New mental wellbeing programme in Watford to launch online

A Slice of Happiness, working on behalf of the Watford & Three Rivers Trust (W3RT) which has been playing a key role in the area’s response to the pandemic, will start its first ‘Wellbeing Spa’ on Thursday for people who are experiencing emotions such as anxiety, stress, depression or grief.

The six-week long programme is the first of its type in a community setting in the UK and is funded by the National Health Service.

A Slice of Happiness was founded in 2017 by Caroline Powell, who gave up her business career to help those in need in the community, initially volunteering with those affected by homelessness.

The project has been working with Coventry University Research Centre since June 2020 to measure its impact and outcomes, and NHS funding was granted in August for the programme in Watford.

A Slice of Happiness is founded on the work of the late Sydney Banks, whose 1973 book The Enlightened Gardener explained what he called the three principles of mind, consciousness and thought.

Details for the 'Wellbeing Spa'

Starting from the position that someone’s thoughts determine what they feel, Caroline and her team specialise in talking to people to find the root cause of their unhappiness or other emotions.

The facilitators then work to help people take another path and experience life through a different perspective and put the negative emotions behind them.

The course aims to give people an understanding of the three principles to raise their overall level of wellbeing, feel less anxious and stressed, spend less time feeling down and have greater clarity and confidence in the decisions they make.

There are still places available for this new programme, which will run from 10am to 2pm each Thursday for the next six weeks.

A Slice of Happiness was founded in 2017

Anyone feeling in need of help can self-refer via the ‘contact us’ form on A Slice of Happiness’ website.

W3RT’s involvement with the mental wellbeing project is one of a number of areas in which the organisation is continuing to play a pivotal role in helping the community in the pandemic.

The trust, which started out in 1974 as the Watford Council for Voluntary Service and is in regular contact with hundreds and charities and community groups around the town, has been at the forefront of the local response since the crisis began last year.

In that time it has been involved in more than 23,000 individual actions, including making more than 9,700 wellbeing calls and delivering over 600 food packs and prescriptions. And that’s in W3RT’s capacity of “filling in the gaps” as chief executive Bob Jones describes it.

He said: “We’re not a specialist mental health organisation, there’s other groups doing foodbanks and we’re doing occasional personal shopping, but we’re working with all the local charities and they’re all doing brilliant work – or at least those that are not in hibernation at the moment – and we’re trying to fill in the gaps and we’re working particularly with Herts Help, the county-wide service.”

The Trust is involved in a number of current initiatives, including the vaccination programme where it has been liaising with partners and the NHS about areas such as centres and recruiting volunteers.

It has also been helping to promote the vaccine, reassure people and combat the “nonsense” that’s been spread on social media and elsewhere.

Mr Jones said: “Particularly we’re looking at ways those messages can get into isolated or disadvantaged communities and black and minority ethnic communities, but also trying to make sure that those communities which are the most vulnerable are getting the support they need to be as safe as everybody else.”

Along with people’s mental health and poverty though, it is those good causes which are ‘hibernating’ that are one of Mr Jones’ biggest concerns as he looks forward to when a sense of normality is finally able to return.

He said: “Some voluntary groups have absolutely motored through this in terms of their organisational strength and agility, particularly say Electric Umbrella or One Vision, Random Café have been brilliant.

“Some of those groups have coped and adapted to the change but we know from trying to call 500 voluntary groups that a lot of them have just put their service into mothballs and they’re effectively hibernating through the crisis.

“What we don’t know is how many of those groups are going to re-emerge in the post-Covid world, so we’re really beginning to look at how can we prepare for, touch wood, the summer or the end of spring. We’re talking to Watford Borough Council and our members about how we can prepare groups for that.

“I think our communities have done brilliantly through this, they’ve shown huge resilience, huge goodwill, huge togetherness, but there’s an awful lot still to do and who knows what the future holds for us.”