In today’s episode, we’re continuing the conversation about mental health, lockdown and how to manage during this time.. There’s lots of information in the media about what we should and shouldn’t do.. we see statistics.. we’re given direction and advice.. sometimes it sounds clear to us, and sometimes it doesn’t... we see advice change.. sometimes on a daily basis and this can leave us feeling worried, scared or just plain confused.. but on a more positive note, we’re also hearing about new and inventive ways of living life.. people are coming up with ideas that we maybe wouldn’t have thought of before...so it’s true to say that there’s a mix of experiences that people are having about lockdown.

But there’s one aspect of lockdown that we’ve all had to do... We’ve all had to socially isolate and keep to social distancing... which means limited access to friends and family, and our normal ways of socialising are currently off the agenda.. As a result of this, we’ve seen an increased use of social media. Now, there are lots of us that would never have entertained the idea of talking on screen.. but suddenly we’ve all got to grips with video calling, texting and even learning new dances on TacTic (name changed for copyright purposes..!)

and no, the last bit doesn’t apply to me.

But for some of us, our usual ways of managing health, and in particular, mental health may have become difficult to access.. such as taking exercise, going out and meeting people.. and getting access to fresh air. For those of us experiencing this.., daily life can be difficult... and many of us have increased our use of social media to support our wellbeing. In today’s episode, we’re going to explore how to manage mental health within the current climate...and give tips on how to make social media support our wellbeing as opposed to making it worse.

Today we have Nikki Scott, who is the user participation lead for Luton and Bedford CAMHS and is also a co-host on CAMHS Talk. I’d also like to welcome Lawrence Chung who is on the NHS graduate programme and is working an Operational Lead for Bedford CAMHS.Also welcome to our service users, Jay and Gracie