Sarah’s Hope Story
Sarah is a carer, who is hearing impaired and lives with several other long term health conditions that leave her feeling very tired a lot of the time. Before she started on the digital Hope Programme for Long-term conditions, she’d had a “heavy time” - dealing with bereavement, legal, financial, and caring responsibilities, in addition to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The digital course was very useful for Sarah. “I have problems with my concentration and mobility issues. If I’d had to go and physically sit in a room with other people, I might not have been able to hear properly. I would have had to make arrangements for my cared-for person. As a carer, I have unpredictable days. Being able to sit and do work through the course at my own pace - and its visual format - was brilliant for me. I really, really like the videos – and they have subtitles!” Sarah has downloaded all the course materials and links to the videos onto a folder on her tablet. She still refers to these, to keep them fresh in her mind.
Sarah now uses several of the Hope self-help tools into her everyday life.
Learning how to manage her fatigue has really helped: “I don’t have to write down what I’ve got to do and work out the best order now – I just do it in my head! So I’m varying the high-stress and lower-stress tasks, not trying to do them all in one go. And I give myself a reward, I enjoy that!”
Another section of the course that has helped Sarah is about self-compassion (being kind to yourself). “I’d never realised before, but I’m very self-judgemental. The course taught me to think of myself as a friend – what would I say to her, if she were in my position?” Sarah explains. “And not beating myself up if things aren’t going brilliantly”.
After the Hope Programme finished, Sarah experienced another round of serious life setbacks. But the acceptance part of the course is really helping her to get through this difficult period in her life. “It’s NOT giving in – it’s accepting that this situation exists, it’s not brilliant or A1, it’s not what could or should be happening. But I’m looking for what tweaks I *can* make. So I’m trying to respond by making small positive changes, just to move things forward a bit.” And Sarah understands that different parts of the course link up and work together in her life, now that she’s making these changes. “It’s about self-compassion, too, at the moment. And gratitude – I’m not just looking at this situation fatalistically. It’s not ALL gloomy!”
In summary, Sarah says “I’ve got SO much out of it – quite a lot has really sunk in. The course is full of useful, helpful ideas. I’d heard of some things before, but never really had them explained properly. The Hope course pulls it all together in one place”.
And what about the future? Sarah is quite clear about that “I’ve got everything on my tablet in a Hope Course folder - images, videos and my goals. I’m going to revisit it all. What can I take into 2022?”