Men's Health - Challenge and Change Working With Covid
Posted on 03 November, 2020 News
As a man, I want to talk honestly about my health and more specifically my mental health. I suppose a relevant start line is March 2020.
Those who know me are aware that I am not the greatest tech nerd in the world! Listen, I don’t go out of my way to pretend otherwise, when someone in the office needs help with anything tech related they don’t shout RONAN! I started to panic about not understanding how zoom worked - Would I by mistake log into another organisations executive meeting? Would I land into a Senior Leadership Team meeting? Imagine that! These are just some of the thoughts that worried me at the time.
So lock down when it came, and it arrived quickly, was a real concern to me personally. I knew our team would now be engaging with large numbers of young people online. Previous to Covid-19 all of my engagement with young people had been face to face and I was more than happy for this to continue. Why?
Simply because I love meeting up with colleagues and the young people and that had now been taken away from me. Would I now be on my own?
I had to accept that this was happening and after speaking with two colleagues (my team are the best ever by the way) I now see this new way of working as a challenge. I became determined to change how I engaged with technology, the young people and with myself. I set out a routine;
- Up early (not as early as Stephen Barr)
- Good breakfast (porridge and fruit)
- Always online for 8.30am
- Always logged out (think that’s the right tech talk) at 4.30pm
- Go for a walk (if you don’t believe me ask Kathleen Grego)
- Reflect on how I am (am I content? Am I getting through this?)
I am writing this piece at 2pm on Tuesday 3rd November and I am in a good place mentally, physically oh 50/50. But by talking to colleagues, family and young people I continue to engage in amazing work - with great colleagues and fantastic young people.
A Start360 Blog by Ronan McCaffrey, Team Leader/Facilitator on the Futures Project.
For more information on our Futures Project please click: #ChangeStartsHere