26 Mar Five years later – a strange new world, a new, pioneering, community helpline

FIVE years ago, we had just entered the strange new world of lockdown and were tentatively feeling our way around an unfamiliar new reality.

We had launched the Torbay Community Coronavirus Helpline and calls were flooding in, sometimes in greater volumes than we could handle, as we attempted to answer questions and provide support for people across the Bay.

We also struggled to cope as offers of help came in from people offering to support their friends, neighbours, communities and even strangers. At times, we were overwhelmed.

Working alongside our colleagues at Healthwatch Torbay, Age UK Torbay and Brixham Does Care, we had teams of up to five people staffing the phones from eight in the morning to eight at night, responding within just a few hours to sometimes desperate cries for help.

We had tearful exchanges with terrified self-isolators low on medications, out of food and out of money and by mobilising some amazing people, not least our own community builders, we were able to help.

Sometimes, all that was needed was a virtual shoulder to cry on, the sound of a friendly voice or some straight talking no-nonsense non-medical advice borne out of us all being in it together.

We listened to the worries of families that were separated sometimes by just a few miles and sometimes by oceans, unable to visit their ageing parents, relatives and siblings and not knowing when they would again.

We feared that things would never be the same again.

Our community builders joined queues at supermarkets and pharmacies and we quickly realised that we also needed to stop people from becoming lonely and falling into isolation. So we set up a network of telephone befrienders and we fought back step by tentative step.

We proved that our communities were strong and resilient, and people were prepared to help each other, no matter the risk or cost.

On Thursday nights, doors and windows were briefly thrown open to allow the sound of clapping to fill the night sky across the Bay, in tribute to the army of caring people who were putting themselves at risk to help others.

That included the NHS of course, but elsewhere a thousand kindnesses were being exchanged every minute – shopping for neighbours, delivering prescriptions, or simply checking in on someone who had slipped off the radar.

It was the great unknown and there was no instructions manual (other than the daily appearance of various politicians alongside the soon-to-be-famous, Prof. Chris Whitty), but we were in it together and we muddled through it together.

Plans for Mother’s Day in 2020 were abandoned in favour of keeping our mum’s safe with phone calls replacing visits and celebratory meals put on a back burner until who knew when?

In a column that appeared in this space five years ago, it was noted: “We do not know how long this crisis will last, or how bad it will get and we do not yet know how much of society will be forced to stay in their own homes for the duration, but we do know that where we can help, we will.

“Community and charitable organisations across the Bay are stepping up in a way that has never been seen before. They have always been there but have never had the recognition that they deserve.”

“This is their time.

“Things will never be the same again, but as we are proving in Brixham, Paignton and Torquay and all the areas in between, the human spirit is ultimately a kind one and one that will help their neighbour in times of need.

“We need to continue to work together and we need to imagine together. We are all in this together and because of that we really need to be #TorbayKind.”

Hard to believe, but that first lockdown, the longest of the three lockdowns, was to continue through to July 4^th and we said then that life would never be the same again, and for the hundreds in the Bay that lost loved ones that is certainly true. There were also thousands of others that were affected economically, but overall, is it true? Has life really changed or have we all moved on and buried the memories of those difficult times?