63 - Sheffield Futures Door 43 appeal - November 2021
Today we are proud to have donated £500 to Sheffield Futures’ Big Give fundraising campaign. The campaign opened at midday today - 30th November and runs for a week until midday on 7th December. Donations made during this public phase will be matched, meaning our £500 has automatically become £1000.
The campaign will focus on raising vital funds in order to support Sheffield Future’s Door 43 service. This is a service offering support to 13-25 year olds, integrating a range of emotional health and wellbeing support under one roof, giving young people the flexibility they need to access different specialist support services, such as counselling and other psychological therapies, awareness and advice, health clinics, group work and positive activities.
Even prior to Covid, support available to young people struggling with their mental health was stretched, with long waiting lists to access NHS provision. Today this is the case more than ever, and we know young people were hit very hard by the effects of the pandemic and more than ever are in need of support. We are pleased to help with this vital work, and once matched by The Big Give, our donation of £500 will be the equivalent of providing a series of 1:1 counselling for 4 young people.
https://donate.thebiggive.org.
Sheffield Futures have been kind enough to share this experience of Lacey (not a real name) who has benefitted from the support of Door 43, to give us an idea of the life changing work they do.
In the months before she got in touch with Door 43, Lacey had been hospitalised following a suicide attempt and whilst she had moved on from this level of suicidal ideation, she was still feeling very low and confused. Lacey had recently been given a diagnosis of autism and, at the age of 20, was working hard with a therapist (outside of Door 43) to process this life changing diagnosis. With the team at Door 43 she wanted to focus on her low mood and self-harming. The team worked with Lacey to create a safety plan that she could use when she became overwhelmed with the urge to hurt herself, and then moved into looking at some psycho education around self-harm. Through this work, Lacey discovered that her self-harm was a way of coping with the high levels of anxiety she felt on a day-to-day basis. At this point she would barely go out of the house, her relationship with her boyfriend was complex, she didn’t engage in any hobbies and the idea of meeting up with her good friends was too overwhelming. During her weekly sessions, Lacey started to slowly unpack her relationships with others and her relationship with herself. She shared that she rarely felt loved, good about herself or close to other people. Growing up with undiagnosed autism had impacted her and it was only now that she was learning more about it, she was able to understand why she’d struggled in certain areas. During her final session, Lacey said that she felt something had shifted within her. She felt more loved, a little bit more confident and her views of herself had improved. Her self-harming reduced, her low mood and anxiety improved, and suicidal ideation was no longer a risk factor for her anymore. As a result of this shift within herself she was able to open up her life to other people more. She has started to see her close friends again, she started a flexible job and has taken up playing volleyball with her Mum as part of a local team.
Lacey's isn't an unusual story. Her experience is being mirrored by a worrying number of young people and they really do need to be able to access the services of Door 43. We send our very best wishes to Lacey and the many others who find themselves in her position.
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