Connex Participant – Jamie

Jamie was referred to us after it was noticed that he visited the local supermarket on a daily basis just for company. Covid and isolation had left him with severe anxiety. Jamie lives on his own and found lockdown especially hard as he doesn’t like to be alone.

We spoke with Jamie and invited him along to events that we were holding. This took lots of coaxing as although quite confident, lockdown had left Jamie suffering with panic attacks, which was quite debilitating for him. He did manage to get to one of our coffee mornings and from then going forward there was no stopping him.

Whilst panic attacks are still part of everyday life for Jamie, we have been able to reason with him and continue to find solutions to enable him to attend events, to get him out from those four walls that have trapped him for so long. We established that his driving is starting to cause him anxiety so have provided him with ideas such as using door to door or taxi’s every now and then.

Jamie is very rarely in now, he sings in a choir in Sheffield, often singing solo male parts, he has a number of friends that he visits and supports, and he never misses a coffee morning, where he really enjoys a chat.  Things have been hard for Jamie and it’s sad to see how his mental health declined during the pandemic, but with interventions we have seen a significant improvement and we continue to support Jamie with whatever hurdles he faces.