Hameed accessing well-being, services.

well, well being is a very holistic, isn't it? It's not just about your physical health. It's not just about your mental health. It's about your overall well being, which includes housing, education. Employment includes, uh, your physical health, your mental health, your sports recreation activities that keep that are good for you to keep you well

So I've had a very good experience and bad experiences in receiving well being care as a whole, racism comes covert and overt. I've experienced racism in the well-being services. I'm gonna call it well-being service that encompasses everything that is to do with our well-being, which is physical health, social health, mental health

You know, our housing, employment, educate everything. So my experience of my well being race I've experienced is that when I was, um, trying to access, uh, a service to support me with my, um, uh, mental health, they were not culturally sensitive. They were not very, um they were very derogative with their comments

I remember one staff saying to me, Oh, why is it that in this country we have to provide interpreters and translators for people who can't speak English? Because if I was working in in. If I was in India and a patient, they wouldn't get a translated interpreter for me. And even though I'm, I can speak affluent English

But it was almost like her way of saying that people who need that service, we shouldn't provide it for them. And therefore, I kind of picked up that they weren't interested in being culturally sensitive towards my religious cultural needs. It definitely knocks your self esteem

It definitely kicks out your confidence. You become very hesitant to express your culture, your religious needs. Um, your language needs you as a person

You almost feel like, Oh, I'm gonna get judged. So rather than gain the services to work according to your individualised needs, you start to fit around services that are offered. And it's not very comfortable when you keep trying to

It's almost trying to get a circle to fit into a square, and I felt at times with some services being like that, I'm the circle trying to fit into a square, and it's been impossible at times. I discovered the art world just the last 67 years, and I've been very fortunate because I've always enjoyed dancing probably and I express myself through movements and it's only been I lost that for the last From the age of 25 to up to the age of 40 and only recently in the last few years I've discovered that in covid that was my way of coping. So I'll put music on and I would have my expressive dance in my own in my room

And then I slowly start to then get involved. And recently I've been involved with a couple of arts projects Um uh, and theatre. And we did a three minute video

So I think art is a great way of well being. Um uh, help support of your well being because it helps them to you to express yourself. It helps you to put things in context

It gets you to socialise with people. It gets you to put out the message that's really been affecting you a lot, you know, psychologically, sociologically. And it empowers you and you know, and I think that for me, art is a way of really kind of putting all your chaotic thoughts and destruction that you face because of racism into a contextual way through a performance or through watching arts

And I think arts can really help people to take time out and support people to use what they I call. Everyone's got hidden talents and the arts works with people to bring out their talents. And art isn't about you becoming Picasso

It's not about you becoming, you know, the next top artist performance. It's about you just having a go and being proud of the fact that you're getting into something that is good for your well being. So I see

For me, art is about well being for me, and I'm really pleased that there's no competition. There's no pressure. There's no impressing people

It's just about me expressing through arts. And that's what I love about it. Yesterday I did something with the, uh uh uh uh, another thing called sightlines

Festivals. I don't know if you heard of them. They're an arts type of organisation, and we had to put a story together, storytelling, and I really enjoyed putting my story together

Uh, I it won't take too long, so I'd like you to share what I can what I put together. And this really helped me to put my well being at the heart of it. So I my ocean, my hero

I sometimes feel like life is staggering like a mountain standing still. And at other times I feel life is like ocean changing tides and flow flow of energy. Constantly, I seemed to feel at Stansted and ease and then, like an ocean feel sense of fast tides and movements, which caused me unstability, insecurity and uncertainty

Although yearning for steadiness like a mountain firm and strong, I enjoyed the excitement of chaos, unexpected movements and changes like the tides of the ocean, concluding on standing still as a mountain with inner feeling of strong strongness, yet always yearning for fast tides of ocean for curiosity, new beginnings and excitement. We need inclusive arts, and I'm gonna use those two words together. Inclusive arts, I think

Still, art comes across that. It's for people who are artists. It's for people who are talented

It's for people who have talents. Now. I put this together, and I had never thought I could express myself through writing

I expressed myself through dancing, and it was like But after I did this, I thought, Wow, I can write and I can express myself through a pen, and that's something we need to make it more inclusive. And we want to show people art doesn't have criteria it doesn't have grading. It doesn't have good or bad

It just about you do it to your best ability. And even if you don't do to your best ability, whatever you express is your art, and you should appreciate your art.