Wealden Rehab recognise the
significance of having an OT in the team and a clinical approach in devising and delivering training for OT customers when prescribing Wealden Rehab products. We have observed increased confidence, greater understanding from OT’s in the
set-up and recommendation of our products, resulting in improving the end users
experience.

In the future, Wealden Rehab will be adding to the range
of products and, with specialist input, Gayle will be able to critique and share her clinical knowledge regarding new products. This will surely have an impact on the quality of life of many users, which is, Gayle says, ‘At the heart of
everything we do.’

Ceiling hoist installation by Wealden Rehab at the Chiltern School

Many thanks to Wealden Rehab for providing this guest post.

Mentoring Kids

Very few people know that I used to mentor and teach art to primary school children.

I’ve always found it easy to interact with kids. They say it how they see it – no agenda, no bullshit. And I have a very low tolerance for bullshit!

I’d happily take on a room full of kids over a room full of adults, any day!

I mentored one particular lad for about 18 months. He had just turned 8 when I first met him. He came from a deprived area, one of four siblings, his dad was in prison and his mum…well, let’s just say she wasn’t as conscientious as she should or could have been.

Later down the line, his 12 year-old sister accused one of the younger male teachers of indecent assault. Blimey, I remember that day vividly!

The lad, (let’s call him Bob!), was a lovely kid – really polite, always happy to see me (nice to be appreciated, eh).

Bob really struggled with reading and writing. To begin with, he refused to even try. All he wanted to do was play games. Time for negotiation – reading first, then we play games. He would often look up at me to read out the longer words for him. No mate, give it a try first. Break it down and work it out.

Admittedly, the school books were pretty crap, so I bought some more interesting ones to motivate him. He liked dinosaurs and pirates so that’s what we mostly read about.

I had studied art at university and he soon noticed that I could draw. So from then on, every session – “draw me a dinosaur!”, “draw me a pirate!”

Flipping heck, kid! How about you draw me a dinosaur!

In all honesty, I didn’t mind. It was nice to see him enthusiastic about something.

Despite my very obvious disability, in all that time, Bob never once questioned it – not that I would have minded if he did. From the get-go, I was just Caz the mentor.

He questioned everything else, mind you!!

~ How old are you?
~ What do you do?
~ Are you married?
~ Do you have kids?
~ Why not?
~ Where do you live?
~ Who do you live with?
~ Can I see your ID? (Yes, I showed him my ID to which he responded, “THAT’S NOT YOU!”)
~ What’s your real hair colour?
~ Can you dye your hair so I can see it, please??

NO, KID!!

I miss Bob. Happy days.

Conversations about Anxiety

This morning, I had a conversation with a friend about anxiety. (It’s good to talk, folks!)

We all experience anxiety to some degree. I know I do. I worry about certain situations and often place far too much emphasis on what others think of me. But I’m gradually accepting that these things are out of my control. So why worry?

My friend, (let’s call her Brenda!), was absolutely fine when she got to mine, though her anxiety had flared up earlier causing her to overreact and behave irrationally. As she put it, she “catastrophized”. The fact she’s aware of this is, in itself, a positive sign.

Brenda has various mental health issues resulting from personal trauma. She takes antidepressants, antipsychotics and is undergoing counselling.

For a LONG time she buried her issues and tried to carry on as usual. This culminated in Brenda becoming very ill and unable to cope with everyday life. It was only at this point that she sought medical support and realised that what she was experiencing isn’t “normal”.

I asked Brenda what happened this morning to cause her to overreact. Her parents have bought a wooden toy kitchen for her son, which wasn’t in the plan. It’s a Christmas present Brenda specifically told her mum not to buy. Not a big deal, you might think. So I asked, “why did it bother you so much?”

Control. The situation was taken out of her control and this triggered Brenda’s anxiety.

She worried her son wouldn’t like it.

She worried he would like it too much.

She worried he might be teased/judged for receiving a stereotypically girly toy.

She worried about the cost.

She worried that he would prefer the toy kitchen to the gifts she has bought for him.

She was overthinking the whole situation. But she knows this. So once her anxiety subsided a little, she removed herself from the situation, went home, shut herself away and had a nap. Anxiety is mentally and physically exhausting!

It’s only through therapy and counselling that Brenda is learning to recognise her triggers, symptoms and manage her anxiety. She can better organise her thoughts, respond to her feelings and differentiate between what is real and unreal.

She summed up her anxiety in one simple phrase ~ fear of the unknown. I’d never thought of it this way. But it makes a lot of sense!