Shropshire Health and Wellbeing e-Newsflash

Welcome to this December Shropshire Health & Wellbeing e-Newsflash. This e-Newsflash is for everyone interested in health and wellbeing in the county.

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Advice on hand for people to keep safe and well this winter

Advice is on hand for Shropshire residents to help them stay safe and well this season.

Shropshire Council’s Stay safe and well this winter website offers a range of advice and information, from helping vulnerable people to remain well, to notifications of school closures and travel updates.

The website signposts people to a variety of both local and national winter-related information which includes:

• Stay well this winter, NHS advice – to help those people who are most at risk of illness during winter to take steps to stay well
• Road gritting – updates on where and when gritters are out in Shropshire
• Staying safe – advice on how to stay safe during the festive season and throughout the year
• Weather warnings – updates from local and national weather sites
• Flooding advice – Government advice on preparing for a flood and getting help during and after
• Winter advice for older people – advice and information from Age UK
• Shropshire Newsroom – news and updates from Shropshire Council
• What’s On – diary of council run events throughout the festive season and New Year

Click here to read the full story on Shropshire Newsroom and to find out more

Christmas pharmacy opening times

You can find the list of pharmacy opening times over the festive period here: http://www.shropshireccg.nhs.uk/pharmacists#NHSE

If you are in need of medical advice then you can use pharmacies, your GP and NHS111.

You can also find details of local facilities by using the search tool on the Stay Well website here: www.nhs.uk/staywell

Are you ready for the Dry January challenge?

Shropshire Council’s public health team are supporting Alcohol Concern’s 2016 Dry January campaign.

Dry January aims to show people the benefits of cutting down on their alcohol intake, whilst raising money for the charity which is dedicated to tackling the harm caused by alcohol to individuals, families and society.

The charity wants as many people as possible to sign up for the challenge this January. It’s an opportunity to raise money for Alcohol Concern by asking friends, family and colleagues to sponsor you. There is plenty of help and support available online to help you enjoy your ‘booze free’ month.

Find out more and read the full story on Shropshire Newsroom here.

Updates from our partners at Shropshire Newsroom

News in brief:

Winter Health 

Seasonal meningococcal spike prompts call for West Midlands students to protect themselves against meningitis and blood poisoning

Long term health condition? – protect yourself from flu and stay well this winter

Is someone you care for feeling under the weather? Speak to your pharmacy first

Take care not antibiotics

Pedestrians: take care on the roads this Christmas

Community and Living

Supporting people to make safer choices – keeping adults safe in Shropshire

Making it Real in Shropshire – our story continues: approved by cabinet

Watch the Big Conversation video and tell us what services are important to you

Health and Wellbeing

Shropshire awarded £45,000 to help ensure domestic abuse victims get the help they need

Discussions take place on maintaining safe, effective and dignified urgent and emergency care

Live well with your library

Shropshire’s libraries are a mine of information when it comes to helping you to look after your health. All branches offer a wide range of self-help books on diagnosed conditions, together with free use of computers to access health websites and the Shropshire Community Directory.

Find out more information here

Shropshire heating scheme shortlisted for two national awards

A scheme in Shropshire to help ensure that that there is adequate heating for low income and vulnerable households has been shortlisted for two awards in the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Awards 2016.

The scheme has been nominated in the sections of “Housing Initiatives” and “Health and Social Care”.

Heatsavers is co-ordinated by Shropshire Council and works with the Housing Team, Benefits Team, NHS, Keep Shropshire Warm and other partners.

The judging is over two days, the 28th and 29th January.  All finalists will find out if they have won a LGC Award on 16th March 2016.

Join us in wishing the team the best of luck!

To find out more information about Heatsavers, please contact Les.Poultney@shropshire.gov.uk

Got some news to share?

If you have a topic or article that you would like to feature in this newsletter, please contact us by email: shropshiretogether@shropshire.gov.uk or telephone: 01743 253972.

Health and Wellbeing Board - Next Meeting:

The next public Health and Wellbeing Board meeting will be held on Friday 22nd January 2016, starting at 9.30am at Shirehall in Shrewsbury.

The agenda and relevant papers will become available on the Health and Wellbeing webpage prior to the meeting. Please see the attached link below to access previous meeting agendas:

Health and Wellbeing Board