Transcript

NARRATOR:

Restore was set up to help people with mental health problems recover and return to employment. But when some people first arrive at this Oxfordshire-based charity, they’re highly vulnerable.

LOUIS:

I came here and I was shaking, jittery, and just really paranoid, quite ill. It got me back into a family atmosphere, sat around a table, which was good, which started to build my confidence.

NICK:

I remember attending this place and for the first few months needing to just go off behind one of these buildings and have a good cry until I felt able to go back into the social setting. It’s a slow process and you need to be really just gently coaxed back into a more balanced way of living.

NARRATOR:

Restore’s approach is to encourage recovery through participation in practical activities, such as gardening, cooking and crafts, within a supportive social environment.

LOUIS:

I’ve done stuff like building paths and making pens and turning bits of wood on lathes and building block work and putting the roof on the gazebo outside, and just real manual labour jobs. But also I could do stuff like cards and artwork and stuff, which if I wasn’t feeling up to do that then I could do something. But just basically take the time that I needed and give myself the space that I needed.

KATIE ROWELL:

Restore is a really incredible therapeutic environment. The recovery work happens through those activities, but it also happens around them. Often, they just may be working with a group of people in the kitchen, chopping some vegetables ready for lunch. That might allow a conversation to happen about maybe an issue that someone is struggling with or a kind of difficulty they’re having. Working on something together can be a lot less threatening than just trying to have a conversation together.

It’s something outside of themselves to focus on. It also gives people the chance to build their confidence again. To get that sense of achievement that, hey, I did that really well.

NICK:

It seems to me very natural that if you did some gardening, you started relating to the earth and the plants around you. It seems to me quite natural that that would help with your feeling of connection to the universe.

LUCY HILL:

It gives them time to focus and relax through what they’re doing. They may have a goal and they may want to get it done but they can take their time, there’s no limits on how long they’ve got to work in these practical skills. And I find people, they start smiling, they’re enjoying it so if they are feeling anxious or a bit depressed, it takes them away from that for a bit, which is so important.

LOUIS:

There’s a lot of empathy here so people understand and it helps you figure out how to get better. And it gives you a routine. You need a routine every now and then and it just keeps you level. And so if you have problems, you can talk about it. So if you have bad days – everybody has bad days – but you learn to pick yourself up.

NARRATOR:

Many people with serious mental health problems experience unemployment, and this can create further issues.

LUCY HILL:

This leads to a lot of problems with finances and if they have a family, it could be their family life. All other types of organisations have to get involved, maybe social services, the doctors, and it does have a massive downfall on people because of their self-esteem as well. If they become unemployed – from my experience of speaking to people – they find it hard to get the self-esteem to get back into what they want to do again. And they lose a lot of confidence.

KATIE ROWELL:

Also, sometimes long-term unemployment can just be very discouraging and really demoralising if someone feels that actually they’re able to work and they’ve got a lot to offer, but perhaps because they’ve been out of work for a long time and maybe because they have a mental health issue there’s more barriers maybe that they feel they have to overcome in order to get work.

NARRATOR:

The people who take part in Restore’s programmes are called members and once they start to recover, they’re encouraged to think about work. One programme, The Beehive, is a recovery group, which offers members a structured day and tasks they can volunteer to take on.

MARTIN REALEY:

The Beehive is one of our six recovery groups; it has a recovery coordinator, recovery worker, and ranging between about 15 and 22 members on any one day. They arrive in the morning, post an initial staff meeting, and agree to buy the staff and some volunteers. They then sit down and have a meeting about what they’re going to do that day. That’s both looking at individuals and their recovery goals, and the activities which are taking place that day.

NARRATOR:

There’s also an on-site café open to the public that members can work in.

MARTIN REALEY:

The café is significantly different because it has such a large interface with the general public. So the interaction just with normal, everyday people, especially for individuals who don’t have a huge amount of interaction and struggle in open and public environments, that's a place to do it in a bubble of protection …

CUSTOMER:

Hi. Can I have a single cappuccino, please?

RESTORE MEMBER:

Single cappuccino.

MARTIN REALEY:

… where if necessary they can take a step back. So it can be a gradual introduction back into either an environment with other people or a workplace or a structured day.

KATIE ROWELL:

It can boost people’s confidence. It can also give them the evidence that they can manage their mental health issues in a work-like environment. I think that’s what we are. We’re not a work environment, but we’re work-like. And the environment here might be more supportive but perhaps it helps people to see that now actually I can, just as I manage things here, I could manage things and really have a lot to offer in a work environment.

NARRATOR:

As members recover, they’re offered one-to-one coaching to help them plan their personal journeys back to work.

COACH:

All you can do is discourage the bad coping.

NARRATOR:

Last year, Restore’s combination of recovery, support and coaching helped nearly 200 people return to paid or voluntary work.

MARTIN REALEY:

I think one of the common themes amongst the majority of people that go through the recovery process and coaching is understanding themselves. That’s understanding what they wish to achieve as individuals, what their barriers are, how to cope with those barriers.

NICK:

Human beings are pretty fragile. We can really go off the deep end sometimes, and that’s generally because life has just got too much for people.

And it just gets too heavy. And it’s a slow journey back. And once you’ve regained your inner stability, it’s very important to maintain it.

LOUIS:

It’s like I’m not there yet because I’m not through my therapy. But in the next year, I’ll be back to work, hopefully. I’m quite determined to do that. I’m going to be sad to say goodbye to this place, but I need it as a sense of achievement as well because it’s been a long slog to get to this point.