DID you notice a subtle but significant change in mood last week? The national consciousness in the UK seemed to go from a forgiving zeitgeist of “they’re doing their best” to at the extreme “we need a public inquiry”. But perhaps, more generally, there was a shift to a greater mistrust in the UK Government.
I FIRST studied human behaviour change when I was a nurse, working with people to help them learn what they could do to contribute to their own wellbeing. I’d seen the folk who in spite of all the evidence that it was making their breathing worse, continued to smoke. When I was having radiotherapy for breast cancer, I was distressed and if I’m honest, angry, to see people smoking outside the cancer centre. Experience taught me that getting angry, frustrated or exasperated didn’t help; and it didn’t help them or indeed me.
