This special #LetsTalkLoneliness podcast for Loneliness Awareness Week is a bitesize edition featuring the Reading Agency. Hear all about the Read Talk Share campaign and then take in a moving excerpt from Mum's Jumper, just one of the books you can access through the initiative.
For top tips, advice and inspiring stories visit www.letstalkloneliness.co.uk and join the conversation on social media using #LetsTalkLoneliness.
The full transcript of this episode is available at www.dcms-podcasts.simplecast.com.
With thanks to the Reading Agency.
[Annie]
I'm Annie Robinson, Programme Manager for Reading and Health at the Reading Agency. A big thanks to the team at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for inviting us onto the Let's Talk Loneliness podcast.
At the Reading Agency our mission is to tackle life's big challenges through the proven power of reading. As part of this mission we run programmes to support mental health and wellbeing through reading, including Reading Well and Reading Friends with funding from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. As part of our shared agenda to end loneliness we've been able to roll out these two key programmes across England, with public libraries as part of our Read Talk Share campaign.
Our Reading Well programme provides curated book lists to support you to understand and manage your health and wellbeing. Using helpful, evidence-based reading, the books are chosen and endorsed by health professionals and people with lived experience of the conditions and topics covered. There are three mental health book collections for children, young people and adults. Reading Well books are now available in every public library in England. You can visit your library to borrow a book or head to their website to borrow ebooks and audio books. You can find out more about Reading Well and the Read Talk Share campaign by going to readingagency.org.uk.
Coming up is an excerpt being read by Jayde Perkin, author of Mum's Jumper, a title in the Reading Well for children book collection. Mum's Jumper is a picture book looking at grief through the eyes of a child. When we asked Jayde about writing the book she said: "In Mum's Jumper I wanted to create a realistic and honest account of grief. Children are very capable of dealing with complex emotions which are an inevitable part of everyone's lives, I wanted to show it's normal to feel lonely, lost and angry when someone you love dies. The feedback I've received from readers of all ages shows that Mum's Jumper has opened up many conversations about grief in families and classrooms, making it less of a taboo subject to talk about."
So here is Jayde reading from Mum's Jumper, available as part of our Reading Well collections in all public libraries now.
[Jayde]
A dark space began to follow me around. I found it hard to concentrate at school. The sounds and voices around me were distant and floaty. My body ached like I'd been swimming for days. How could I get to the shore? Dad told me this feeling is normal. It's called grief. He was swimming too. We were swimming together.
The teachers and my friends at school were all really kind so I couldn't understand why I still felt so alone. Sometimes I even felt angry that my friends had Mums who picked them up from school. Dad and I slowly began to sort through Mum's things. Why would she leave them all behind? She loved this jumper. I love it too. It smells like her.
Over time it began to smell like me instead and later Dad put it in the wash. Some people say that grief gets smaller over time but Dad says it's a little more complicated than that. Dad says the grief is like Mum's jumper, the jumper stays the same size but I will eventually grow into it. The grief may stay the same size but my world will grow bigger around it.
[DCMS]
For guidance, top tips, inspiring stories and pathways to support visit the Let's Talk Loneliness website at www.letstalkloneliness.co.uk and join the conversation on social media using #LetsTalkLoneliness Thank you.