FAQs | Wandsworth Oasis

Mira Kostadinova

Head of Finance and Support Services

The Courtyard Clinic, St George's Hospital

We have been working with The Courtyard Clinic for many years and are so pleased to fund their massage service.

In December 2016, we awarded Body & Soul £4,720 towards their Active Bodies Active Souls Programme targeted at their service-users of all ages living with and closely affected by HIV This funding has enabled them to deliver a series of workshops based on their five key impact areas - physical health; mental health; psychosocial wellbeing; practical support; and productivity.

Expand

Highlights

Since December 2016 27 unique Wandsworth residents have accessed Body & Soul a total of 179 times. Additionally, they have made 270 support calls, delivered 65 hours of 1:1 therapies and counselling sessions, and 41 hours of 1:1 casework and advocacy support, all for Wandsworth residents.

Their service users tell them that Body & Soul is one of the few places where they feel safe and are able to talk about HIV. THeir services remain essential for Wandsworth residents, and our service-users across London, to access holistic, non-judgemental support. Here are a few comments from their service users to illustrate the importance of our services:

I love this place, it's like my second home

Since coming to Body & Soul I have been able to meet friends with the same illness and have a good support group

I had stopped going out prior to Body & Soul and now I have a weekly event that I look forward to

Outcomes

Wandsworth residents have benefitted from group workshops, health & wellbeing seminars, 1:1 therapies, casework and advocacy support, remote peer support, and employment coaching. These programmes have supported Wandsworth residents living with HIV to achieve the following outcomes:

89% feel that they have more knowledge around health management
80% are more confident expressing their thoughts and feelings
88% have a better support network thanks to coming to Body & Soul
81% have expressed that they feel happier
92% of Wandsworth residents know more about HIV
82% are better at taking their medication, and 80% feel less lonely and isolated.

The Wandsworth residents we supported this year were between 4-58 years of age, 65% were female, and 35% were male. The demographic range of attendees was as follows: 15 Black African, 4 Black British, 4 Mixed Heritage, 2 Black Caribbean, and 2 White members.

Meet Brenda

Brenda (not her real name) is a Wandsworth resident, 53 years of age, and has been accessing Body & Soul since 2009. Brenda has severe mobility issues which require her to use crutches at all times.

Brenda recently informed us that she was often in a lot of pain and so we were able to offer her a course of reiki treatments which then developed into a holistic massage once Brenda felt comfortable with this form of hands-on therapy. Brenda has reported back to our masseuse and Therapies Coordinator, that these therapies have helped her to relax, which has decreased the pain and tension in her body. Additionally, these therapies led to Brenda showing more interest in our physical health workshops, and in August of this year she attended a session on the benefits and barriers to movement. This year alone Brenda has participated in 13 workshops through our Adult Service evenings including: ‘Dealing with disappointment’, ‘Understanding my HIV Treatment’, and ‘Nutrition: Warming Winter salads’.

We will continue to provide Brenda with 1:1 complimentary therapies, and look forward to seeing her participate in and learn from our range of health and wellbeing workshops.

Food for Thought from the FoodChain

We aim to support the most vulnerable people living with HIV in London. The circumstances of the people we have helped through our grant to The FoodChain range from uncertain residency, food poverty and social isolation to living on incomes of less than £100 a week. Good nutrition is vital to the immune system, so the education and physical support from The Foodchain remains vital.

Expand

Nutrition for Body & Soul

Since receiving our grant of £15,000 in 2019 which was spent in the 2019-2020 financial year. The Food Chain have provided personalised nutrition support services for 416 people living with HIV who were struggling to access the food they need to get well, stay well and better manage their HIV. Our services also benefitted 221 dependents including 113 children under the age of 16, in households across London.

At the start of the Covid19 crisis we identified the needs of our service users and began our emergency response service on 13 March as soon as it became evident that we serve a vulnerable group of people who are not able to leave home to do the shopping. Our adapted service is

Continued dietary advice provided over the phone from our qualified dietitians to understand people’s situations and understand their dietary requirements.
• Emergency grocery deliveries to people’s homes to ensure people have access to the right food based on their physical and cultural needs.
•Providing additional household essentials such as toothpaste, soap and other basic essentials
• one-to-one social support through weekly telephone calls for those with no social network and experiencing poor mental health and isolation.

In the early part of the Covid19 crisis we saw a four-fold increase in referrals to our essential groceries service, the impact of which will continue to be felt in the next financial year.

Of the people who received our tailored nutrition services in this year,

72% were living well below the poverty line with an income of less than £100 per week.
74% had no income
53% were men living alone – one third aged over 50.
47% of households with children (80) were single parent households, these are primarily women with Black African or Caribbean ethnicity.
40% endured both financial hardship and critical health
37% had a late HIV diagnosis (CD4<350)
30% did not have an undetectable viral load, which makes them susceptible to other infections.

Our Covid response in 2020

In the 2020 calendar year we provided support for 585 people plus their 383 dependents including 285 children aged under 16.

We organised a total of 2957 food deliveries, equivalent to 101,850 meals.

This compares with 934 deliveries/29,454 meal equivalents in 2019, clearly indicating the huge impact of the Covid19 crisis on our service users.

52% female

47% male

0.4% transgender

0.6% preferred not to say

Black 53%

African 39%
Black Brisih 6%
Black Caribbean 8%

White 33%

White British 19%
White European 8%
White other 6%

Asian 2.5%

Other 11.5%

We supported 62 people from Lambeth and Wandswortth, plus their 27 dependents.

Premises and future plans

We were expecting to move premises into a new kitchen and dining space in the King’s Cross area in April 2020 but this was deferred due to the Covid19 crisis. We now expect to make the move in April 2021.

As Covid19 restrictions reduce we expect to make progress with all aspects of being in a new premises that we can also develop as a Community Café when the time is right. We aim to

Sustain all our services at the necessary level for the duration of the Covid19 crisis
Continue to make our nutrition education services available online as well as in person
Develop new social support services arising from the needs identified during the Covid19 crisis in 2020
Deliver our Eating Together and Eating Positively services in person when this is possible again
Host a Sunday FoodCycle meal, as we did at Acorn House
Run fundraising events
Develop income-generating activities linked to the community café and catering opportunities in the local are

One Stop Organisers Clutter Clearing – in Partnership with Wandsworth Oasis

I was clutter clearing for about 10 years before I was introduced to Wandsworth Oasis. Their professional organisation has made a massive difference to the efficiency of what I can offer my clients, which makes everyone happy.

There are three main ways in which they help more than any other charity that I have used for donations:

They have a fantastic and well organised collection service, who come on a day when they say they will, at a time that they say they will, and often at short notice. This is in stark contrast to other charity shops which are unable to man their collection services in such a way, meaning that clients have to stay in all day or, even worse, stay in and the collection never happens.
They are happy to accept a large amount in one go. Have you ever been to a charity shop with your car full and they have refused your donation? It’s very frustrating.
They will take some things others won’t – check with them before you bring a lot of stuff, but they will sell things through the right medium to get money for the charity, and if that is ebay or a car boot sale they will do that, which means they will take some weird and wonderful items.

The brilliant thing is that they also host community events so, as a supporter, you can get to know them and understand more about what they do and where the money goes.

I donate on behalf of clients on a regular basis, and if my client is a UK tax payer I make sure that they have completed gift aid forms, so that the charity can benefit from the extra money.

There are five main circumstances where I help clients ‘clear the clutter’, or stream-line as many prefer to term it; after all, these possessions are well-loved and therefore can be difficult to part with. And clutter clearing as a term can, I think, seem disrespectful:

Households amalgamating – couples moving in together, with or without their children
Seniors downsizing or moving into care
Families or individuals moving abroad or travelling
Nearest and dearest clearing after a bereavement
Having building work done and disposing of items before putting into storage

Johnny was first referred to Positively UK in late 2015 when we he was 16 years old. Johnny is a Wandsworth resident and newly diagnosed HIV positive from his relationships with a partner 11 years his senior. He was diagnosed early with an undetectable viral load and good physical health. However, Johnny suffers from poor mental health, and as a result of his sexuality and HIV status has become estranged from his family.

Johnny was staying at his partner’s house, but at risk of being homeless. Johnny was referred to our youth worker by the Courtyard Clinic at St George’s Hospital. He met with Positively UK’s dedicated youth peer worker to discuss his new diagnosis. The youth worker was herself diagnosed at birth and has been living with HIV for 26 years. The worker was able to talk to Johnny and support him to come to terms with his HIV status. In her words HIV had been her “personal friend” now for 26 years, it was a condition that could be managed and was not a barrier to Johnny living his life and pursuing his ambitions.

The youth worker also worked with our in-house benefits adviser to secure Johnny a hardship grant from THT to support his immediate needs and apply for benefits to support him in the longer term.

Behind every HIV diagnosis there is a vulnerable individual...

Over the following months Johnny’s engagement with our peer worker was intermittent and he would often cancel appointments or simply not show up. The peer worker persisted and was able to make contact with Johnny again to find out he had overdosed on his HIV medications. Johnny then revealed that his relationships with his partner was often abusive, and he was missing support from his family. Our peer worker finally helped Johnny accept the need for further support with his mental health and he began sessions with a psychologist at his HIV clinic.
With Johnny’s agreement the peer worker then facilitated a meeting between him and his dad. Johnny’s dad was clearly struggling to come to terms with his HIV status and his knowledge was outdated believing that Johnny would become ill and die. Johnny was able to talk to his dad about HIV and his medications. His dad was also fascinated to meet someone who had lived with HIV for 26 years, understand the reality of HIV today and was glad to know Johnny had support from Positively UK.

The future looks brighter...

Johnny is now re-building his relationship with his mother and sister, supported by his dad. He is stable on his medication. His mental health has improved and as a result of accessing peer support he reported that his self-esteem has increased. As a result, Johnny has returned to college to complete his creative arts course, along with his English and maths A Levels. Johnny is still with his partner but stated he was planning to leave him soon.
It was agreed peer support had achieved what it could at this time. Johnny was told he could come back whenever. Also in line with our protocols a peer worker is due to make contact with Johnny again in November to follow-up, ascertain if his circumstances have changed, he needs any further support and find out if he is ready to engage in any further support such as our gay men’s group.