WHAT DOES “RESILIENCE” MEAN FOR YOU NOW? With Jo Cowan Long before COVID, Highland Senior Citizens Network had planned a series of events asking people about ‘resilience’: ‘What does it mean for you? What does it mean for your group or your community? How do you feel you and your communities could build and improve resilience?’ It now seems ironic – or maybe it was prophetic. Resilience is usually seen as the ability to recover quickly from difficulties: bending flexibly, or springing back into shape. It’s not just about managing or coping, it also means being able to change and overcome and move on in a different way. In normal times, older people’s resilience depends significantly on connections and interactions with friends, family and other key people, interest, activity and social groups, local venues, local shops, churches, post offices, cafés, pubs, restaurants, leisure centres and libraries. For many of us, pre-pandemic resilience largely depended on being able to get out and about to where we want to be, being able to see the people who matter to us and being able to do things for, and with, others In March, our normal resilience-boosting connections disconnected in one fell swoop. It was like a power-cut. An instant and, some feel, discriminatory, status of ‘vulnerable’ was imposed on many people by the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions. So what made you resilient, or not, through lockdown? What were the things that helped you, kept you going and able to adapt to the situation? What made you feel ‘stuck’? What mattered most to you on a day to day basis? Is there anything you feel would have made your situation better? Now that things are beginning to change, how
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resilient are you feeling now? What has changed for you and what hasn’t? Highland Senior Citizens Network would like to build a picture of how our views of resilience need to change. I would be interested in hearing from those aged over 70 in Lochaber who would be happy to share their experience of what has helped, or hampered, their resilience. I would also like to hear from people who are over 55 and have been shielding and from those who have been involved in supporting people. If you are happy to have a chat about this, please give me a ring on 07933 653585 or e-mail me on jo-hscn@outlook.com
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