{"id":26541,"date":"2025-09-30T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/?p=26541"},"modified":"2025-09-25T13:03:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T12:03:18","slug":"community-links-worker-clw-ollys-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/community-links-worker-clw-ollys-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Links Worker (CLW) Olly’s story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Being a Community Link Worker (CLW) is about initially offering people a space to speak their mind and to talk about what is going on with them. The first session is almost always for them to talk and, that in itself, can be such a relief for people. They don\u2019t necessarily want to talk to their friends and family about these sometimes deeply personal and upsetting issues, so it is important to give them the space to get it off their chest. It can be incredibly powerful for people and is such a pleasure for CLWs to have that trust from them that they can share such personal stories with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to that, once we start to delve into what the challenges are, we are the gateway to putting them in touch with people who can help and support them long term. Medical staff don\u2019t necessarily have the time, or the knowledge of what is available, so being able to take the social aspects away from the practice staff is a real privilege.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I started, COVID was still quite prominent and the common challenges we were hearing from participants were about the anxiety of emerging from lockdown and settling into a new normal way of life. As the years have gone by, the major concern is about housing – around a quarter of people I see have experienced homelessness in the last year. It is not a quick turnaround for available housing currently so people can be in temporary accommodation for six months before they can move to somewhere more suitable. There is definitely a housing crisis in the city with currently around 6,500 homeless people in Glasgow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the other things our participants are sharing with us are mental health struggles. Waiting lists are high for services and CLWs are an important stop gap until people can get an appointment with the appropriate service. it is crucial that people feel they have someone to talk to during these difficult periods. We recently received some additional funding from the Inclusion Health Across General Practice (IHAGP) that allowed us to set up a mental health peer support group in the local area. It is a monthly session, and we collaborate with different organisations to come along to talk to the group about topics such as relaxation techniques, coping with isolation, and general health and wellbeing. Working on feedback given to us from participants, sessions going forward are going to be more focused on peer support. We are very keen that it is group led, so it is developing and evolving but it\u2019s their group and we are keen that it fits their needs. It is a fantastic thing, and we hope that eventually the group will become self sustaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also have a walking group which has been running for over three and a half years. I do it, along with colleagues, every week and the sense of community it gives people is wonderful to see. It has been a great support to people through the years. One of the local churches allows us to use their hall for free after the walk so that gives people another opportunity to chat and make connections. It gets people out in the fresh air, they get some exercise, and it can be the highlight of their week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Community Links Worker Programme is quite a unique service and I must admit before I became a CLW, I was unaware of what they were and what the service offered. It needs to be rolled out across the country, with sustainable funding. There is a statistic that for every \u00a31 spent on CLWs it saves the NHS \u00a38.79. More needs to be done to promote what we do, what help and support is available and how people can access a Community Link Worker. There is a real privilege in hearing some of the things people tell us, they trust us and they disclose things to us that they may have kept to themselves their whole lives. We give them space and allow them to talk about things they have never felt able to. We can then support them and refer them to services that can offer more long term support. It is an incredible privilege being able to help people like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Olly’s story is part of the latest Humans of Scotland publication – Community Links Worker Edition. The book is available to read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read all Humans of Scotland stories here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being a Community Link Worker (CLW) is about initially offering people a space to speak their mind and to talk about what is going on with them. The first session is almost always for them to talk and, that in itself, can be such a relief for people. They don\u2019t necessarily want to talk to … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":26545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"hos-category":[867],"humans_tags":[828],"area_of_work":[781,776],"strategic_priority":[],"class_list":["post-26541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","hos-category-humans-of-scotland-community-links-worker-edition","humans_tags-services-and-support","area_of_work-community-links-worker-programme","area_of_work-humans-of-scotland"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCommunity Links Worker (CLW) Olly's story - Humans of Scotland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.alliance-scotland.org.uk\/humansofscotland\/community-links-worker-clw-ollys-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Community Links Worker (CLW) Olly's story - Humans of Scotland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Being a Community Link Worker (CLW) is about initially offering people a space to speak their mind and to talk about what is going on with them. 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