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Covid Matters

#MakeSchoolsSafe and #ProtectOurCommunities throughout the Covid-19 pandemic

Ep. 14

This special episode of Covid Matters was recorded as part of a Live Q&A on our Covid-19 Support Community.


We speak to Gemma Sewell, the co-founder of Parents United UK, a grassroots, parent-led support group campaigning for a sensible, safe and sustainable approach to education during the pandemic. We talk about recommended Covid safety measures to help #MakeSchoolsSafe, including the importance of masks, ventilation and reducing class sizes and how these adjustments could, in turn, #ProtectOurCommunities.


This conversation includes questions from our covid:aid community. You can join our Covid-19 Support Community to take part upcoming events like this, and receive advice, support and information on a range of Covid-related topics, here: https://community.covidaidcharity.org/


Find us on social media @covidaidcharity or by visiting our website: https://covidaidcharity.org/


Find out more about Parents United on their website: https://www.parentsunited.org.uk/ , on Twitter @Parents_Utd or join their Facebook Group, Parents United UK




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    In the latest episode of our Covid Matters podcast, we spoke to Duncan Boak; founder and CEO of the smell and taste disorder charity Fifth Sense. We learned from Duncan how Fifth Sense is helping people whose sense of smell and/or taste has changed since having Covid-19. He also provided insights into the charity’s background and wider work, and explained some of the science of how a virus affects odour detection.Duncan shared his own story of losing his sense of smell following an accident where he sustained a head injury. Although it’s known that physical trauma to the head can damage smell or taste sensation, Duncan found that health professionals lacked knowledge about his condition, or about any treatment options that there were. He also found some people to be dismissive of his loss, downplaying the impact that it had upon various aspects of his life. His journey led to him setting up Fifth Sense in 2012, with the aim to provide support and advice for those affected by an absent – or reduced – sense of smell, and to educate people about the reality of living with those changes.In the podcast, Duncan highlights some of these challenges, learned from his own lived experiences as well as from the Fifth Sense community that he has helped to bring together. For example, losing what is, as Duncan points out, “one of the five ways in which we connect with the world around us” can reduce peoples’ enjoyment of food and drink, resulting in them eating less and consequently losing weight. This, in turn, can lead to inadequate nutrition. A changed relationship with food can impact mental health and social eating, and if a food or drink that brought particular pleasure now tastes unappetising, a grief process may be triggered. The lack of awareness of, and empathy for, the effects of not being able to smell can mean that those affected suffer in silence, feeling isolated and alone. For those with Long Covid, there are typically other symptoms that they are also having to contend with.Find tailored resources from Fifth Sense for this episode and more information here
  • How These Four Walls reveals the scale and impact of Covid-19 Grief and Bereavement

    45:03
    In the latest Covid Matters podcast, covid:aid discussed the short film These Four Walls, which presented stories around grief and bereavement during the Covid pandemic. We were joined on the podcast by Ellie Harrison, the writer and director of These Four Walls, as well as the film’s principal investigators: Dr Lucy Selman from the University of Bristol, and Dr Emily Harrop from Cardiff University. Both Lucy and Emily are social scientists by background and work in palliative care with a particular interest in grief and bereavement. Lucy is also the founding director of the Good Grief Festival, which hosts free talks, webinars, workshops and other events that provide space for conversations around bereavement and loss, as well as building a supportive grief community. Ellie is an artist and activist whose work includes The Grief Series: a sequence of seven projects that present and explore ideas around grief, each one produced in collaboration with another artist as well as with community engagement. This project, the Good Grief Festival, and These Four Walls all aim to create safe and welcoming spaces for the stories and feelings that people have around loss and bereavement to be heard in. In the podcast, Ellie talks about the need that she feels there is for people to be able to do this in a way that validates, normalises, and offers comfort to peoples’ grief journeys. You can watch These Four Walls here.The Good Grief Festival website has other resources, articles, and news about courses and events on its journal page.Covid:aid has a dedicated grief and bereavement section on its website, as well as a Grief Chat option if you’re needing advice and support.Cruse is a charity that has been providing support and information around bereavement for over 60 years. They also have a free helpline available seven days a week.You may also find these resources from Mind, and this NHS page useful if you, or someone you know, have experienced a bereavement.
  • Speaking to Mind: the effects of Covid-19 on Mental Health, and how to deal with anxiety, loneliness, and other issues

    34:58
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  • 25. Women's Budget Group: Calling for a care-led Covid recovery

    35:24
    In this episode of Covid Matters, we speak to Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director of the Women's Budget Group. We invited Mary-Ann onto the podcast to discuss how gender-based financial inequalities were exacerbated as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and what that means for Covid recovery in the UK.The Women's Budget Group is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that monitors the impact of government policies on men and women. They comprise a network of leading academic researchers, policy experts and campaigners whose vision is of a caring economy that promotes equality.-----------------Follow Dr Mary-Ann on Twitter @maryanncv8Visit the Women's Budget Group website at https://wbg.org.uk/ or on Twitter @WomensBudgetGrpYou can find us on social media @covidaidcharity or by visiting our website: https://covidaidcharity.org/ where you can also join our free Covid-19 Support Community to take part in Live Q&A events, access our online Courses or connect with others across the UK dealing with the lasting impacts of Covid-19.
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    32:30
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    32:57
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