EDITORIAL
Welcome to the First Quarter Issue of Our Roots 2020/2021.
In this edition we share updates and achievements from across the organisation and showcase the progress made as well as the challenges we are facing in the third sector environment. Our Roots is a social enterprise that was established in 2010. Since then, Our Roots has continued to grow but most importantly, touched many lives in the community.
MESSAGE FROM THE CEO
Our Roots has continued to grow over time, thanks to our Partners and clients who still find us a dependable partner in many ways. A special thanks to our staff for the excellent job they do every day. Recently, they have had to turn their living rooms and spare rooms into therapy rooms during this very difficult time for the whole world. The organisation has had to quickly adapt to the new way of working from home. A big thank you to the Executive and the Board for helping steer the Our Roots ship home during these troubled waters of our times. Our Roots continues to keep all its workers and hopes this can be sustained though we have seen massive drop in referrals in the past month. Let us all stay safe in these challenging times, and thanks to all front-line staff.
NEW SERVICES / INNOVATIONS
Since the last quarter, we have had various developments. The following is a very brief snapshot of the innovations:
COVID-19 SITUATIONAL COUNSELLING
Working with the Living Well Consortium, as commissioned by Birmingham and Solihull CCG, we have set up a free emotional support for the general public and key workers who are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are supporting in bereavement, isolation, coping under COVID-19, employment and any other COVID-19 related issues.
LONG TERM CONDITIONS (LTC) INTEGRATED IAPT
We are working with the LWC, as commissioned by Birmingham and Solihull CCG and Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG. The service is now being delivered and running well in various GP surgeries across Birmingham and Solihull. We have seven IAPT LTC qualified practitioners and two trainees in IAPT LTC top-up training.
COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
Sometimes in life people experience difficulties and become overwhelmed, hence the need of counselling support. We are proud to have formulated delivery service to our clients who do not meet the criteria. This is Our Roots project to the community, however this has been hampered COVID-19. Once this settle, we will be fully operational.
SCHOOLS
In partnership with some schools in Birmingham, Our Roots have started a programme to support young people’s pressure of growing up, stress related to academic achievement, relationships and all forms of mental distress, integration and identity. Our aim is to build young people’s resilience in dealing with problems and helping them to identity healthier coping strategies. If these are not supported early, they may lead to a crisis in mental health and behavioural complications.
DATA SECURITY AND PROTECTION TOOLKIT (DSPT)
We are happy to inform you that the DSPT has now been completed and is available online. This shows that we are compliant with the clinical elements of GDPR. The toolkit provides assurance that Our Roots is practising good data security and that personal information is handled correctly. Therefore Our Roots can safely and securely handle work that require high level data safety and security such as NHS, local government and government work.
WORKING UNDER COVID 19
As the COVID-19 pandemic has constituted unprecedented personal and organisational challenges over the past few weeks, Our Roots continues to adapt to these times that have changed everything? for the organisation and its members. These are extraordinary times, and we would like to reassure you that we are doing everything possible to support the well-being of our staff. During this time, the model of work has changed as the work-from-home model becomes the norm. We will continue to do our best to build infrastructure and technological solutions to support our staff working from home to carry on providing a duty of care to our clients.
SUPPORTING IAPT TRAINEES
We are currently supporting four IAPT students, three Psychological Well-being Practitioners (PWPs) and one Child Well-being Practitioner (CWP). We believe in developing and building our employees’ careers. This has in turn led to increased productivity, reduced turnover of staff hence employee satisfaction.
DANCE MUSIC MOVEMENT AND FITNESS (DMT)
We are pleased to update you on the current DMT taking place via Zoom. DMT helps you live a healthier and happier life as it lifts your mood. It is good for exercising, keeping you fit, improving and maintaining your well-being. There is a WhatsApp group where interested members receive daily clips for exercise. Everyone is welcome to join.
FROM THE COMMUNITY SERVICES
Virtual Children’s Saturday Club in Covid-19
We have been running the children’s Saturday club by video link. The children’s well-being and active life must be supported at all times and our Saturday activities continue remotely to deliver fun activities, quizzes, virtual sports and exercises.
FROM COMMUNITY SERVICE TO COVID-19 FRONTLINE
Our Roots is pleased to have supported two of its community members into the nursing profession. One of them completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in January 2020 and the second one was due to complete her Master of Science in Nursing but was deployed during the COVID-19 emergency to support the overwhelmed NHS. Both are now serving the nation (NHS) to treat and care for people with Covid-19.