As we are learning more about Covid19, it has become abundantly clear that the need for social distancing is imperative for the containment of the virus, and to safeguard our most vulnerable in society.
See Change is a project of Shine. On March 12th Shine put a number of measures in place to protect both its’ service users and staff to prevent the potential spread of the Coronavirus and adheres to those guidelines and the advice of the Government to suspend;
- Face to face meetings
- Training and education groups
- Support groups
- Any other events and activities that gather people together
The safety and well-being of our staff and the people who use our services is of the utmost importance to Shine. We will continue to review the situation and adhere to all Government recommendations during this time.
To this end, we see that it is necessary to postpone the Green Ribbon campaign in May until later in the year when this threat has passed. We know that now more than ever mental health should be of paramount importance, and ask that you continue to have those conversations, find out what supports are available to you, and check in on those in your community be it family, friends or colleagues.
So what does this mean in practical terms?
For the 8th Green Ribbon Campaign; it means that we will not be distributing ribbons this May, we will not be holding (or attending) any events – and ask all our supporters not to run any events or social gatherings during this time. We will be hosting the Green Ribbon campaign at a later point in the year and hope that you will join us at that time in celebrating our 8th campaign.
What about my Green Ribbon Order?
If you have already placed a pre-order with us, this will remain in place for this years campaign. There is no need to re-order. If you had not placed a pre-order with us, you will be able to order ribbons before the campaign via our website.
If you would NOT like to have this order replicated for next year (2021) please email us at admin@seechange.ie to give your consent for us to store your order information, otherwise we will assume that you would like to have your order replicated next year.
You can view our privacy statement here
For our Ambassadors; it means that we will not be providing in person meetings or training sessions, and will not be booking any talks for the next 3 months.
For our Workplaces; it means that we will not be facilitating any workshops for those that had bookings. Our workplace programme is now suspended for a period of 3 months. We endeavour to answer your queries after that time.
For our Partners; it means that we will not be facilitating any staff talks, or conducting any face to face meetings for the next 3 months.
This is a time when we need to be resilient. We need to stay busy and focused on the things we do have control of. For the team at See Change, we will be working hard to keep you connected and bring you new content on our online platforms, we will be updating our training programmes, and building an even better Green Ribbon campaign so that when we get there later in the year we can support you in a greater way.
See Change staff are available for email support, and we will continue our work on stigma reduction to the best of our ability during this time.
Shine staff will also be available to offer remote support and an outreach service to people who use Shine services by phone and email during this time.
Our email counselling support service phil@shine.ie will continue to be available at this time.
If you are in crisis and would like to speak with somebody in confidence, please contact the Samaritans 24 Hour Helpline on 116 123 or the new mental health information line on 1800 742 444
Further Information
Details of the latest advice from the Government in response to Covid-19 can be found here:
https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/ea1c30-updated-measures-in-response-to-covid-19-coronavirus/
Further information on Covid-19 can be found here:
https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/coronavirus/coronavirus.html
https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/guidance/
https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/c36c85-covid-19-coronavirus/
We will continue to review the situation, and we encourage you all to;
- Wash your hands to prevent the spread of the virus
- Remember the 2 metre guidance for social distancing
To our funding partners, ambassadors and stakeholders, we are grateful for your continued support and wish you and your colleagues ease in the coming months.
Please mind yourselves and each other in these challenging times.
Barbara Brennan
Programme Coordinator
See Change
