"My help from the social Inclusion and wellbeing team"

We have had meetings, emails, text communications between the Social Inclusion and Wellbeing team and me to keep me on track. I wanted help getting back into things. I was just on my own, sitting on the sofa, needed something to do. It is a confidence thing, I was just waiting, not doing anything. I had no confidence without support. Sangita has been really good giving me support and keeping a connection. About 6-8months ago we met and she straight away looked on the internet and found an Oxfam volunteer job which appealed to me and I had the skills they needed. It is a bit different from what I imagined but it is good- not out of my comfort zone. The manager is sympathetic and she has insight, even more than some doctors. She is studying psychotherapy. Some GPs are not very sympathetic, they do not have much of an idea of what it is like to live with a condition, I would expect them to know, but they don't. The social inclusion and wellbeing service was very helpful and it would be a shame if it was not there- I would still be sitting on the sofa! ! ! It needs to exist, there should be more support like this to get people back on track.