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Boost Your Mental Health: 5 Ways to Help Others During Lockdown

03 Apr 2020

The UK is in lockdown and whether you are still able to work or not, there is a certain feeling of helplessness.

If you are healthy, read this article to discover ways you can support our NHS, those in poverty, the homeless, or even the vulnerable in your local community. Helping others is a great way to boost your mental health and find more purpose during this difficult time.

For the Governments guidance on helping others click here.

Check on your neighbours

Post a note through your neighbour’s doors to ask if anyone needs any help, especially those you know are elderly or vulnerable. You could offer to help those who are in isolation by helping with their food shopping, collecting medication, or just offering your telephone number if they need someone to speak to.

Here is some guidance on helping others with mental health problems.

Give blood

The NHS Volunteer Responders scheme was temporarily paused on 29th March, after receiving 750,000 applications, to give them chance to process them. However, there has been a reduction in the amount of people giving blood because of people needing to self-isolate, feeling ill, or being worried about the process during the pandemic. However, our NHS still need vital supplies of blood to support those in need.

If you are healthy and able to do so, you can register to give blood and book an appointment here.

Be assured there are strict safety procedures in place to help during your appointment.

Volunteer your friendship

Many charities and community groups are asking for volunteers to help them with befriending of vulnerable people. This could involve calling someone to make sure they don’t feel alone at this time.

Search for a charity or local community group befriending scheme.

Here are a few we found:

Age UK – UK Wide: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/services/befriending-services/sign-up-for-telephone-befriending/

Independent Age – UK Wide: https://www.independentage.org/get-involved/how-can-i-volunteer/join-our-team-of-telephone-volunteers

Community Solutions – Accrington: https://www.facebook.com/182838198426836/posts/3067146089996018/

Donate to a food bank or homeless shelter

There are many food banks that are crying out for food donations to help those in poverty.

Search for your local food bank online and either drop off a food parcel if you can do so safely, or donate online from the safety of your home.

The following charity provides food banks UK wide: The Trussell Trust

You can also search for your local homeless shelter and donate food to help support those most in need.

Make sure you check their websites or Facebook pages to see which items they are running low on.

Recommend job opportunities to others

Ok, so it might not be the most obvious one, but there are a lot of people looking for work right now, with many job opportunities decreasing in many sectors.

LinkedIn is used by both recruiters and businesses to advertise their jobs, as well as the career sections of their websites.

When you see a job being advertised on LinkedIn, you could either share it directly with people you think could be interested and suitable, or you could even simply share the job with your network. Someone, you didn’t even know was looking, could be desperate for that particular job.

Many recruitment agencies also have referral schemes, where they will give cash for a successful referral.

Click here to see how First Recruitment Group could give you a £250 referral payment for recommending someone who successfully gets a job, and they weren't previously aware of.

Stay safe and browse our jobs

We hope you found this article useful and are staying safe?

As a nation we are all in this together and the more we can help each other, the better the world will become, and the nicer it will be when the spread of COVID-19 ends.

If you are looking for a job you can browse our vacancies here.

Successful applicants can be assured that we are working closely with clients to adapt to the UK’s lockdown and keep the recruitment process moving along safely. Interviews will take place via video interview.

Help someone you know take the next step in their career with First Recruitment Group.

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