Headway Essex is Here for You

At Headway Essex our team is committed to supporting our clients and their families throughout the Coronavirus pandemic and beyond.

In-line with the government road map out of National Lockdown, our Colchester hub is now open. Unfortunately, our hub in Benfleet, remains closed for group activities, until we can find premises that offer the space to operate with sufficient social distancing. We are however, restarting face to face one to one meetings, where needed, at both our hubs as the restrictions are lifted.

Where we cannot provide face to face activities, our team is providing activities and facilitating groups online, via the Zoom platform.

We are still taking new referrals and we will continue to support all current and new clients through video calls and telephone calls, where face to face is not possible.

We have had to change the way we do some things, but we are still here for you.

Whatever your problem or support need, you can contact us by emailing abisupport@headwayessex.org.uk. We will get back to you as soon as possible. Or if you are in urgent need of support please call 01206 845945.

You might also find some of the resources below helpful. These have been created to help you manage some of the physical and emotional challenges that come with being isolated at home.

Help During Self-Isolation

The following organisations and resources are to help vulnerable people across Essex who are self-isolating and in need of support.

Essex Welfare Service

Essex County Council has set up a new service to help vulnerable people in our community who are staying at home and in need of support during the coronavirus period. Please follow the link if you would like to know more about this service.

Mutual Aid Groups

There are many other mutual aid groups established to help people through the Coronavirus crisis. The groups aim to support their local community through various means, including emotional and practical support. You can search for your nearest Mutual Aid group by following the link below.

Mental Health Phone Line

A new 24-hour phone service for people aged 18 and over experiencing mental health crisis is now live across Essex.

To access in an emergency, dial 111 and select the option for mental health crisis. This will connect you to EPUT staff who will provide appropriate support and advice.

Easy to Understand Guide

If you are confused about the rules relating to staying at home this easy to read guide could help you. Please note this has not been updated following the latest Government update on the 10th May that now allows you to exercise outside more than once a day.

Activities to Help You Cope (Therapeutic)

Now more than ever, it is important to be able to find time to relax and not to let negative thoughts take over and impact on how you feel. The following resources may help you to stay positive and cope better while you are in isolation.

Mindfulness Meditation

This involves taking time out, sitting silently and paying attention to thoughts, sounds, the sensations of breathing or parts of the body. Watch this short mindful breathing exercise video on YouTube from Every Mind Matters.

Visit to The Aquarium

For some peace and relaxation, you can take yourself out of the four walls and spend time in the therapeutic environment of an aquarium with these ‘live cams’ at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Positivity Podcasts

Paul McKenna, one of the world’s best known modern self-help gurus, has produced some special new Positivity Podcasts to help people stay positive at this challenging time. These include Control Stress, Happy Relationships and Stay Positive and Happy.

Virtual Nature Walks

If you are unable to leave the house you can take a virtual nature walk through some beautiful scenery with a choice of virtual nature walks from around the world, with You Tube’s Virtual Nature Tours.

Activities For Fitness & Brain Health

Keeping yourself physically fit and occupied is really important, even if it is getting on with those jobs at home and in the garden that you have been putting off. This will help to give you a sense of achievement. Or you can try your hand at something creative to keep your brain active and healthy with quizzes and games. We have put together some links to some websites you might find useful if you are looking for ideas.

Keep Essex Active

The ‘Keep Essex Active’ campaign is as an initiative to keep people healthy and moving despite the barriers they may be facing due to the current Covid-19 pandemic. There are exercises for all levels and here is the weekly live stream timetable for YouTube.

Home Activities For Brain Injury Survivors

Krysalis Consultancy have put together a list of 200 ideas that brain injury survivors and their families could consider, with remote support, if need be.

Games For The Brain

Playing games can be good exercise for our brains and we think this website has some good games you can play on your own or with a partner. You can try a big choice of free solo and partner quiz, memory & brain games, by following the link below.

Brain Training

You can have fun and give your brain a proper workout and improve memory, math, concentration and many more skills with these enjoyable and challenging games on Braingymmer.

For Jigsaw Fans

Jigsaw puzzles have many benefits including improving short term memory and visual-spatial reasoning. If you don’t have any jigsaw puzzles at home, this website site has a whole range of different jigsaw puzzles you can do on-line.

Keeping in Touch

During this period of uncertainty, it is important to keep in touch, with friends, family and the services there to support us.  Remember that a telephone call, a text message, or an email can be as useful and important as anything else.

By Telephone

Some people may say “the old ways are the best” and this may be your preferred method of keeping in touch. Organising a couple of daily calls to your friends and family can go a long way in helping to prevent loneliness and will also improve your mental health whilst self-isolating or social-distancing.

Social Media

Social media is a fantastic way to stay in touch with family and friends, whilst keeping up-to-date with the latest news stories around the world. Please check out this guidance on using social media safely before signing up and using social media platforms for the first time.

Facebook

Facebook is free to use and enables you to share photos, videos and messages with individual people or with all your Facebook “friends” at once. You can create groups to send messages to multiple people and take part in both voice and video calls

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a free App you can download onto your smartphone. You can send one-to-one messages, including photos, or create group chats with your friends and family to stay in touch. You can also make voice and video calls.

Zoom

Allows you to join a meeting or set up a meeting with several people.  It is free to use and you can use it from a computer, laptop, smartphone or tablet. This is the most popular platform for running on-line activity sessions where you want to interact real time with other people.

Music, Art, Books & Movies

So even though we can’t get out, it is still possible to watch movies, read books on-line and visit museums, art galleries and famous land marks virtually.

Explore Art Collections, Tour Famous Sites & Landmarks

If you are a ‘Culture Vulture’ try visiting Google Explore – It allows you to explore art collections, tour famous sites and landmarks virtually through Google Arts & Culture.

A Trip to The Museum

The British Museum and Google have teamed up to create an interactive website where you will find collections from around the world. This is great as it is simple to navigate and has audio.

Classic Audio Books

You can listen to a selection of classic audio books on the YouTube channel. Includes classics by by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and many more.

Movies

If you are missing a visit to the cinema, you can still watch a choice of movies for free on your mobile device or laptop. This YouTube clip lists 10 free and legal movie streaming sites on line.

Theatre – National Theatre’s Live Screenings Online

Each Thursday at 7pm (BST), the National Theatre will stream one play on its YouTube channel. It’s completely free to watch. Don’t worry if you miss it: the production is available to re-watch for seven days on the same YouTube channel.

To contact the community support team, please call 01206 845945 or email us

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