My Pandemic- stories of living through lockdown
By Hannah Bradley, Marketing Manager at Barnwood Trust
There is no denying that the past year of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns has been an incredibly challenging time for everyone. Through the research that was undertaken by Barnwood Trust last year and the subsequent Our Changing World report we know that disabled people and people with mental health challenges have been disproportionately affected during this time.
The report also highlighted the barriers to communication and lack of accessibility of information during the pandemic. This has made life more difficult for many disabled people in Gloucestershire and impacted on their mental wellbeing. This led to our Let’s Be Clear Campaign for clear face masks and clearer communication across Gloucestershire, a campaign which we know will continue to be just as crucially important as the world ‘opens back up’.
We are also embarking on a new piece of work we’re calling ‘My Pandemic’; living through lockdown. We want to shine a light on a wide range of people’s stories of the past year and give a voice to these stories that deserve to be heard. If you live in Gloucestershire, are a disabled person or someone with a mental health challenge and would like to tell others about how you have experienced life through lockdown then we would love to hear from you.
These could be stories about any kind of experience during the pandemic – things that have kept you strong and things that have been a challenge; even the things you are most looking forward to for the future. The aim of this project is to share these stories on our website as a library that anyone can access, to deepen their understanding of what the last year has been like for disabled people and people with mental health challenges in Gloucestershire.
We hope that it may also serve as a way for people to feel less alone in their experiences, by reading about other people in similar situations to their own.
Stories can be told in whichever way is most comfortable to you – that could be on email, a phone conversation that we write up, a recorded video call, or any other way you would like. Stories could be just a few sentences, or much longer, and of course can be submitted anonymously if you prefer.
We would love to hear from you, please contact Hannah or Alice on info@barnwoodtrust.org, call 01242 539935 or text us on 07701 281945.
To watch the video click on the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-r3q6ZUHk8&t=4s.