{"id":2389,"date":"2017-10-04T11:21:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T18:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/safecarebc.ca\/?p=2389"},"modified":"2025-07-15T10:15:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T17:15:57","slug":"learning-to-take-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scbcdev.safecarebc.ca\/?p=2389","title":{"rendered":"Learning to take care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My name is Brooke. I\u2019m a Licensed Practical Nurse working in Vancouver\u2019s Downtown Eastside. It is one of the most beautiful and authentic places I have ever worked, but it has many challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those challenges is that there are no cut-and-dry answers for things. I work with a population living with long-term difficulties with their mental health and addictions. It can be difficult to adjust my expectations and still feel like I am making a positive impact. Lately, with the opioid crisis, there have been so many losses in the community, which has left a trail of grief and sorrow that is hard to contend with.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The environment itself can be chaotic and unpredictable at times, and I can roll with the punches for a long time before realizing I have unmet needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term \u201cself-care\u201d used to make me want to run for the hills. It seemed so selfish to be wasting time worrying about myself when I work with people struggling to meet some of their basic needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, I have a wise counsellor who has been telling me for years how and why I need to focus on self-care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My husband and counsellor were both very quick to point out how I was starting to change in this job. I found myself not eating properly and not sleeping well at times. I often felt like I had no energy left over at the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the practical things I have added to my daily routine is that I now ride my bicycle to work. It helps me to expel any anxiety on my way in and allows me to decompress on my way home. I try to pack a nice little lunch and take time on my breaks to sit, breathe, and enjoy the beautiful scenery along the seawall. I also plan many awesome adventures on my weekends, so I have something to look forward to during the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another helpful thing I added to my day is stopping on my way home from work to sit and reflect for a while. I do an inventory of how my day went, what I did well, and what I could do better tomorrow. I try to leave all that stuff there and ride home without it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Implementing a few of these tools each day has made an incredible difference in my mental health, how well I am able to cope with difficulties at work, and how much physical energy I have left at the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooke Peppler works for Community Apothecary and the Portland Hotel Society.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have a story you want to share? How are you taking care of yourself? We want to hear from you. Tell us at info@safecarebc.ca<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facebook<\/a>Twitter<\/a>Email<\/a>Share<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My name is Brooke. I\u2019m a Licensed Practical Nurse and I work in Vancouver\u2019s Downtown Eastside. It is one of the most beautiful and authentic places I have ever worked, but it has many challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"topic":[52,97],"class_list":["post-2389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-member-spotlight","topic-mental-health","topic-self-care"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-15 21:55:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scbcdev.safecarebc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scbcdev.safecarebc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scbcdev.safecarebc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scbcdev.safecarebc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scbcdev.safecarebc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scbcdev.safecarebc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2390,"href":"https:\/\/scbcdev.safecarebc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions\/2390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scbcdev.safecarebc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scbcdev.safecarebc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scbcdev.safecarebc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2389"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scbcdev.safecarebc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftopic&post=2389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}