Picture of a cope cake by Foday.
A screenshot of the zoom session with all participants holding up their cope cake pictures.
A word cloud of all the things that helped us cope.
Most of the storytelling workshops have been carried out through the Local Voices network, a group of disabled people in Tower Hamlets who help to shape policy and services in the borough. For more information about the Local Voices Network, visit www.real.org.uk/localvoices
If you would like to share your experience of the pandemic with us, please do get in touch. You can email Hannah West on hannah.west@real.org.uk or call 020 7001 2170
Pictures of cope cakes by Hannah west, Mark Salnicki, Janeii Cogel, Karen and Anonymous
Coping Cakes
As part of this storytelling project and to help our members understand and process some of the challenges they had experienced over the last year, we ran an art therapy workshop with an experienced Art Therapist.
Art Therapy
Art Therapy is a form of expressive therapy that uses the creative process of making art to improve a person’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Art therapy is provided in groups or individually, depending on a person’s needs. It is not a recreational activity or an art lesson, although the sessions can be enjoyable. Clients do not need to have any previous experience or expertise in art.
The task of this workshop was to create a ‘Cope Cake’ which involved participants making an image of a cake and including the special ingredients of things that had helped them cope during the last year.
About Alison
Alison McWhinnie studied art psychotherapy at Hertfordshire University, gaining an MA in 2019. After graduating she volunteered for Respond within the young people’s service as an honorary therapist working within a secondary special school. She joined Respond’s survivors’ service in September 2020. Her experience includes working with children and adolescents (with and without special educational needs including autism and ADHD) who have experienced loss and bereavement, ambiguous loss, anxiety, emotional dysregulation, and trauma. Prior to becoming a therapist Alison worked as a care support worker with young adults with learning disabilities within a care setting for over fourteen years. She is HCPC registered and a member of BAAT.
Picture of a cope cake by Samatha Walker and Juanita
Story by anonymous
Young woman with mental health condition was living in a hostel near Hackney Road. Was on the housing list and offered a flat in Whitechapel Road during Covid19 and given a date by the hostel when she should leave. She couldn’t make contact with his support worker who was self isolating and wasn’t capable of moving by herself. She was lucky to have a friend who organised everything but the flat wasn’t in a ready state to be moved into (no heating) so she was camping whilst electricity was fixed etc.
Story by anonymous
Social Isolation during pandemic of an elderly disabled man who uses an electric wheelchair. Lives on 4th floor and relies on the lift that sometimes breaks down. When it breaks down he can’t get his food shopping. He has no mobile or computer because he was hacked once and he is nervous about it happening again. He relies on his landline. During Covid19 he has found it difficult to get through to council and his housing association when needed. Hangs on phone sometimes for up to 7-10 minutes then gives up. He has found a local community centre during Covid 19 helpful with food parcels and also they gave a gift.
Story by anonymous
A young man who grew up outside London, with a history of eating disorders and self-harm. After about 10 years in NHS mental health institutions, he was discharged to live with her parents in September 2019. The pressure of isolation during the lockdown got to him and he began self-harming again, after which he was hospitalized again in April. Things have spiraled downhill since.
Story by Rob Johnson
I went into lockdown with a complex mix of neuro, mobility and mental health issues. I lean heavily on NHS support both medically and for occupational health. I do live independently, alone and without Council social care provision. Early into lockdown, I was designated Clinically Extremely Vulnerable and, like anyone else in that category, was given advice on the few reasons that I should emerge from home. With limited access to resources and no local support network, everything became much more difficult, missed medical appointment, access to transport, drugs, food etc. I ended up getting Council food parcels for which I was grateful, despite the limited and unvarying nature. Minimal fresh, fibre and protein content but it was better than nothing. Then delivery became sporadic, though no one could tell me why. In the end I was forced to emerge and take my chances in Tescos. From the point of medical support, the normal raft of review appointments with consultants, routines tests have all ceased. Some of them were important, some not so. None of them happened. The NHS keeps claiming it was still open for regular business was not the case! On the plus side, living alone gives me full control of my home environment. During lockdown , I became aware of how many people would try to gain access – meter readers, checking the dodgy cladding, updating the router, the list goes on and on. They all get told the same response – no one gets in here without a Court Order. Maybe not even then. Ultimately they all acquiesced to this, I do like a good scrap so we’re slightly disappointed in some instances!
Poem by anonymous
From a solid oak old music box
Came the sweet music of change
My heart lifted
My soul soared
Poem by Anonymous
Going Nowhere Slowly
We’re in a time lapse it seems
Time is standing still
Routine is out the window
It prompts the question
What is this all about?
What is this for?
Where are we going?
Where is the next destination from here
Time is moving so fast yet so slow
And I don’t know where I’m going anymore
I need to put the breaks on
And simply breath
Poem by Rob Johnson
What am I?
But two things.
One and the same.
I climb I fall back I climb I fall back I climb I fall back
What am I?
Note from the Writer: The session lead had asked to me to write about an object, I chose a smooth bowl. The metaphor being hope and the fight to maintain it
Story by Jo Turner-Atwell
One staff member has PTSD from a road accident which caused a mobility impairment. COVID 19 created delays in getting access to the appropriate medical footwear, which has created a risk of skin breakdown. This could cause medical issues for the staff member further down the line by creating pressure sores. The pressure of COVID 19 on the NHS has also meant that more time has been spent chasing referrals. In addition to receiving phone calls for unexpected medical appointments during the work day, because letters have not been sent out when they should have. The staff member’s PTSD is triggered by feeling out of control. The unpredictability of necessary medical care has created feelings of being out of control and triggered the staff members PTSD. This has in turn triggered feelings of overwhelm and fatigue.
Story by Annonymous
A grandfather had been living in a residential care home in Tower Hamlets for some years. He used to go out by himself for a walk to the shops, and to spend time in the communal lounge watching TV or
chatting to other residents. Staff closed the lounge, requiring residents to stay in their own rooms. This was reduced to sitting immobile for long periods, and consequently developed a serious pressure sore, which became infected. The family decided to take him from the residential home to stay with themselves. Sadly, despite their best care,
the infection spread, and the man died in August.
Poem by Anonymous
Unity over division
So much divide
Will be humanities demise
Lies lies lies
We need to unite
Deceit and deception
The manipulation and dejection
Where is humanities connectedness?
So speak your truth
Own your truth
Stand in your truth
And most of all
Embody love and unity
Let it echo through your veins
Through your soul
United we stand
Divided we fall
Poem by Mahendra Rastogi
Art of Losing
The art of losing may not be hard to master,
But losing me would be a disaster.
I am in the smile of your lips
And in the unshed tears of your eyes.
In the pleasing giggle of your laughter
And in the silent sob of your cry.
Coy of my existence you might be,
You can not lose me.
I am in the music of your voice,
In the croon of your choice.
In the melancholy of your pain,
In bliss of your gain,
In the moment of your sorrow, in the time of your glee,
You cannot lose me.
In every drop of your blood,
In every beat of your heart,
In your memory in your brain,
In the train of your thought,
I am in your epic, in your story,
You cannot lose me.
I am answer of your prayer,
Your intimate desire,
Your fascinating admiration
And your burgeoning aspire.
Love me, cuddle me,
Kiss me and own me.
You can’t lose me,
You shan’t lose me.
Do not forget me, do not lose me.
Poem by Faiz Rehman
I went to the fridge. I slightly opened the door. I felt some hope. I could eat some more. Then I saw my son. He smiled at me in a dazy fashion. ‘Daddy what are you doing?’ I replied ‘I don’t know’. When will this crazy world be free from this.
Note from the writer: This poem is about my providing for my child. The fridge is a space of possibility. When it’s full it’s hopeful. When it’s empty it’s about hunger. ‘This situation has made things so inadequate on the one hand but on the other hand I am able to help my son which I never thought possible
Poem by Jo Turner Atwell
Lockdown made me feel like a droopy plastic bag being blown around on the wind of Corona.
We were pebbles on a beach absorbing the waves together.
As we clapped for those closest to the shore.
Our Frontline Workers
Story by Faiz Rehman
The mechanism of getting to one place to the other. That mode of transportation that I used to depend on has been heavily reduced. I’m always getting emails saying don’t travel on such times. The state is dictating where I should go and when I should go. Before it was travel whenever you want to travel but now the state is imposing an order on you saying no you can’t. Where you were talking about depression and the clouds being your metaphor for depression, for me I don’t know what sign I would be. For me that would be my depression as its internal not external. Before the pandemic we took the buses and tubes for granted. Because they aren’t there in the same ways we want them to be its like because they’re not there not only have they become paralysed, we have become paralysed too as a nation. This has made us zombies. When I mean zombies I mean we are even afraid to touch each other. When things do get better, I think we are duty bound to get out there and thank our key workers. When I say get out there I mean promptly get out there and stop all this criticism for a day or two. If we can’t physically get out there I think Real should at least have the capacity to record a message to say thank you to key workers working 24 hours a day to curb this terrible disease. We owe it to them as an engagement project and a user led organisation to positively do something. We must do something as we do owe a debt of gratitude to everyone attempting to keep us safe so we must do that in whatever way we can. We must incorporate this into the stories project in some shape or form. We must at least record a message or something to our local hospital and just to record our thanks and gratitude we must do that otherwise history will never forgive us.
Artwork by Mark Salnicki. Personal Assistant to an Engagement Officer at Real DPO
The reason I did these drawings was to show not only is the covid virus causing physical conditions, it is also having an effect on people’s mental health.
Because of this I call them Cause and Effect.
Story by Jagir Kaur
This whole thing with covid-19 is a disaster. People like us are friendly people. We like to help people and help others. I choose to go to 2 old ladies. They can’t even speak any English and they can’t phone anyone. I used to make some food also and do some shopping to see them and now I just have to phone them. I can’t even go so I miss everything. I can’t wait till things get better soon and we can do how much we were doing before. Thank god I can still drive as all of my friends can’t. When things start getting bad, I just drive to them. I sit in my car as I am not good with my legs and I ask them to stand next to their door so I spend 5- 10 minutes and if they need something like sometimes, they can’t carry heavy stuff, so I did that too. I can’t wait till things get better. Sometimes as people are a bit far away then suddenly, they disappear. So I lost one friend then somebody said we didn’t hear about that friend. Thank god I spoke to her on the phone and she’s very ill. I can’t do anything its not in my hands god will help everyone and us. We can’t do anything. Its not in our hands.
Poem by Samantha Walker
I felt sad, I didn’t have a tablet, a
laptop or internet
Mixed messaging
I felt happy like my teddy bear when I
got online
Real Pandemic Diaries
We have collected a beautiful selection of poems, stories, animation and art created by our disabled members which expresses how the pandemic has made them feel.
Poem by Mahendra Rastogi
Ms Pandemic – Art of Idleness
The Corona Pandemic has created disaster, turbulence and havoc the world over. Social-distancing, Isolation, Quarantine and lock-down are the buzz phrases of the era.
But this Ms. Pandemic has given us a rare opportunity to paws and ponder; to wait and relax and wait patiently for every minute to pass. There is no need to have the account of time. Do everything (or nothing) at your own speed.
This has provided me with a new branch of Art: The Art of Idleness. “My day and night myself I make, whenever I sleep or play.”
I can postpone all my activities indefinitely but Nature’s call.
I had planned to write an inspiring poem or an interesting article on Ms. Pandemic. But I left it pending for the last moment and still waiting for that last moment. In fact I have forgotten the count of time. Watches still tic, clock still strike. But they denote nothing. Past, present and future have shrunk together into one unending moment.
“They also serve who stand and wait.” So, I am serving by practising the ART OF IDLENESS.
Story by Samantha Walker
A lot of things were destroyed. We had everything before that pandemic. I was going to Tower Projects, I was going swimming, working at the council at Mulberry Place and Core projects when they were opening at Aldgate East. That was my day to day life and it was before the pandemic and It was destroyed because of the pandemic. I also went hydro and trampolining rebound. That was my day to day life. I got the invite to do it and started to really feel the benefits of being me. Then that went and it went online, it makes sense to have something like this online to continue our health. Then to not see that person face to face that’s much harder. Like someone on your telephone you don’t know what that voice is. I’m glad about this platform as I know the face and who I’m speaking
Artwork by Danny Currie
2 bright coloured drawings of a train and a house, looking at how to use art a perspective.
- Audio Poems
“Audio Poems” from Stories Project – Audio Poems by LV membership. Released: 2020. Track 3.
- Audio Poems
“Audio Poems” from Stories Project – Audio Poems by LV membership. Released: 2020. Track 4.
- Audio Poems
“Audio Poems” from Stories Project – Audio Poems by LV membership. Released: 2020. Track 5.
- Audio Poems
“Audio Poems” from Stories Project – Audio Poems by LV membership. Released: 2020. Track 2.
