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20.04.2020 / News / Covid-19

UVW members step in to offer well-being support during #COVID19

An emotional well-being workshop, this Saturday 18 April, saw almost 40 UVW members – cleaners, cultural workers and lawyers – come together to discuss ways to manage anxiety and stress and how to identify opportunities for personal and professional development during the pandemic.

The online workshop, entitled “Member to member support during COVID 19”, is part of a series of online events to empower UVW members and comes hot on the heels of a well-attended workers rights workshop four days before.

British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy counsellors and UVW members Claudia Turbet-Delof and Ntale Eastmond led the session which focussed on three areas; how to build a support network, how to manage mental health and wellbeing during isolation and how to identify opportunities of growth and development at home during isolation.

“United Voices of the World is a community union and because we know mental health is paramount we are providing sessions like these to workers, something the State is unwilling to do. The reality is our members are risking their lives on a daily basis in the midst of this crisis. They are proof that injustice that exists in our society and some are paying with their lives” expressed Claudia Turbet-Delof.

The two hour session included break out sessions in Spanish and English allowing participants to share their concerns in their mother tongue. “I have lost 7 friends to the virus. There are some very irresponsible bosses out there, many force us to go to work, and when we do they do not pay us, or only give us a part of our salary. This creates a lot of stress, anxiety and depression.” said Sandra, UVW member.

Discussions regarding opportunities during the pandemic, the power of choice, techniques to help children and the elderly and how to build a self-care plan also took place.

“I love all the suggestions in the opportunities section but knowing I can study free courses at the Open University is fantastic! I’m a learner, so I’m so excited now” said one participant. Whilst another stated “It’s important to include our children when deciding how we structure our days at home so they know their voice matters and they feel included”.

UVW family, don’t worry if you missed this session you can download the resources here and don’t forget to look out for the next online session coming soon…you never know we may even try some more exercising online!

Read about the previous training: COVID-19 Training: 100s of workers join the UVW online

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