At times of crisis, it can be hard to know what to do, when the small acts like donating and fundraising probably don’t feel anything like enough.
Helpless and powerless is how countless people have expressed feeling in response to the atrocities being inflicted on the people of Ukraine. It’s why we need people trained and skilled who do know what to do. So, I wasn’t surprised to get a text from my colleague, a crisis responder, a few days after the war began, to say that she was in Poland and part of a team offering humanitarian support for families fleeing Ukraine. She reminded me that keeping focused on what we can do is a sure way of grounding ourselves and finding meaning when little else makes sense. And, so to this issue.
Usually, contributors to BACP Workplace are therapists, but Emma Mitchell, who writes our lead article on working with chronic illness, isn’t – though she does know how therapy can help people who live with it. Emma makes a powerful case to our profession, that to be of value to the client, we need to have an understanding of the psychology of this disabling condition, which is on the rise. According to The Work Foundation, it’s expected that 40% of the working population will have at least one chronic work-limiting condition in the next eight years, and that’s without taking into account the number of people with long COVID.
GP Gavin Francis has spent so much time talking to patients about the impact of the pandemic and their recovery from COVID that he wrote a book about it. You can read my conversation with Gavin about his gem of a book, Recovery: the lost art of convalescence, which offers so much insight and wisdom on the time, space and work that recovery takes – whatever it may look like.
In an area of North Wales once identified as one of the UK’s 15 most disadvantaged regions, with entrenched unemployment, Ali Thomas tells a story of hope, determination and hard work in a community, over a time span of 15 years. It’s work that’s well worth celebrating.
I also had the pleasure of talking to Steve May about the power of story and how our lives are not defined by the events that happen to us but by the meaning we assign to them.
Working closely with the writers who’ve contributed to this issue, I’m more keenly aware of the ripple effect of our work – how it touches the lives of people and communities, spanning generations in families and organisations; sometimes, we will have met these people, but most of the time we haven’t and we probably never will. Sometimes, we need to stop and remember that.
Nicola Banning
Editor, BACP Workplace
workplaceeditor@bacp.co.uk
