This year's Mental Health Awareness Week theme was “Movement: Moving more for our mental health”. Moving your body, in whatever way works for you, is a great way to calm your mind and brings lots of physical benefits too.

Greater Manchester recently welcomed audiences from Natural England (pictured right), and from further afield - researchers from a Japanese University, to see how we support and encourage people to be active and move their bodies as an important way to keep healthy.

Natural England colleagues were keen to learn more about Nature for Health, Greater Manchester’s nature-based social prescribing programme; and the Japanese University researchers came to find out about Greater Manchester’s Creative Health strategy and our commitment to becoming a Creative Health City Region, where creative activities support people’s mental and physical health throughout their life.

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust welcomed colleagues from NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care, to highlight the success of its emergency department (ED) HIV and hepatitis C opt-out testing programme. The event featured an overview of the programme by staff at the Trust, alongside talks from representatives of George House Trust and the Hepatitis C Trust.

Routine testing for HIV and hepatitis C has been live within the ED at Manchester Royal Infirmary since December 2021. As a result of national funding, the initiative was extended to Wythenshawe Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital, and more recently Salford Royal Hospital.

In Greater Manchester, over 300,000 people have been tested, resulting in more than 90 new HIV diagnoses and over 300 new hepatitis C diagnoses. Additionally, many individuals previously diagnosed with HIV or hepatitis C, who were not linked to care, have been identified and reconnected with the necessary support services.

This initiative underscores our commitment to improving patient outcomes and promoting early diagnosis and treatment. Work is underway to further roll out this programme.

A new Greater Manchester mental health research project has received £1.5 million in funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

It is the first research grant of its kind in the UK, and the study will pilot and employ new methods to evaluate a mental health joint response service to improve emergency care for young people experiencing a mental health crisis.

The three-year study, named ‘care responders’, will research how a service, which involves a children’s mental health practitioner and police officer, jointly attending mental health crisis call outs, can provide timely and compassionate support.

The Royal Oldham Hospital is the first in the UK to receive the latest in interventional radiology equipment helping to speed up waiting times for patients. The upgraded equipment will see the replacement of floor mounted equipment to a ceiling mounted system giving clinicians more options for the types of procedures they can provide allowing them to deliver even more lifesaving care for patients. (Pictured right - Royal Oldham Hospital radiology colleagues).

Interventional radiology performs a range of treatments including limb saving procedures, health problems relating to arteries and blood vessels as well as liver biopsies, drainages and the shrinkage of non-cancerous tumours. In addition, the new equipment will mean less reliance on high in demand CT scanners, due to the improved image quality, and will help reduce waiting times for treatment as more can be done with the new technology.

NHS Greater Manchester is pleased to support the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for music and dementia, awarded to Manchester Camerata, which runs the Music in Mind programme, bringing music to people living with dementia and their carers.

The aim is for Manchester Camerata, as the Centre of Excellence, to establish a true partnership between health and care providers, voluntary organisations, music providers and dementia support organisations to improve the wellbeing of people living with dementia.

We know that health and care services are one of a range of contributors to the health and well-being of residents. Opportunities like this for people with dementia to stay active and creative in communities can help them lead happier healthier lives.

This enhances our work as a Creative Health City region, developing creative activities to support people’s mental and physical health, and our broader agenda to grow community led health and wellbeing – Live Well.

We are pleased to announce the shortlist for the Greater Manchester Health and Care Champion Awards 2024.

We received over 500 nominations this year, and amongst those who have made the shortlist are a chef, a football club secretary, a team of midwives and a MacMillan dementia nurse!

The awards are organised by NHS GM and are an opportunity to show recognition and gratitude to those working hard to improve the health and wellbeing of the people in our communities.

All shortlisted nominations will be considered by a judging panel and the winners announced at a sponsored event on 11 July 2024. Read more on our website about

Healthcare staff, community workers and university staff, all helping to improve the lives and treatment for people affected by cancer, have been honoured at the Greater Manchester Cancer Awards 2024.

Winning projects included the Targeted Lung Health Check programme - jointly organised by the Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. The programme is designed to check those most at risk of developing lung cancer in order to spot signs earlier, at the stage when it’s much more treatable and is ultimately about saving more lives.

Tameside Macmillan Advanced Cancer Nurse Specialists from Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust were also honoured for their work.

The Greater Manchester Workforce Hub has been launched to support the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector.

VCSE employers can post vacancies on the recruitment hub which advertises a variety of roles across Greater Manchester including jobs in fundraising, marketing, campaigning, project management and leadership roles.

Local VCSE organisations across Greater Manchester create over 75,000 jobs and mobilise nearly 500,000 volunteers. 

The Hub has been launched in response to the 2019 VCSE workforce capability report, commissioned by GM Health and Social Care Partnership, which found a need for support with the recruitment and retention of a diverse VCSE workforce, workforce wellbeing, support for diverse and emerging leadership in the VCSE sector and increased collaboration across the VCSE, public and private sectors to enable a strategic approach to workforce development.

NHS Greater Manchester have released a set of YouTube videos supporting the Pharmacy First campaign – encouraging Greater Manchester residents to attend their local pharmacy for seven common conditions.

Pharmacists can now assess and supply prescription-only treatment for these seven common conditions which would usually require being seen by a GP first. By expanding the services community pharmacies offer, the NHS is aiming to free up GP appointments and give people more choice in how and where they get care.

The videos feature Tom, a Chorlton pharmacist, highlighting how easy it is to use Pharmacy First. Please share the videos on your platforms:

• Pharmacy First - ear infections
• Pharmacy First - seven conditions
• Pharmacy First - sore throats

A Wigan GP is battling the tide of online ‘fake news’ about medical conditions by going digital and posting informative and engaging videos of his own on YouTube. Dr Derek Adu-Sarkodie created his channel ‘Adu Med’ during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was while he was teaching trainee GPs that he realised his patients could also benefit from his short, informative videos.

Dr Derek consults with his patients and instead of handing them a leaflet to read more information, he sends his patient a link to the appropriate video. They can then watch him online and better understand their condition. He has made more than 80 videos over the last two years, covering a wide range of conditions including liver failure, migraine and bowel cancer.

Dr Derek has now been invited to be part of YouTube Health and has been to Google’s UK offices in London to give talks about his channel. Recently he was also a guest at the House of Lords, as part of a select group of medical content creators. You can watch Dr Derek’s videos on YouTube.

A new campaign is being launched by the NHS in Greater Manchester to raise awareness of the link between heartburn, indigestion and gullet cancer.

Heartburn – a burning sensation in the middle of your chest – and indigestion – a pain or discomfort in your tummy - might sometimes be shrugged off or put down to drinking too much alcohol or something they have eaten food. 

But the new NHS campaign wants to make it clear to the public, particularly those aged over 55, that if symptoms last for three weeks or more then it’s time to visit your doctor. It also draws attention to difficulty swallowing or food getting stuck as another potential symptom of gullet cancer that people need to act on by going to their GP.

Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance launched a campaign designed to raise awareness of blood in pee as a symptom of bladder and kidney cancer.

While many people know to be vigilant for cancer symptoms such as lumps, persistent coughs, fatigue and unexplained weight loss, not everyone realises that blood in your pee can be a sign of bladder or kidney cancer. Both of these cancers can affect men or women and are usually more treatable if they’re found early.

It aims to make sure that everyone in the region knows it’s important to seek help if they spot blood in their pee, even if it only happens once. Download the campaign resources to share on your platforms.

An NHS GM campaign to improve mental wellbeing and raise awareness of self-harm in older people has been recognised at a national awards ceremony.

'Don’t Brush It Under the Carpet’ aims to reach and support older residents who may be feeling depressed and alone and guide them to the right support for them, and to raise awareness of the issue of self-harm and older people, amongst carers, family members and health professionals.

Now, just two years after the campaign was launched, it was 'highly commended' at the Positive Practice in Mental Health Awards in the 'suicide prevention services with a focus on initiatives which encourage multiagency working' category.

People and organisations creating community wealth, funders doing things differently, and commissioners from different sectors came together to share best practice and learning about growing community wealth, ownership and opportunity in Greater Manchester - and what it takes to enable it to thrive.

Supporting our mission to ensure people and communities are at the heart of Greater Manchester's model for health and wellbeing, attendees worked together to answer the question ‘How can communities have collective control over local wealth and assets, so they can build their own path to Live Well?’

After hearing from lots of brilliant community organisations about what they are doing to support people’s wealth, health and wellbeing, everyone explored how we can grow opportunities together, and what public services can do differently, to invest in communities and enable community-led health and wellbeing to flourish. The Elephant’s Trail community reporters made a video to share their learning. If you’re not yet connected to Live Well, you can find out more here.