This episode explores the significant impact of volunteering

in health and social care through the experiences of individuals involved with

the Restoration Trust. It highlights how activities organised by the trust have

positively influenced mental well-being and provided a sense of community and

purpose for participants. Volunteer Adrian discusses his personal journey and

how volunteering has not only helped him but also enabled him to support

others in his new career.

Follow Volunteering Discovery now so that you never

miss an episode.

Discover more about the Restoration Trust https://restorationtrust.org.uk/

Visit the Volunteering Discovery page https://improvinglivesnw.org.uk/get-involved/volunteering/volunteering-discovery-podcast/

Get in touch jules.alderson@nhs.net

Volunteering Discovery is a Hospital Radio Norwich

production for Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System.

Sarah (Host): Hello and welcome to Volunteering Discovery.

This is a podcast which takes you behind the scenes of volunteering in health

and social care in Norfolk and Waveney.

Volunteers enhance the experience of people accessing health and social

care in a huge variety of ways.

In our hospitals, our communities and even from the comfort of their own homes.

In each podcast, we'll be hearing from those who give their

time supporting others and the people who work alongside them.

I'm your host, Sarah, a volunteer coordinator working in the NHS.

On today's episode, we'll be meeting members of the Restoration Trust.

It's an organization which supports people with their mental well being.

One in three GP visits are associated with a mental health issue.

Social prescribing teams, often located within a GP practice, may help to support

those individuals in addition to the health care that they are receiving.

This can be by referring them to an organization such

as the Restoration Trust.

Social prescribing recognizes that connection with your community

and surroundings, doing activities such as volunteering, can have a

positive impact on how you feel.

In this episode we speak to people who have been involved with the Restoration

Trust and find out how being part of the organization has impacted them.

We start at our conversation meeting Darren who introduced us to the

Restoration Trust And how people get involved with the organization.

My name is Darren France and I'm a project coordinator

for the Restoration Trust.

The Restoration Trust is credited for coining the phrase culture therapy

and that's essentially what it does.

The Restoration Trust brings people together to experience activities in

cultural spaces, in historic spaces and places and indoors and outdoors.

In communities, people who are struggling perhaps with their mental

health and experiencing episodes of fragile well being, come together

as groups of people to experience a range of activities in that sort of

cultural, historic, heritage place.

People get involved, self refer, it's the word of mouth as well.

There's an enrollment process and we don't really call it a referral where there's

an assessment and you take a place.

The Heritage for Wellbeing Project as an example, it's, it's funded

as a social prescribing project.

That's exactly what it is.

It's funded to be that and previous projects we've worked with, probably

mostly partners in secondary care actually, and the voluntary sector that

are working in that secondary care space.

So they would refer, those agencies, those organizations would refer

to the project coordinator, which may well have been myself or

another that was leading a project.

That's how people access the current project that we're talking about,

Heritage for Well Being, the Heritage Link Worker, which is funded by Historic

England, and that's coming towards the end of its project, funded life anyway,

but it's grounded and laid foundations for lots of sustainable activities.

Sarah (Host): Two people who've been involved with the Restoration

Trust are Kerry and Adrian.

We asked them about how they found the Restoration Trust and some of

the activities they've enjoyed.

My name is Kerry.

I'm a participant with the Restoration Trust of Heritage for Wellbeing.

Sorry, my voice is going there.

And I have been since March of this year.

I'd suffered mental health on and off since I was about 14, back in

the nineties, as we're saying, mental health was very different back then.

I had support.

I was going back for occupational therapy at the local hospitals.

Things were very different to nowadays.

I was lucky enough to got being taught coping mechanisms

by a brilliant psychiatrist.

And that stood me very well for many years.

And I had a lot of battles over the years, but Managed to stay on top.

Sadly, I got diagnosed with fibromyalgia back in 2019.

That was my physical side out the window, which was my lifeline

because it kept me going, it kept me working, it kept me at a job.

I was always physical and I had it all taken away from me.

Then we hit lockdown.

And that was it.

Everything just crashed.

I was on my own.

I was isolated.

I couldn't walk.

I couldn't do much.

I was crawling around the house on all fours and spent a few years during

lockdown, trying to get myself sorted out.

Decided to read a lot of books, took me out to write.

Okay.

My body can't do something.

So I'm going to start using my brain.

So I was reading a lot of books, probably about 80 for the course

of a few months, and I found the leaflet on the library wall.

I just happened to look up one day, I'd been reading lots of books about

archaeology, it's funnily enough, um, was just like, wouldn't that be absolutely

amazing just to be able to stand in the open air and out of a concrete jungle?

Was the first thought in my head and just be involved in things.

And when I saw the flyer, it was just, nah, this isn't really happening.

This can't be happening.

So I made the call the next morning to Sophie before I bailed out.

I picked up the phone as soon as I got in the morning and thought, do

it now before you lose your bottle.

Hi, my name is Adrian Paul Stott.

I am a social prescribed link worker for Galston Primary Care Network.

I am an ex service user of mental health services.

I've also been a volunteer for the Restoration Trust and Access Community

Trust in the past, which helped me lead to my role, which I'm in now.

I'd been in and out of mental health services for a

while, and it wasn't working.

I was going through a cycle of, I would be well for a short while, and when

again, I thought there must be more out there for me to get involved with

that would help me to break that cycle.

I was referred to a guy named Al Hardy, who worked for Better Together Norfolk.

We'd been meeting for a while and he got to understand my interests,

things that I like, history, outdoors.

He said, I think I have the perfect place for us to go to, and it was the Borough

Castle Almanac Group, which was run by the Restoration Trust, and he told me

all about it, and it piqued my interest.

I said, okay, yeah.

I'll give it a go.

He said he will come along with me, et cetera, just to make me make sure

I was okay and feeling comfortable.

He took me along to my first session in 2017.

All I can say is it was life changing for me.

I was so nervous and anxious prior to going to the, uh, the

group on the Tuesday, but that just eased away straight away.

The people who were running the group, Laura and other people there were so

relat to Boland, easy to connect with.

I felt at home instantly.

The release of pressure, of anxiety was enormous.

We've done lots and lots and lots of interesting things.

I wouldn't really know where to start.

It varies from days out to activities, crafts.

I think the main thing for everybody, which everybody enjoys,

has got to be the archaeology digs.

I think they're a big top for many people.

Sadly, I wasn't part of the Wharram due to a foot injury, which I was

most gutted about, but I did go on the dig, the test pit at Sutton

Hoo, which I love that place.

I had done a trip there before and obviously gone back for the dig

because I had missed out on the others.

I'd love to get the opportunity to do another one somewhere

down the line, body pending.

Ding!

But that's a good thing, even if your body's not, you can sit on the side.

There's, there's too many things you can do.

I think also with the digs, it's an experience you'd

never, ever get anywhere else.

You'd never join a group or be in a position where someone say, Hey, would

you like to come on an archaeology dig?

Meet some archaeology, learn some things, learn about the

ground, learn about history.

You just would not get that opportunity anywhere.

I never had a very good childhood.

I always wanted to do an archaeology dig.

I did get to do one at Sutton Hoo this year.

So I'm extremely happy.

I didn't find anything, but I was happy to get the opportunity to do it.

And I would really like the opportunity to get to do another

one at the end of the day.

I'd say it's just something you don't get the opportunity to do.

It's something everybody enjoys doing.

Everybody like getting out there.

Of course, we all want to find some treasure.

That's obvious.

Who

Sarah (Host): doesn't?

Although Kerry has yet to find any treasure, Kerry and Darren

are both certain of the benefits that these activities offer.

It's fun and we do laugh.

We do have a sense of humour because we are only humans.

So obviously we do have a sense of humour and we do laugh and we giggle.

And it's nice because.

Not everybody's always in a giggly mood.

So when we do get a giggly day and everyone's happy, it's nice

because you can see everybody is generally in a better uplifting mood,

if that's one way of putting it.

For sure.

And I think that unintentional, unconscious, unplanned sort of here.

Role that people take in the groups is one of the reasons why the groups are

felt to be by the people that come and join them to felt to be a safe place to

be a place where you can try new things where you're not going to be judged,

where you can take part on your level.

I certainly have not felt isolated anymore.

That's a big thing.

The isolation's gone.

I had, didn't realize how much I'd lost my confidence, which I never

thought I would lose, but through all things happened, I feel like

I've gained my confidence back a bit.

Hence my chatting this sometimes.

Sarah (Host): It seems clear that for participants like Kerry and Adrian,

being part of the activities can make a really positive difference.

We asked Darren about the varied roles that volunteers can

play within the organization.

Some are very consciously volunteering and contributing to,

to a group, uh, for a specific task.

Others perhaps are coming along, their contributions in

themselves are like a sort of a peer support contribution really.

That's what we were just talking about, Kerry.

Yes, it was,

wasn't it?

The involvement and everything, really getting down,

getting involved, talking to people, making people feel happy and just

generally just enjoying everything.

We have volunteers involved in expert advisory board.

They're participants of projects from all over the country because we do have

projects in other parts of the country.

So there's an expert advisory board, a number of participants work

with the board of trustees for the trust to evaluate and look forward

and learn and apply for funding.

And there's also local steering groups for projects such as the heritage

for well being project here in.

Great Yarmouth and Waveney, of which there are three members of, three participants,

members of the groups that are steering group members for that project.

People are also actively involved in bringing their expertise,

their individual expertise to the groups, facilitating sessions and

sparking off sort of new ideas.

Also, when we celebrate and share, as we, we periodically do, we think

that's really important to share what we're doing with the wider world.

It's a b roll.

So you can see the value of, of what, of this sort of work,

of this sort of activity.

It's really often led by participants, people.

With skills in, be some creative skills and exhibition, curating and

photography, all sorts of things that are often led by the participant.

Sarah (Host): One of those people who proactively volunteered with

the Restoration Trust is Adrian.

I just wanted to keep being there all the time.

I was involved in every group.

I was involved in helping to organise how the group would

move forward in the future.

The other projects that the Restoration Trust were looking to start, I was

involved in helping them planning those.

And because of my previous work background, I'm quite ethical

in the way I plan things.

That helped me with my volunteering role there as well.

It was, my volunteering became a part of planning future groups, organizing

future groups, giving advice on what future groups could possibly look like

and what the interactions would be with People who are being referred,

what would we be able to do that would be of interest and be sustainable

within the budgets that we had.

So that's how I, my volunteering role evolved and it was just

such an enjoyable process.

I think for me, one of the most enjoyable parts of being involved with

the Restoration Trust was when you see new participants get involved, you

can see the smile start to evolve on their face, the happiness, the relief.

Each week, they're so eager to be there.

And you see the evolution of change from someone who may have been very, at start,

worried, scared, frightened, insular, come out of their shell and want to be there

week in, week out, look forward to it.

Sarah (Host): We asked Adrian if there were any moments during his time

volunteering that stood out to him.

There's just so many.

There was one when we had a Christmas party at Sam's Caff in Galston.

Galston.

And I got up and started a bit of a sing song, we were filming it, and

then I forgot the words to the song.

We put it on our Facebook page and we, and it's quite funny, we all

start singing and we all look at each other, what's the next verse?

But we just all burst into the fits of laughter.

That was a really endearing moment because we all just laughed so much about it.

And there's the visits we've done to various places, the

Elizabethan house in Great Yarmouth.

That was such a memorable day because we had the whole day there, we had the

museum to ourself, and we were going around and we were taking rubbings of wood

panels and doing drawings, but then some of the participants, some of the guys,

actually found some of the old clothing and dressed up in the clothing, that was

a, oh, it was so funny, and it was just again, such a feeling of togetherness.

And we're all in this together.

That was so lovely.

And those memories will stick in my head forever.

Sarah (Host): For Adrian, volunteering with the Restoration Trust has had

benefits beyond helping him personally.

He told us how he has used his experience to help others.

It gave me a new sense of purpose.

A new sense of purpose, a new sense of resilience as well.

I learned so much from other participants who've been through similar situations

to myself with their mental health.

So that helped me to grow as a person and gain even more understanding of

the difficulties and the challenges that people face day in day out.

Well, not a normal person, but the everyday person would see as a

daily mundane task and they could do without even thinking about it.

It helped me to understand that for people who are facing mental health challenges,

those simple tasks can be huge.

So now I'm a social prescribing link worker.

I work for G Galston Primary Care Network.

I work for 5GP Surgeries.

So I, um, get referrals for people who are feeling lonely, isolated, low mood,

struggling with their mental health.

I also get people who are struggling with finances.

It may be also not being able to feed themselves, difficulty

with paying bills, etc.

Uh, or it may just be someone who, um, Needs help to attend

appointments because of their anxiety.

They can't do it.

So yeah, I get referrals for people from GP surgeries It's varying and I enjoy

the role so much, it is for me, my ideal job, seeing people from when I first meet

them, and then start to integrate them into other services and refer them on,

and then seeing them at the end of the process where I hold their hand all the

way through the process, and then just being able to see someone stand up and

say, I've dealt with this problem before, I wasn't able to deal with it then,

but now, I've got the tools to do it.

Yes, I had my own mental health issues in the past, so I'd got an

understanding of mental health anyway, but then Volunteering with people

who had similar issues to myself or slightly different ones and then

learning to understand about that.

It gave me that empathy and understanding of being able to connect

with people through just talking, finding the ideal way to get them

to open up almost and to trust you.

The volunteering put me in that position to be able to do, which I've now been

able to bring to my full time job.

Sarah (Host): As we end today's episode of Volunteering Discovery, we would

like to thank Darren, Adrian, and Kerry for taking the time to talk to us.

We leave you with their final words for anyone thinking about volunteering and

being part of the Restoration Trust.

We wholeheartedly, because you will gain so much from it, you

will gain your own independence.

You'll get a new joy, a new sense of fulfilling, togetherness,

and you'll make so many friends.

You'll make so many friends that your phone will be going off constantly.

You'll be connecting and interacting with new people who care for you.

And it's not a false caring, it is a genuine, from the heart, let's help

you, let's get you well, let's get you involved, let's get you doing

things that you enjoy, and let's get you connected with new people.

I would recommend anyone, anyone, to go ahead and do some volunteering,

or get involved with the Restoration Trust, because they look after you.

Use the Restoration Trust any more, because without them I My life wouldn't

have gone down the direction it has.

And it also, they empowered me to do the job I do now as well.

Without the volunteers, then we wouldn't be able to do what we do.

There wouldn't be the capacity, the scope.

I don't think we'd have the expertise without the volunteers.

The thing about volunteering is I think listening to what people are

looking for themselves as a volunteer is perhaps the first, probably the

most important thing, allowing yourself to be open to understanding what that

contribution might bring, what value that might bring and facilitating

the sort of trying out of that.

And the talk we've had this morning from Bob Collis, the aviation historian,

he's a volunteer, he's volunteered for us a few times and to give us

these amazing experiences and so he's a sort of dipping in volunteer.

Do

it.

I would like, I must admit, I would like to eventually, a conversation

I've had with a few friends of mine due to my work circumstances and not

really being able to do anything.

I would like to take on some voluntary work and I couldn't think of a better

place to do it than within this group because I'm passionate about it.

I think this day and age, the lack of funds and different things change

over the years, like a support.

This is a brilliant group and I really do think it should

keep on running personally.

And I would, I think personally myself, I'd like to help

out somewhere down the line.

It's, I think it would do myself good.

It would give me a sense of purpose.

I'd like somebody else to enjoy it as much as what I've enjoyed it.

Sarah (Host): Thank you for listening to today's episode of Volunteering Discovery.

If you would like to know more about the Restoration Trust,

please visit their website www.

restorationtrust.

org.

uk.

Please don't forget to subscribe, rate and review this podcast.

It all helps people find us and spread the word about volunteering.

This podcast was produced for the Norfolk Waveney Intrugated Care

System by Hospital Radio Norwich.

Hosted by Sarah Briggs.

Producer was Jules Auderson.

Original music composed and performed by Philip Aldred.

Interviews by Sarah Briggs and Jules Auderson.