‘Becoming A ROC’ - Georgie tells us about her first 6 weeks at SHP
Six weeks in to joining the ROC Team (Recovery Opportunities), and what to say but it certainly has rocked! (I’m hoping that pun won’t get old)
I have found the cluster of SHP ROCs to be an incredibly progressive, emerging and unfolding team, supported by some grand ‘boulders’, Bex and Lee.
Our co-produced team meetings are full of creative collaboration, experiential thinking with a flavour of spontaneous fun, exampling our ROC ‘ways’. (If you get a chance to be added to our team meeting ‘visitor list’ then I wouldn’t miss that opportunity to take part, if I was you)!
The ROC ‘ways’ really do ‘rock’, evidenced by my integration into the Islington Mental Health services.
Gardening sessions facilitated by Lorena, the north GreenHouse lead, were up and running before I knew it! A resident praised their own achievements, by pulling up a purple potato from the earth and proudly presenting it to me, that had been growing amongst many other vegetables in the Arundel garden.
One of the residents said "I am really getting into this gardening, it's very therapeutic", as he was using cutters to shape the hedge. He also expressed this to Lorena on another occasion.
Over at Shaftesbury a resident has experienced the benefits of a healthy nutritional diet accompanying exercise and fitness, to support a balanced mental state, and is therefore enthused to share and lead sessions promoting this to other residents, with a twist of martial arts.
Our walking group initiated by a resident’s passion to get up and walk at 5am in the mornings to catch ‘that special earth awakening time’ is taking place at a more social hour of 9:30am. However, this hasn’t stopped the resident from his early morning strolls, “an inspiration” I have told him, as I wish to do the same.
A Shaftesbury resident claimed, “Everyone should join, it clears your mind, sets you up for the day and makes you feel better”, seemed a call for more people to get involved. A weekly body part ‘snap’, with the backdrop of the walking scene, was thought to do the trick. Get ready for a collage of photos from all the weekly walks we intend to do, with a guessing game of what body part is in the picture. This wasn’t my idea; all I was there to do was take ‘the click’!
We have a drummer over at Mercers road, itching to get back behind a drum kit, having left his drums sticks to one side for over a year. This resident wants to find bandmates. Keep an eye out, I sense a band is in the making! Until then, I am currently in music education. Each week, I get a lesson about rock bands from the 50s and 60s, I can now tell you how to listen out for a self-taught drummer as opposed to a professionally trained one!
Mercers has a cyclist coordinating me to form a cycling group, whereas kickboxing is the preference of choice for someone else who intentionally “wants to channel their emotions”.
Meanwhile a collection of ‘arty Arundel’s’ are sculpturing some projects. A resident wants to graffiti paint the garden fences and shed, another is sketching the poster to platform the gardening sessions, whilst another resident who was a previous photographer, is keen to get back on an arts course, pick up a camera and make a film. It certainly seems like he won’t be short of any action.
Good job we have some BBQs planned that we can kick back and relax at before summer is over!
The road ahead looks adventurous as my SHP journey as a ROC only just begins.
Blog by Georgie Morris | Team ROC
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