'Home'...and the status quo?
loo fletcher, founder, suicide prevention collective
Loo offers a unique insight into the relationship between ‘home’ and mental health and featured on the Channel 4 social experiment which explored loneliness and the housing crisis across different generations. Loo’s perspective highlights one of the reasons why building homes is not just about bricks and mortar but creating places where people can thrive.
‘Home’ is a space to feel oneness - it should house feelings of connection, safety and sustainability. The pandemic has put a magnifying glass on the housing and loneliness crises that exist within society, thus calling into question the importance of physical, emotional and mental spaces. It truly is imperative that we look beyond ‘home’ as merely four walls. During the last eighteen months we have been forced to do things differently, and this mirrors the philosophy I continue to live by… that the status quo is not always your status quo and you need to ask the ‘whys’ in life no matter how hard that may feel at the time. Only then will you feel at ‘home.’ My experience is that size, age or occupation really does not matter when it comes to creating ‘home.’
My journey to seeing ‘home’ as an integral patch within my overall wellbeing patchwork quilt came from the need to build a connection with myself. A couple of years ago I had a mental breakdown. That morning I physically woke up but mentally I was silent. I was at Law School at the University of Bristol pursuing a career as a barrister that I had mapped out for myself from a young age. Like many others, I developed my sense of self in the context of the ‘other’ - be it career, achievements or belongings - until my mind said no more. The silence and numbness lasted a few months. It was during this period I created an experiment with myself. How about truly aligning with myself no matter whether that meant I was a ‘failure’ in the eyes of the older life I left behind? The silence created the mental space my inner being was craving and I had a blank canvas to create the life that allowed me to just be. I chucked away the idea of goals and looked more at my values; caring, creativity, kindness and spirituality all jumped out at me and these became the bedrocks of the life I needed to curate for myself.
The first mile was looking beyond the status quo of ‘home’ and living life on the road in my camper van - big, blue and beautiful sunflower Vivi who has been truly instrumental in where I am today. She has facilitated a connection with myself by making me realise the sheer importance of both a community and creative approach to one’s overall wellbeing. My sunflower van has given me time, emotional and mental space to stand up and use my creative voice within the mental health landscape, thus staying true to my social justice roots. Now I also see public space through a collective lens. By having all three doors open I can be meditating or listening to music inside my home but positioned within our shared collective home. Vivi also creates a sense of belonging within the wider community, from the swimming souls to the kind-hearted individuals that have helped out when she or I have needed some TLC. She has also enhanced my creative approach to life and made me question my previous need for ‘stuff’ to feel happiness as her physical space is limited.
As Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said in his recent report published by the Commission of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York on Housing, Church and Community, perhaps we should be truly shifting design if we are to protect our mental, emotional and physical environments.
Intergenerational living is another area where I have questioned the status quo of ‘home’. We are currently facing an ageing population alongside loneliness crises amongst ‘older’ and ‘younger’ people. In June 2020, the Office for National Statistics claimed 50.8% of 16–24-year-olds reported feeling lonely in the seven days prior to be surveyed. During my first few months of living life on the road, I was part of a social experiment called ‘Lodgers for Codgers’ for Channel 4 which explores the loneliness and the housing crises across different generations…mixing generations under one roof truly had far reaching benefits. My childhood within an Intergenerational ‘home’ was foundational to allow me to advocate these far reaching benefits of living within a community of different ages. It gives opportunities for skill sharing, positive innovation, and the ability to learn from one another whilst pausing within the day with a cuppa.
Together, the above ideas speak to the wider social, economic, environmental and political landscapes that we can be innovative, creative and vulnerable when it comes to space by reframing issues to opportunities to do ‘home’ differently. Collectively we are part of the same conversation to create a sustainable ‘home’ for everyone and our social recovery going forward should reflect just this.