Report transcript in: Exercise and balancing a family in the time of Covid

Please Report the Errrors?

says recording.

Right. We've gone.

Yes.

OK, so thanks for doing this. Sophie.

Can you tell me a bit about your experience of living through Covid?

Yes. I said to my

partner,

I guess working, working within the physical activity and exercise industry,

um, being

everything been absolutely brilliant before covid.

So going and doing my sessions, going into care homes, working

and working full time being

being out in the community and working with the

community has just been it was absolutely wonderful.

And then the minute covid hit

it kind of went from up there and plummeted straight down,

and I think not just within the,

um, employment side of it, but also mentally and physically as well for everybody.

So not just for myself, but for the Children. Um, my partner for all of the clients

that used to come to the exercise classes.

So I kind of I took all the details from

from my clients and, um,

give them a call within the first couple of weeks to make sure everybody was OK,

But then trying to keep that up when

you've got your own family and trying to deal with your own issues mental,

mental health, mental well-being. Is it just?

It just took a massive plummet. To be honest,

like I say, going from up here down there with every part of your life, just

kind of hit, hit home a little bit within the first

in the 1st 66 to 8 weeks,

realising that things weren't going to get back to

normal quite as quick as we expected it to,

because it was kind of

It was a shock, weren't it? When it all happened

and we were told that everybody's gone into lockdown and

and everything has to stop, it was very much like this can't be happening.

And then when it did, it was

like We're sure that this is not going to happen for a long time.

We'll be back, back up and running within a couple of weeks.

And then when we weren't

and it just kept going on and on and on,

it just became

Groundhog Day, didn't it?

Yeah,

yeah, I know. It's a while back, isn't it?

It's, uh, it seems a long time ago since last March.

I can't believe it's we're on the third today anyway, so it's almost a year ago.

Isn't it a

year?

It's the fastest, fastest year of my life. To be honest, thinking,

it's been a year,

and it was gonna it felt so slow and sort of drawn out for that first couple of weeks.

But then it's just gone like that,

just going so quickly.

So what was the most difficult thing?

Sort of doing the transition with the schooling as well.

Of course, I know you've got a few Children, haven't you?

I've got three.

how

did

you

all at different ages as well.

So 14 year old at the time, I had a five year old and a three year old,

so three year old she's she was at nursery and not having a clue what was going on.

So it was just a matter of us trying to keep her entertained. And

obviously we couldn't leave the house we had to stay in.

Luckily, we've got a garden to go out into, and we could still do the

Was it an hour walk or a half an hour

an hour? I think I think it was an hour at the time

just trying to get them out. Um, the first, the first lockdown.

The home schooling weren't as

intense as it is now.

It was just a matter of. Here are some lessons.

Do what you can.

Don't worry about it.

That was for the both of the older Children.

But then, this time around, I think the education has totally changed,

and they've been very strict and rigid with everything.

But now it's a matter of the eldest is

going upstairs and just doing her own schooling.

The middle middle one's literally having three

or four live sessions in the morning,

which

are lasting half an hour, 45 minutes

and a five year old. He really

struggling

to be honest and and

that's really difficult. When I'm trying to work from home, that's out working.

I'm at home with the three Children

or two of them if the little ones at nursery

and trying to be

trying to be there

support

because they all need me in different ways with the different age

brackets.

So me trying to be their support, me trying to be strong do the cooking, cleaning,

teaching, washing

everything as well as their counsellor,

and then you kind of take a step back on an evening when they're all in bed and think,

Well, what

what about me? Where's my

Where's my time? Where's my hour to myself?

But by that point in an evening, I'm shattered.

I'm cooking, going straight, getting straight and watching television.

I've been having a little drink,

whether it's a cup of tea or a little glass of wine and then falling asleep on the set,

and then it's the next day again, and you just it's just it was just on.

Repeat constantly.

The kids have really struggled mentally,

and then that's hard, seeing them as having an effect on me,

trying to keep myself upbeat

and then again looking at my area of work, working in the community

and having my clients ring me

and working with the charity crew as well. Um, having my clients give me a ring to

talk to me about their issues,

which is absolutely fine because that's that's what I'm here for.

I think sometimes when you're constantly taking on other people's negativity,

it's not.

Obviously it's not intentional negativity, but taking on other people's feelings

and you can have a day where you're having 567 phone calls

people needing my support again. It's absolutely fine. So that's what I'm here for.

But then on an evening, you just need to

offload and just relax.

And I think it's taken a little bit of time for me to understand how to do that,

because I'm not seeing people to offload either.

So it's all coming to me

and then me not being able to offload

on to anybody else.

So what?

What have you learned from the start of, um,

Covid to to now in terms of managing your own

sort of sanity,

I guess.

Mm.

I think it's taken

even if it's just 15 20 minutes in a day,

because it got to the point where the kids were home school and I'm sat on the laptop.

It comes to dinner time and I'm still working. I've got my sandwich.

I'm eating while I'm working, thinking I'll try and get everything done faster.

But then you've got an extra meeting on the end

of the day or that phone rings so you never,

ever stop.

So it's for me

the first lockdown.

Like I say, it seemed to be that a little bit easier because it weren't as intense.

This time around, it's been more

OK at a certain time. I need to clock off.

I need to make sure the kids clock off for 20 minutes, half an hour.

Computers go down, phones go down, electronics go off. And that's our time,

whether it's getting the play dough out or drawing together or having a chat,

eating together around the table

and then within the half an hour going off and then continuing with work or education

and then again clocking off at a certain time at the

end of the day and making sure we go out.

Like I said, we've got a garden back there, so we're quite lucky that we can

just go out. If the sun's out and go and play,

and I think as well, this time around, it's It's opened our eyes to

going out in the elements. If it's not sunny, we can't go out well, why not?

We can just go and get our waterproof sun and go and spend some time outside,

so it's it's it's made.

I've always been an outside person anyway, but it's made everybody

go outside and and pay attention to nature.

So it's really opened our eyes to to getting

out and spending time out there as a family.

Um, how how is that has has your family time been very important as well?

Again? Sorry.

Has your family time been been very important in terms of, uh,

doing things together as a Oh gosh, absolutely.

That's

That's a big thing that's changed for us.

Obviously, before covid, we were all we had after school clubs.

We were life was a million miles an hour

going to work, picking the kids up, doing this, going there, going swimming,

going to play gyms, going to parks. Life never stopped.

And then, since this happened, everything again,

everything's gone from up there to down here,

and it's just given us all time to breathe. I think

something positive, which something's really positive, has come out of it,

and it's made us

as a family just slow down.

We don't have to

spend money.

We never really did anyway, but we don't It's less important spending that money.

It's more important just to get your shoes on, go and take a walk

again, put your phones down,

having that time to put them electronics down and

spend time as a family and being together.

It really been important for us.

I was gonna say the kids as well.

Yeah, I was.

I was gonna ask how how the kids being Because I know you said they found it.

They found it challenging, haven't they?

So, in terms of the, uh, together time, the family time, how how they

do you think they've appreciated it more Rather than sort of being glued to a phone,

for example?

I know a lot of kids

that

they they really have. They just loved it.

And we found they've they've opened up more as well, I think, because

before covid everything was a million miles an hour,

it was difficult to take that time out and appreciate

just what

this is gonna sound awful.

Not we've obviously, we appreciate our Children,

But sometimes life were that quick that they'd say something,

and you'd you'd you'd miss it.

Whereas

now we've taken that step back.

If they want to talk to us,

we're there. I'm here all day.

You just put your stuff down and you listen to what they've got to say.

Because their mental well-being has taken

a massive hit,

Really?

And even at five year old, you wouldn't expect that to happen.

You'd expect it to be the older one.

It's actually it's hit the five year old more than it has the three and the 14 year old.

And I think that's because he's in the middle age

where he's not been able to see his friends.

He had all that time on

Zoom and the Internet, where he's never never done that before.

We'd have half an hour of screen time

within the house where we don't really watch television

or we watch TV when the kids have gone to bed, probably for an hour, and that is it.

We don't do screen time. We don't really

do ipads or phones from work.

So going from that to him being on the screen

all that time,

it's just

it's upsetting quite a lot. He doesn't understand why he's having to

be on screen and he can't see his friends.

So are you happy to talk about a five year old? Because I

just curious about how how are you happy to talk about it? How has it? How has it

impacted him?

Um,

behaviour

wise

he's

he's not interested in his school.

Yesterday, for instance, he couldn't get his number nine the right way around,

and

it it was just him and his teacher on the zoom session, and it was supposed to be,

I think, four or five of them, but they only ended up being both of them together.

And I think that was quite intense for him.

And like I say, he couldn't get his number nine the right way around.

He couldn't understand from seeing it on screen

to being able to write it down on a piece of paper. He could do all his other numbers,

so he threw it down and he ran upstairs and he he had a bit of a meltdown,

so it took me five minutes to get him back downstairs.

His teacher then obviously wanted to get his work done, so I give him the hard word

that upset him a little bit more. But it made him do.

But it's just it's

It's been really difficult for him

with an answering back being

it's not a naughty child, but it's turning even speaking to neighbours.

It's turning our Children into

different characters, but it's not them

misbehave. Talking back,

we've got to understand. I think that

we do all the work in the kitchen. It's it's our home. This home is is

their place of safety. This is their safety net.

Schools are different atmosphere. That's schools where they learn.

But home is where it's their safe place.

And I think

having to do the school work from home

and me being the teacher that I'm not

has had a really negative impact on them. Really?

Mm.

So I mean, that that's been a big thing, isn't it?

That sort of people have had to turn into,

um, teachers.

Yeah. And how How have you found that?

So I know you've You've been working really hard as well throughout covid. But, uh,

having to

become a teacher. Essentially.

How How's it? How's it been?

It's really,

really tough,

because how they teach the kids now is not how we were taught when we were younger.

So actually looking at their their maths work,

it's frustrating him. But I don't know how to do it like he's been taught.

We can both get to the same answer at the end.

Actually getting to that answer is totally different,

so I can't help him and support him as much as I'd like to do, because I don't

know how to

to do the workings out his way.

And it's the same with his reading and his phonics.

It's it's very different to how we were taught.

We all get the same

at the end. We get the same figure, the same number, the same word. But it's just that

that bit beforehand.

did you.

Did you get any support from school in terms of any sort of

how to teach? Or has it just been,

Oh, there you go crack on.

They've been really supportive. I do have to give them that.

Like I said, the first. The first lockdown was different.

We were given the work to do when we just did it, when we could do

upload it on

to the their

system

or we emailed it to the teacher. They marked it and sent it back so that that was great.

We did what we could

within that time

this time around, as I mentioned before, it's it's very strict and rigid,

so we've got the live sessions

and now because he was struggling.

The the school have offered to give him some extra 1 to 1 support,

which is brilliant,

but that just means added screen time on to what he's already finding difficult.

That's what we're struggling with at the minute is having that extra extra support,

which he needs.

But then it's on

the screen, which you just can't

deal with. It's too much.

So are you looking forward to next? Next week?

Monday.

What day are we on now? We're on Wednesday,

Thursday,

Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday Saturday

that you counting it down?

He's looking forward to it.

He can't wait to go back and see his friends and socialise.

Are they? Are they all looking forward to it?

Yes.

Yeah, I mean the little one. She's already at nursery anyway, so that's not changed.

But the eldest has to go for a covid test this week.

They have to have two a week.

Have they done that before, or is that going to be a new thing for them?

This is a new thing. She's never had one before, so

I'm having to take her down to school, I think this week.

This week or next to make sure she's

tested negative.

But not all the kids. If the parents refuse to do it, they don't have to.

They don't have to have a test, but they're still allowed at school,

right?

So I'm a bit confused

as to why they're allowing the Children

to go if if they've refused to have.

Obviously, everybody's got different circumstances, so may not be able to.

But yeah, she's looking forward to the social aspect of getting back.

She's had a year without seeing her friends.

I need to

Because and you look at What are your What

are your thoughts in terms of them going back?

Is it sort of,

I guess. What are they good and bad bits about them,

about getting back to a bit of normality?

I think it's the anxiety

the anxiety of

With Life's been slowed right down.

We've been getting our supermarket shop delivered to

us or doing a click and collect,

whereas we used to go as a family before.

So for a year they've gone from

being around people, having people stand next to them,

and it'd be fine

from that to now.

They've had a year of of

social distancing, not being around people or being around in small groups.

So now you've got to think the 14 year old she's going

back from having all of her friends in a full school environment

to being at home for pretty much a year

to then going back to a full school environment again,

being around people.

And she has. I think they have to wear the masks in the classroom as well now.

So it's a big, big step and a massive change for

her.

So personally, I'm I'm pleased that they're going back.

But I think they've got their own anxieties in different areas

to going back to school.

Yeah,

mhm

for things.

What can you do?

You just need to go back.

Yeah, I guess that will give you a lot more.

Will it be? Do you think it'll be a bit odd? Sort of going back to

normality and having some free time to sort of work. And

yes, it will. But then

the anxiety on my side then is waiting for that call to say,

the bubble being bust, you're gonna they're gonna have to be at home

because they used to have the smaller bubbles of smaller groups.

But I think this time around, all the year groups are going back.

Yeah,

so rather than it being a small bubble of eight,

if anyone's tested positive, let's say

they they small bubble of eight and then that eight.

Go home and stay at home for two weeks. It's the whole year group. Wow.

Yes.

So although it's nice to going back,

I'll be constantly looking at my phone and thinking,

I wonder if we're going to get that call today.

Are we going to have to be back at home for another two weeks and go backwards again?

I know it has to be done, and there's nothing we can do about it.

I see the positive of it. But yeah, that's that's where

it will be nice having a house free so I can get

on with my work and dance around the kitchen and have my music

teaching the classes.

Yeah,

but hopefully the classes will be going back in May, so?

Well, exactly. I just lead rather nicely on to, uh, onto work, doesn't it?

Um,

yeah. So,

um, if you could tell me a little bit about about works.

I know you've been working in North Halifax.

Um, sort of before and during lockdown.

So can you tell me a bit about how your works changed from Sort of when?

When it first kicked off in March. Through to sort of now,

of course. Yeah. So

I've been working in the north of Halifax for I think about five years.

I've had my one of my exercise classes up there and

working in a few of the care homes in that area,

uh,

working within the community. So going from

having a group of, let's say we've

I worked up at Forest Cottage, I did have the class at three ways.

The community exercise group at three ways

and the three ways closed down.

We moved it back up to Forest Cottage.

So I think on a good week, we probably had about 35

people exercising in the gentle exercise session.

So bearing in mind,

my groups are people with health conditions or kind of low level exercise.

So no high intensity work, so people needed to sit down.

So a lot of my clients are older as well in

that respect.

So going from having 30 to 35 people in a class where

the class is an hour long, they stay behind for 20 minutes, and we all have a chat.

It was a social aspect of it as well,

to going from that for them

to then going

to nothing,

because a lot of my clients live on their own,

and some don't have family around either.

So again, that Thursday was the only time that they came out

and was able to do a bit of exercise and socialise at the same time.

So we've gone from

the class

to nothing, me trying to keep in touch with them

and then, thankfully, crew heart support got funding to be able to put

exercises on within the community, but through Zoom.

So we've now got five exercise sessions on Zoom,

which focus on different areas of exercise.

So it was a matter of me getting in contact with all

my clients and seeing whether they would come on to the zoom sessions

again

with the older end.

They don't have ipads laptops, or if they do,

they've not got the right software on there to be able to download

the correct

whatever you'd call it zoom teams,

so that was a massive barrier for them. So I think out of 35 I only

I think I only had three

coming from

North Halifax,

which to me was a bit

It was upsetting for me thinking that they all love to do the sessions,

but they weren't comfortable doing it over Zoom or didn't know how to do it.

So it's gone from again from them up here to every Thursday exercising.

We build on the strength and the stamina and fitness,

their mental and physical well being from up here and then drop back down.

Luckily, some have families. They've got dogs, they can go out for walks.

But then there's a high percentage of them that kind of

not being able to do anything.

And there's nothing I can do to help that.

Obviously, there's other areas of the community that we can link in with

to help individuals,

but it's still difficult

to find

your clients. You can't force them to do it.

You can only advise

that's been the hardest part

of this time around,

and

this

well, for the full year. To be honest,

we've had more. We've had more people joining the zoom sessions. We we did.

We had to charge for them at the beginning.

I guess this is another thing we had to charge

for the zoom sessions before we got the funding.

We were only charging £3.50.

But

I think again we were getting four or five people

in the zooms and we only have 21 at the time.

We've gone from that to get the funding

from the community foundation of

the

Dale,

which allowed us to open the zooms up for six months for free for the community.

And now we've gone up to 60 70 people a week coming into the

over the week coming into the sessions.

So having something there that's free

has allowed more people to come and join us within that area

again. A big the price. I don't think it was so much the pricing.

I think it was the being able to

pay was one

issue that we had.

A lot of the older clients didn't want to pay over the

on the Internet. They didn't know how to do online banking.

They couldn't go into the bank because they

didn't feel comfortable or they were shielding.

We then had, um, a group of them who, like I said before,

they don't have the zoom or know how to work it.

There's a lot of barriers in the wheel when you've

got a group of 35 that's been narrowed right down.

Hm.

Have Have you managed to keep in contact with any

of the people who haven't been able to use him until

have to speak to I speak to them On the odd occasion,

I've got all their telephone numbers and their email addresses

that thankfully we took before all of this happened.

Um, and most of them are on our mailing list anyway,

So crew send out, um,

I can use letter every month.

And when we got funding,

we was able to do that every two weeks just to keep keeping checks with people.

Make sure they were OK

here. If they needed to talk.

If they needed any specific exercise sessions and

they didn't know how to use the zoom,

then they could always get in contact with us,

and we would then just either email them over, um,

an exercise session that they could do in the wrong time.

Or alternatively, we then have the funding to be able to record an exercise session,

burn it onto a disc,

post it to them, and then they could put it in the DVD player and play the

the session themselves just to try and keep them engaged and motivated,

which gets difficult

when it's over the phone.

Yeah, because that must have been a lot of

time

commitment for

you

terms of, um,

I'm just phoning people where they're not going to exercise it.

I guess that must have been

quite labour intensive.

It is again you're trying to. You're trying to keep people's motivation high,

but they're scared of doing exercise in their own home.

If we're not around like I say,

a lot of a lot of our clients and and the

people who come through our exercise classes have got health conditions,

whether it be diabetes, heart conditions

and high blood pressure.

They've they've all got

a different need, so

them exercising at home,

I think a lot of people were scared of falling or having an injury

and then not being left there,

whereas when they come to class there's always me there.

Everybody else that's making sure they're OK.

That was another

another big barrier. I think with regards to these exercises online,

like they're trying to trying to keep people motivated and engaged.

That is difficult.

And we had the the walking as well.

One of our walk leaders been putting walks

together and popping on on the the crew website

so people can do their own self guided walks so they would download a map

and download the

directions. Directions.

Yeah,

download the map of the directions and then go up on

the road and go for a walk if they want.

But again, the feedback we got from that was that brilliant.

But we've not exercised in,

let's say, nine months.

Do we have a walk or any exercise? Sessions that are are even

lower level.

So rather than it being an eight mile walk or a four mile walk,

do we have a a half a mile walk?

That's all one flat.

So now we've kind of pulled away now and

and discussed it between the committee and thought right.

We need to be

putting something else in place for those

who have lost mobility lost strength and stamina

and bring

back down to basics.

That's where we are at the minute is trying to put together some some shorter

walks, especially up north, the north of Halifax.

So where are you?

So, where where are you with with that? Have you thought about,

um,

sort of? Because obviously the restrictions are going to

happen gradually, aren't they?

Have you sort of put plans?

the end of March, we can go back to walking groups of 30 outdoors, right,

which is brilliant,

which mean we weren't sure whether it was May or whether it was march.

But we had confirmation yesterday evening

that if you're exercising outdoors,

you can have up to 30 people if it's an organised exercise group,

so we'll still have to take bookings of people

for the track and trace.

Um, but then we are able to to start the the walking groups back up.

So I know our one of our main walk leaders is setting his up first

as a as a group and a charity where we're slowly implementing the walks.

So we're not going to say, right, we're going to get all 10 walks out there again.

We're just going to start with one first, see how we get on with that and then start

more of them

introducing more walks.

I have been in contact with, um,

an organisation within north Halifax

and hopefully we'll be able to get a short walk within their rugby grounds.

So fingers crossed within the next couple of weeks.

We can then start looking at getting a small walk again, an organised one

with,

um, not as many people. I don't think we'd take it at 30

because, as I say, a lot of a lot of these people have got

mobility issues and they need them.

The smaller groups, I think, to feel more comfortable.

So we'll be. We'll be taking

probably maximum of 10 people just on a just on a short walk,

let's say around a rugby ground and then

potentially working their way up to be able to do a longer walk in the future.

So again it's bringing back to Pier six

and just just going back, because I know we touched on a lot of people going via Zoom.

What's it been like in terms? Have you noticed

the change in people's mood or behaviour in terms of, uh, going from

a sort of 35 in a class and very chatty to

going on online for those who who could

have you, have you? Have you noticed any changes?

Yes,

the

the people that would ordinarily

talk and good have really good communication skills.

Obviously, being on Zoom and and doing interviews or doing anything on Zoom,

we're having to make sure that we either put people on mute.

This is the really difficult thing of doing exercise.

We either have to put people on mute

or make sure that everybody is silent

the minute anybody else talks, it cuts the

the host off or you can't hear the music.

So ordinarily, in a class,

everyone's talking. There's a bit of banter between the group.

You're all laughing.

You're all joking someone I trip up or get the beat wrong and everybody laughs.

So you've got this great community when you're face to face.

When it comes to zoom,

it's it's pretty much the instructive talking

and then

your clients at the end, we kind of try and have a little chat,

but everyone's talking over each other, and it's really difficult

So I've seen that that the people that ordinarily would talk

and have a bit of a bit of a laugh with you have kind of taken a step back just to listen.

They've got no choice. They can't

communicate like we used to be able to,

as much as they want to,

that they, they just haven't which I think, then

all this time of doing that, a year of doing this

and then going back to class.

I think it's going to probably have an impact on everybody's,

um, confidence as well.

I think a lot of people are going to be lacking in confidence

and self belief in themselves that they can still do it.

I've had a few a few people come to me and say, You know,

I don't want to do a chair exercise.

I'm capable of doing a standing up one

But I don't know if I can do an hour.

So is there any chance of having a chair there just in case I do need to sit down

and then potentially not wanting to come and join the class

because they're scared of not being able to keep up,

you know, my our classes are not like that at all.

We will make it accessible for everybody.

But I think it it's that individual's confidence and how

what we can do to help build on that confidence.

I guess it's until they get there and know what they can do.

Just makes it really difficult.

Um,

So how do you think? Do you think it's gonna be

tricky to get them back into a into a room?

Because I know a lot of the older people, and I know it's getting younger,

having injections for the covid.

Um,

jabs.

How? How easy do you think it's gonna be getting back to normal?

Have you thought about the, um like, is there a transition?

There is Come May when we can go back.

We can do outside exercise sessions now.

So I have contacted my group and asked them if they want to do some outside sessions.

Which a lot of said, Yes,

but again, the barrier,

uh, not having toilets to go to

because a lot of my clients have. They've got the bus pass.

They come on the bus to the session,

they do the session, jump back on the bus and get back home.

That could be a 2.5 hour

period where they they're not able to use the toilet,

which is a That's

a That's quite a big barrier for for a lot of people.

Um, so I we gonna put on a group exercise session outdoors,

but that's gonna have to be just put on hold until we can use the facilities,

which I think

May, Isn't it

the exact date now off the top of my head?

Um,

but come here. When we can go back inside,

we'll have all the facilities to use.

But we will have to do.

Obviously we have to be spaced out within the

two metre distance with it being an exercise,

and

we won't be able to have a large group of people.

It's our group is probably gonna have.

So it would either mean me doing

one session,

not just me,

but the rest of the instructors doing one session

for six week period and having that group of people

and then moving on to a different group.

So the other half of the class for six weeks, But then you've got this group over here.

That's then gonna have a rest for six weeks. It's not going to be beneficial,

or it's me having two classes back to back.

But then you need a half an hour

rest, period within that time to make sure that everything's ventilated.

You've done a good clean up before the next group can come in

the barriers with that again is going to be room higher

because we're gonna have to pay for an hour's room higher,

then a half an hour

and then the next hour.

But that 15 people is probably only just going to pay for that one hour room. Hire

you

not gonna get

a wage from it.

It's really difficult not having

being able to facilitate that big group,

but we're going to have to do it in order to get

to where we want to be in June,

when everything opens up fully and then hopefully

we can have more people within the class.

So at the moment we can do outdoors. Then it's gonna be

smaller groups

and then come

June time may Well, yeah, May you've got your smaller groups, and then June,

we hopefully we'll be able to

bring more people through the door.

So I think it's gonna be really difficult for any

fitness professional

from now until

June time, I'd say.

So do you think sort of subsidies? Maybe,

um,

to enable you to deliver this kind of activity would be

would be very beneficial.

Oh, gosh, Absolutely.

I don't I can't see having discussed it with

all of the instructors that work with crew,

um,

and other instructors within

the

dale, it's

it's gonna hit.

We we're kind of going to hit a brick wall because we need we need Obviously,

it's our livelihood.

We need to be paid for doing the classes that we're delivering,

but because we're having to reduce the amount of people

and it wouldn't surprise me if room hires don't go up because your church halls,

your community rooms, they've not had anybody in for a year.

There's potential that

the room high is gonna go up.

We can't have as many people, so we're not going to be making

enough money, Let's say, or or enough to pay for your instructor.

So what we probably will need to look at doing is trying to find some funding there

for the charity to be able to pay

our five instructors to be able to go and deliver and

potentially get room hire covered for a certain amount of time

and then maybe be able to subsidise

the cost for the the actual service user to come through the door.

You know, everybody's

circumstances, do we there? There may be people that can't afford now to come and

do the sessions that they once were able to do,

and it's important we carry on and we we get people exercising again.

We both know for not just for the physical well-being but for the mental as well.

We need to get people outdoors. It doesn't necessarily have to be an exercise class.

It could be the walks.

It could be the the community gardens,

gardening anything just to get the individuals moving

and to feel confident to move with the right people around them.

So we we work with people with health conditions. Um,

with the charity

heart support is is supporting people

to prevent any heart conditions occurring or any health conditions,

or to work with people who have just recently had a

heart condition.

So then our clients need to be looked after. We can't just leave them.

We're there every step of the way with them, making sure that we support them

from

the beginning to the to the end of the session.

And throughout the time that they're our members.

Answer your question.

I seem to have rambled on there.

No, no, it's just It's just really, really interesting in terms of, uh,

your your knowledge in terms of, uh, North Halifax and exercise.

And

I I I I agree in terms of, uh, you know,

and I think North Halifax is is is difficult as well.

With it, being an area of deprivation is having,

as I mentioned,

having people coming through the door that have got

the money to be able to afford the sessions.

And it's not just the older clients either.

Crew can work with. With anybody from 18 upwards.

We can work with younger people as long as they're accompanied by an adult.

So we we are seeing or we were,

should I say seeing more people come into our sessions that were

younger

so it may potentially out of work

or,

um, new parents that have got to look after the child so they can just come out for

for an hour and do a little bit of exercise with us

knowing that it's not too intense and it's a safe place to be

Yeah, I guess it's looking at within the north Halifax area. What? What is out there?

What can help us and what can support the charity going on

in the future

and continuous going, getting people exercising and moving.

Yeah,

well,

I think is there, um

I think that's pretty much,

uh, yeah.

Brilliant. No, thanks. Thanks very, very much. Is there anything that you'd like?

Uh, anything you you'd like to say And anything else that we haven't covered?

I don't think so. I think we've covered everything over

there.

know. No, that's brilliant. Brilliant.

No, thanks very much for your for your, uh, for your time, Sophie. I do appreciate it.

Not a problem.

OK,

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Posted By

Author

Craig.Watson

Post date

03/03/2021