As a peer support worker, it’s been pretty much business as usual during Covid 19 – except for the obvious PPE and social distancing! So no goodbye hugs with patients as they leave, just an elbow touch and a smile behind my mask.
I really don’t enjoy wearing a mask but understand that I am protecting others, not just myself, so this makes it slightly easier. What I have found hard is that as a peer support worker, people often share their distress with me, and it’s a very privileged position. I am often told things that are not only hard to hear, but hard to speak of and I find the mask such a barrier to this sharing of distress.
The rest of the communication I have to rely on my eyes and body language to do the talking, which is ok as I don’t exactly have a poker face so it’s fairly easy to read my thoughts even with a mask on!!
I have also spent a significant amount of time listening to patients' frustration and despair about Covid -19 and loneliness has been a key theme.
Covid-19 has taken away so much from people, and still continues to do so. So I try to just listen, to just be and offer hope that it won’t always be like this, without knowing myself if this is even true.
But the beauty of peer support is that there is the magic of mutuality, of reciprocity, so my own loneliness decreases as I share experiences, thoughts and wishes with the patients I work with.
Sometimes it has felt too much, behind the mask you are holding in your own worries about Covid-19 and it's days like this I feel grateful to have a wonderful team of people around me for support. I truly recognise that not everyone has that so I know I’m lucky.
Finally, peer support allows me to spread the infection of hope, which is stronger and more powerful that Covid-19 could ever be, and that, it truly wonderful.
Blog written by Clare Knighton
Twitter: @knightonstar