5 community care lessons in COVID
I have learned a lot about the warmth in life, true meaning of vulnerability, third sector, and the weakness of our society in an intense period of 6-month supporting communities in need through Greenwich Mutual Aid group (GMA) in the Royal Borough of Greenwich in London during COVID. We operationalised in 4 days, had 1000+ volunteers, delivered over 1000+ foodbank parcels, and touched many people’s lives.
UK has been one of the most affected countries in Europe during COVID.
Our Mutual Aid principles are simple. It’s for people who:
- Require more local support systems
- Need access to more resources
- Need an awareness of support services
Here is what we learned about our society through Mutual Aid, through real-life human interactions and stories, in the last 6 months.
Reaching the unreachable
The lockdown in the UK came as a sudden change. In the beginning, every support organisation was trying to figure out what to do. Like everyone, GMA didn’t have the resources and partnership as we do now. We knew immediately that a lot of people are all the sudden left without access to a support system. We did a thorough leafletting effort across the Royal Borough of Greenwich, to the best of our ability to reach the vulnerable in the 250k residences.
As we have learned now, this ground-sweeping outreach allowed us to reach the unreachable, which are often the ones who need help. (i.e. lack of digital capability / access, hesitant in reaching out to authority.) Even to this day, with a healthy partnership eco-system of referrals, we still take this learning to heart to guide our work now.
We know some other groups who have rotas around supermarket to gather donations / outreach too. Physical world interaction has proven to be the most inclusive in the pandemic.
We should not rely on the same reach to people that are already caught by the system; we needed to catch the people who fell through the cracks.
Vulnerability is not a checklist
One vocabulary that I learned early on in community care is social prescribing: sometimes referred to as community referral, is a means of enabling GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical service
Social prescribing works much like western medical science. Here’s a checklist of symptoms, check the list and conclude a diagnosis. Prescription is given for that one diagnosis.
This is not how real life works, and that’s not how we provided care.
Real-life story: Let’s call him John— who was about to be discharged from the hospital to free up hospital space for COVID patients. 70+ year old. No local support system. Live by himself. John is not suffering from acute illness but needs weekly dialysis. The dialysis would make John quite weak. In pre-COVID circumstances, John would be in the hospital the whole time. John is now going to be home alone and he will have to manage the commute to the hospital weekly. His weakness will affect his day-to-day.
In Social prescribing ways, John would be referred to several different (and disconnected) services that may include taxi, a care nurse that checks in on him once a week, and / or a mental support group. In reality, if John is your neighbour, you would probably check in on him regularly. Out of the kindness of your heart, you’d help buy grocery for him, offer to cook some meals or accompany him to hospital.
Don’t confuse vulnerability as a specific need. Solving one contextual problem does not resolve the vulnerability.
The longevity of impact
We all have a perception of how COVID has affected us individually and the world. Many underlying (non-physical) impacts are harder to see.
Real-life story: Let’s call him Peter. Peter, retired, lives alone, no major problems, more than self-sufficient. He used to walk up the hill through the park to the hospice charity shop to have a chat with the volunteers. He was always full of life and active in his social circles. In lockdown, Peter still did his walks, but because of his age, he doesn’t have all the social interactions as he did before. Peter has some non-threatening health problems, but his treatment is delayed. It’s causing a rapid deterioration of his eyesight and affecting his life quality hugely. The spark in Peter’s eyes is gone, and he is looking a lot more aged than before. We are worried about Peter and we have volunteers to do walks with him.
We are all suffering mentally, for some, the mental deterioration and physical implications manifest in a much more distressing and lasting way.
Care is not transactional — it’s emotional
A lot of people think that Mutual Aid volunteers just go out and buy groceries for the shielded. That’s a very transactional way to think about care and support. We have supported people who didn’t need “transactional” help — the ones like Peter — who are self-sufficient and capable. As time went on, the volunteers would check back on them. Many of them turned out to have paired up with a volunteer for chats, regular catch up, or some minor errands.
Real-life story: An asylum family (with 3 kids) from Sri Lanka contacted us for emergency food as they somehow were not integrated into the local official support system yet. We dispatched community donated food twice. As time went on, there were different requests from the family. More than 5 different volunteers have built a relationship with the family. We have brought them emergency food, provided support in filing paperwork / chasing caseworkers, to bringing them household items. We even helped the father find a local cricket club to join. The family has built a deep relationship with some volunteers and often cooked up traditional food to share.
Care should be about emotion.
Giving is empowering
The concept of Mutual Aid has a tone on the “mutual”. We have always believed that the volunteers should get something out of it. It’s usually not the badge of goodwill, saviour complex, or a pat on the back that fuels the volunteers. We have all felt more empowered by actively doing something in the pandemic, especially seeing it first-hand of the needs in the community.
Real-life story: Jon saw a bin bag of empty prescription bottles left outside of a house. He knocked on the door to inform the lady that it’s probably not safe to dispose of her name and address out in the open like so. Jon is now more empowered to approach people and reaching out to the community.
We can all make a difference. Let’s not wait for more dire needs to be nice to our communities.
2020 and the pandemic have been difficult. Let’s learn from the good lessons and make some changes in our lives. Be kind, and believe that your small acts can bring so much impact. There are still much more work to do to build a supportive society.
Footnote: All the great work done by amazing volunteers with the partners eco-system.
(I wish I had more tear-jerking photos of the vulnerable people to bring the stories to life. But as they are vulnerable people, it’s probably best to protect their identities. It’s not about the glory, it’s about the hard work behind it.)
