Remember the Hidden Heroes of the NHS

Alexander Marks
Posted on

Happy National Pharmacist Day everyone!

Today we have a guest blog from a friend of The Hub who is a pharmacy technician in the NHS. Its very easy to forget about the crucial task that they carry out to help keep our health system functioning – especially over the last couple years when they have been busier than ever. Anton explains exactly what it is that NHS pharmacies do for us.

And with that, over to Anton…

With NHS workers being in the news more than ever now is a good time to discuss the role of pharmacy. Pharmacy is an often overlooked department within hospitals but one that provides a vital function concerning patient medication. The myth is that pharmacy’s job is little more than putting tablets in boxes but I assure you we do so much more than that.

Staff members across a variety of roles spend a lot of time on the wards. Routine visits from pharmacy staff ensure that each ward is always stocked with commonly used drugs like painkillers and antibiotics. Our medicines management technicians take drug histories from patients on arrival to ensure that they continue to receive all regular medication during their stay. These days patients are encouraged to bring their regular medication with them into hospital and these technicians are responsible for assessing the drugs to make sure they’re in a usable condition. They will also help to review medication during longer stays. When new drugs are prescribed we work closely with medical and nursing staff to ensure there are no problems like allergies or interactions.

Meanwhile, back in the dispensary, staff continually dispense medication for inpatient use, discharge, and clinics. Every prescription passes through multiple hands in order to get to you. A pharmacist screens the prescription to ensure everything is appropriate. Then our dispensing team will label and assemble the items. Finally, a checker who could be an accredited technician or a pharmacist will finally check the items to ensure everything is correct and in date. Only then can this be released to the patient.

But it doesn’t stop there. We have dedicated teams who receive our wholesale orders and ensure everything goes away in the correct place. Some of the larger pharmacies have robots, which are a great help, but there’s still a huge number of tablets, capsules, and liquids that pass through the pharmacy on a daily basis and they all need to find space on our shelves. Then there’s the procurement team who work with suppliers to keep pharmacy stocked, which is especially challenging right now as supply chains are disrupted.

Since the pandemic started pharmacy staff have been busier than ever. So the next time you hear about the pressures NHS workers face remember it’s not just doctors and nurses on the wards, there’s a whole pharmacy team working for you as well.

by Anton MacLeod

More Facemasks Anyone?

Ellen Willoughby
Posted on

Perhaps a slightly odd title given it is technically ‘Freedom Day’ here in the UK? Perhaps not so much…

Despite today being called ‘Freedom Day’, here at The Harmonious Hub we are still retaining much caution. We have all been double jabbed – yes. We will continue to work from home – yes. We take the home tests weekly – yes. However, we still want to maintain caution due to the exponentially increasing number of infections and hospitalisations rising here in the UK.

After all, COVID can cause short-term illness at best, long COVID, and death at worst. None of us want any of those here at The Harmonious Hub, and we want to protect our family, friends, and society at large as best we can.

Luckily we have access to a wide range of facemasks here at The Harmonious Hub that make wearing them less uuuurgh! They come in a range of pretty designs… Personally, I am wearing the pink hearts design this past week. What I notice about these facemasks is that they are really comfortable to wear. They have toggles on the ear hooks that mean you can make it the right size for your face. They also help prevent my glasses from steaming up due to the flexible nose ridge. More importantly, they come with changeable and insertable PM2.5 filters that help keep away airborne contaminants (like COVID). The face masks themselves are washable too for that extra feel-safe feeling.

Yes, we know that no facemask is going to 100% protect anyone from everything. We do however firmly believe that they help reduce the spread of coughs, colds, and COVID. We will therefore happily wear them for as long as we feel necessary.

If you feel like us and are going to keep on wearing face masks and would like to jazz up your collection then please do browse our face mask page.

Loving A Tree

Loving A Tree

Alexander Marks
Posted on

Being in nature is naturally positive, it creates space in the mind and has many physical benefits as well. 

Many people found that getting out into nature helped them hugely during the lockdown periods, tending gardens, growing veg. Lots of people discovered that they had time to really connect with nature, perhaps for the first time in many years. This gave them a sense of space and perspective.

Photo by veeterzy on Unsplash

Some people also took on personal projects to care for a green space, a garden or area, and as a result saw a corresponding improvement in their mental wellbeing. During the pandemic we have been very aware of our impact as humans on the natural world, and so by caring for nature on a personal level it feels like a way to give back rather than take, and to reconnect or start to make some amends.

Taking care of our natural world and the beings we share it with gives us something positive to do and something to care for. Especially at a time when our freedoms have been restricted, when we could not see or spend time with the people we would like to, the energy and desire to nurture and commune needs to be expressed somewhere to avoid feeling sad, lonely, or angry.

Today is actually Love A Tree day, and so to mark that here is a personal account from my very dear Mum who lives many miles away from me down in Devon.  She writes about how taking care of a struggling sapling that she found in her local park has helped her to keep positive during the lonely months of the lockdown.

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The Lockdown Tree

I call it The Lockdown Tree because I got to know it during the first Lockdown. It helped me survive the isolation from family and friends. It needed help and I could help it – and so we helped each other. 

It had been planted by volunteers at the edge of a row of nut trees but unlike its peers, it was neglected and almost overwhelmed by creepers, nettles, and brambles. But it was determined and had managed to push a branch out with a few leaves visible.  

Walking for exercise one day I noticed it, and realised I could help. So the next months – armed with scissors and gloves – were spent clearing all around the little tree and pulling up the nettles that separated it from its nearest neighbour tree. 

It grew and grew and then one day I saw a bird resting on one of its branches. Wonderful. It gave me hope.

So to the end of the story so far. Two days ago (14months from the start of of the lockdowns) I went to visit the tree and saw that the man who cuts the grass in the park had carefully cut the grass all around the thickening trunk and between it and its neighbour! It belonged at last. It was happy, I could tell. 

My friend the tree, taken early this morning.

I will continue to walk there and talk to the tree as I did all those bleak months. I say Thank You to the tree. 

And I believe it says Thank You to me.

Jane

Sunrise meadow

Making a fresh start

Jane Hoskins
Posted on

It’s now a year since the first lockdown and it’s also the beginning of Springtime – so our thoughts are naturally turning towards the future and to our hopes for what the year ahead will hold for us.

Sunrise meadow
A chance for a fresh start?

Spring has always been a time for new beginnings but this year there are so many stories in the media about people who are feeling inspired by their experiences during lockdown to make positive changes to their lives once the restrictions are lifted. Some of them plan to get out in nature more, making quality time for their family, cooking and baking, and generally taking life at a slower pace. Their priorities are shifting.

An interesting effect of having many of our usual external stimuli taken away by all the restrictions is that we’ve simply had to learn to be content with what we have – and this is a skill worth learning. What a wonderful way to transform such a difficult year by drawing this very valuable lesson from it.

This Spring can be a new beginning for all of us, especially if we focus on keeping a positive mind, and enjoying our lives, moment by moment.

2021 may live up to our expectations, or it may not – but resolving to keep a positive mind will give us the mental strength and resilience to deal with whatever happens.

Don't see red over people not following COVID rules

How to deal with people who are not following COVID rules

Ellen Willoughby
Posted on

Force them to stay at home….put them in prison….fine them….punch them…..make them work in a COVID ward or funeral home….send them to live in a country where there is no option but to follow the rules and see how they like that….don’t worry, they are all stupid and will kill themselves off by not following the rules….

All ideas I have either heard of or thought over the past year. Not the most positive thoughts to be thinking I’m sure you agree!

Don't see red over people not following COVID rules
Don’t see red over people not following COVID rules

I was speaking with a usually positive, bubbly, happy friend last week. She has family who are shielding and at great risk from COVID. She said she was feeling a lot of anger towards all the people who were partying in groups over Xmas and New Year and are still walking around town without masks and not social distancing.

We had a chat about this as anger is an emotion that becomes draining and tiring. It also makes us more likely to be irritable and snappy at others and who wants that?

At the end of the chat she said she actually felt her anger reduce and she felt like she had a way of dealing with issue in a more constructive way. She also encouraged me to write a blog on it, hence why I am writing this now, just in case it helps you deal with it too.

So what did we talk about?

  1. People are afraid. When people are afraid they react in many different ways. Some will have stayed at home as a result of the fear of COVID and the resulting illness and death that can occur due to it. Others will have reacted to the fear by ignoring the lockdown rules. There are also some who will have ignored the situation, and others decided it is all false as a way of dealing with their fear of the uncontrollable. No matter what the behaviour is, I am sure a lot of it is driven by fear at this moment in time. Fear is a horrible emotion and drives us to do things we would not normally do.
  2. Compassion for everyone. When people are suffering, whether that be physically or mentally, the only response is compassion. Having contemplated this deeply over the past few months, I came to conclusion that living in fear is very traumatising for all concerned. When a child is fearful, we want to comfort them, to stop their fear. We often feel the same towards those we love. It is more difficult for those we don’t like or disagree with. Yet they are still experiencing fear, negativity, anger and therefore suffering. It is completely appropriate to feel compassion for everyone, even if we do not agree with their actions.
  3. Everything always changes. Nothing ever stays the same. This applies to everything from the planets climate, a country’s government or an individual person. COVID will not always be around. The vaccines are our light in the tunnel at this moment in time. In a few years, I hope and pray, we will have all moved on. Lockdowns and masks will be a distant memory. The anger we feel right now will also have changed. There will be something new to get angry about. After all, we are not likely to find the world becomes a utopia any time soon. So why not work on the mind of anger and get rid of that, instead of being swayed by whatever external circumstances get thrown at us next? Wouldn’t it be much better to be in control of the only thing we can control, our mind, than try to control what we cannot?

So, what do you think of these 3 ideas to help reduce your anger towards all those not following COVID lockdown rules? Can you see the logic in them? Or maybe not so much?

They do take some contemplation time. I sometimes combine contemplation with a meditation session. Using a breathing meditation to clear my mind I am then able to contemplate these ideas without getting so caught up in the anger or other negative emotions. When I am walking around day to day I can use these ideas to reduce any annoyance or irritation I feel to reduce the likelihood of the anger getting out of control in my mind.

It won’t stop people not wearing masks, travelling to the seaside or having an illegal rave in a nearby field. It will however help make our mind more peaceful and ourselves more pleasant to be around. As we are stuck in lockdown for a few more weeks we might as well make it a less angry one for ourselves and others (or that is what keeps me focused on not letting the anger erupt anyways!)

But where do I start with meditation you might be thinking? Well a good place to start is by using the massive resource called YouTube as thousands of meditations available for free. I do aim to add a couple of my own – it is on the to-do list! Alternatively, there is an online ‘Learn to Meditate’ half-day course happening here in the UK on 23rd January. Click here for more information and to sign up. Let me know how you get on with it and sign up to our newsletter below for blogs like this direct to your inbox:

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’ …

Max Sunshine
Posted on
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst proverb written on chalkboard with red heart symbol

…is generally pretty much how I feel about these last few months.  I mean of course we’ve had good old belly laughs and at times felt very grateful for the change in pace too.  We have all seen countless acts of kindness and care given to others, from so many people, which have been humbling to witness.  There have however, also been times when it’s been…well to be honest it’s been really bloomin’ difficult! 

The outbreak of Covid meant something different for each of us.  We all had different worries and different concerns, and we all had different ways of getting through these too.  I’ve shared the things that helped me through some tricky moments and hope that they may be helpful for people like you too.

1) Have a chat with someone you trust

Most of us love a good old chat; sharing and talking about things we’re concerned about can certainly be cathartic. And although ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’ may be oversimplifying things slightly, there is definitely an element of truth in this old adage.

There are so many different ways these days to get in touch with our fellow humans – we’re very lucky.  Whether it’s sending a text, chatting online, or grabbing a cuppa, a good old chat and talking openly and honestly about our concerns with someone we know we can trust and confide in, can really help to put things into perspective.

If you find it easier, there are several organisations offering confidential emotional support.  The Samaritans, for example, are there to listen 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  They have a freephone number too.  You can also speak to someone at Mind, Monday-Friday 9am-6pm.

https://www.samaritans.org/

https://www.mind.org.uk/

2) Stay connected

We all have relationships with others that we value and want to nurture, and thankfully it’s becoming a little easier now to meet up face to face with the people we love.  Although we’ve all had to make some changes to make sure we’re keeping ourselves and others safe, staying in contact with our friends and family and enjoying good times really does go such a long way towards staying positive and feeling happy.

One big plus for me that has come out of the last few months is a regular online call with my family. We started having a group chat every Sunday evening, and just knowing that these were happening every week has been something constant to look forward to. 

The chances are, if we love someone and enjoy spending time with them, they will also feel the same.  Stay in touch and keep those bonds of connection going – what helps you will very likely be helping them too.

3) Getting out and about

Getting out into the fresh air and surrounding yourself with a little bit of nature, really can help to take your mind off any anxieties and to help you think about other things.  It might sometimes be the last thing you feel like doing, however push on through and get those shoes on – how many times have you regretted going for a walk?

If you live in a town or city, it may be that there’s a canal side walk locally to you.  There are also some beautiful pocket parks that are sometimes fairly well hidden.  You should be able to find ones that are local to you online.  Being outside in a wider open space can help us put our thoughts into much more of a beneficial context, and feeling connected with nature helps our body produce some of those good old happy hormones too. 

4) Back to what you know…

Of course sometimes we want to just ‘be’.  In these moments it can be really helpful, to just sit and have some quiet time to think about and focus on your breath. After all, you’ve got to keep breathing, so you might as well make the most of it.

By paying some gentle attention to the sensation of air in your nostrils as you breathe in and out, you’re giving your mind some time to rest, and are gently steering it away from any thoughts that are troubling you.  This can be a wonderfully simple way of calming your mind with your breath – and it’s the most portable relaxation tool there could be.

Of course, each of these suggestions are also great to keep doing through our good times too.  

Chatting to our loved ones, hearing how well things are going and sharing our happy stuff is positively infectious.  Also, taking a moment to focus on our breath when we’re feeling relaxed and happy helps us to enjoy those times and really appreciate them too.

Maybe ‘the best of times and the worst of times’ is what life will always be.  So let’s grab the best times, enjoy them, live them and keep in our hearts what we learn in those moments.  Let that be what we carry with us, to help us out the other side of whatever comes our way.

Maxine Avatar

About the blogger:

Maxine is our ray of sunshine ☀️

She makes us happy when skies are grey.

Her words of wisdom are like refreshing rain