Shropshire Health and Wellbeing e-Newsletter

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

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Remember, you can find information about Health and Wellbeing events across Shropshire on our website, click here to find out more.

Shrophire’s children centres team up with local social enterprise to combat childhood obesity

Shropshire Council’s children’s centres have teamed up with local social enterprise Lovelyland to help combat obesity in young children, and support local community resources.

The partnership has come together to launch a scheme in response to findings from Public Health England’s National Child Measurement Programme, who highlighted an issue with overweight and obesity levels in 0-5 year olds in Shropshire.

The Green Kitchen Project is a dynamic and fun introduction to food growing for young children and their families. The project hopes to provide opportunities for our youngest children to engage with food through a collection of informative and structured activities, which are all linked to either sowing, growing or harvesting food.

Figures show that in some parts of Shrewsbury more than 10% of children in Reception classes are obese. This trend almost doubles for those children weighed in Year 6.

Click here to read the full story on Shropshire Newsroom.

Number of missed hospital appointments cut thanks to telephone reminder service

News from our partners at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.

THE number of people missing hospital appointments in Shropshire has fallen by 2.5 per cent since the introduction of a telephone and text reminder service for patients.

The scheme, run by The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), has proved a major success, with the number of missed appointments dropping from 8% to 5.5% - the equivalent of 449 appointments a month.

The Trust’s service contacts more than 8,500 patients every month and any DNA – Did Not Attend – means a valuable appointment slot is lost.

The reduction in missed appointments means waiting times for patients are shorter as people don’t need to be re-booked for dates further ahead, while also saving the Trust approximately £581,904 per year.

Mr Mark Cheetham, Medical Director for Scheduled Care at SaTH, said: “The reminders mean more patients are being seen in the clinics and are treated faster. Far fewer valuable slots are being missed since the introduction of the reminder service. Everyone benefits.”

Click here to read the full story.

Newsletter and 'I am endurance' video from Freedom Shropshire

News from our partners Freedom Shropshire.

Click here to read the latest newsletter from Freedom Shropshire.

Updates include:

• ‘I am endurance’ – a video from Traharn Chidley, from Shropshire. Traharn describes her experiences of overcoming domestic abuse through support and a passion for trail running and mountain biking. Read the full story and watch the video.
• National conferences and skills courses
• Disability and domestic abuse
• New law on domestic violence and abuse, and information on coercive control

Click here to find out more about 'I am endurance' - an inspiring film on coping with domestic abuse.

Find out more about Freedom Shropshire here: www.freedomshropshire.org.uk 

Freedom Shropshire is designed to enable people who live and work in Shropshire to access relevant and up to date guidance and advice on Domestic Abuse and Violence and provide information on services offered within Shropshire. 

Patients to get opportunity to share views about hospital services at Listening Events

News from our partners Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust

Patients will have the opportunity to share their views about hospital services at Listening Events which will take place in local communities over the next couple of months.

Local independent organisations will be actively involved in the events to listen to the experiences of patients, with drop-in sessions due to take place at:

• Unit SU27 Mid Level, Darwin Centre, Shrewsbury, on Tuesday 1 March 2016 from 10am-4pm.
• Jubilee Room, Meeting Point House, Telford, on Wednesday 10 March from 10am until 5pm.
• Acorn Room, Parkhouse Centre, Woodside, Telford on Tuesday 15 March from 12noon until 5pm.
• Jubilee Room, Mayfair Centre, Church Stretton on Wednesday 23 March from 10am until 4pm.
• Vernon Suite, Festival Centre, Market Drayton, on Friday 8 April from 10am until 4pm.

The events have been organised by The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) in partnership with Healthwatch Shropshire and Healthwatch Telford and Wrekin.

They are designed to give people who have used hospital services in Shropshire – specifically those at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and other services run by SaTH – an opportunity to share their experiences to help build on the work taking place and find out areas where patients feel improvements could be made.

Click here to read the full story.

Disability Matters call for evidence

News from our partners Public Health England

Disability Matters is partnering with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) to promote the importance of inclusion and access for all disabled children and young people aged 0 – 25 years.

They are collecting evidence and case-studies from young people with disabilities, parent carers and those who work or volunteer with people with disabilities to highlight the many positive ways that people are:

• working pro-actively with children and young people with disabilities
• enabling inclusion
• making services accessible.

As a pan-disability programme they are interested in examples that relate to all disabilities, including intellectual / learning disabilities, physical disabilities, complex needs and visual or hearing impairments.

We will compile the responses to this survey in a report that will be available in the early summer of 2016.

Get Involved

Please share your views with them by completing this short online survey.

A version of the survey can be downloaded as an easy read survey.

An introduction to Disability Matters and the Call for Evidence can also be downloaded as an easy read overview.

The survey closes on Friday 11 March 2016.

New NHS Future Fit blog post

The proposals behind NHS Future Fit were developed by local clinicians and based on a range of evidence, including important information about the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Powys area.

One of clinical proposals in NHS Future Fit is that there should be a network of urgent care centres supported by a single Emergency Centre.

Local clinicians agreed that a single emergency centre would improve safety and quality of care and focus resources to improve teamwork. At the same time it is recognised that, for some people, this may mean an increase in travel times in order to access the best care. These issues are explored in a new blog post which represents the views of three of the leading clinicians involved in the NHS Future Fit programme. Find out more here.

For more information about NHS Future Fit visit www.nhsfuturefit.co.uk

Updates from our partners:

'Shaping the Dementia Landscape Moving Forward'

Shropshire’s Dementia Strategy and Action Plan both cover the period 2014-16. In 2015 Healthwatch Shropshire was invited to undertake a piece of work to refresh the Dementia Strategy Action Plan. Working in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society, Help 2 Change, the Memory Service and the Shropshire CCG Healthwatch Shropshire ran a number of focus groups with people living with dementia their carers and service providers at the end of 2015.

This event is an opportunity to listen to the findings from these focus groups and have an opportunity to vote on the key recommendations.

Please find attached a programme for the “Shaping the Dementia Landscape” event that Healthwatch Shropshire are hosting at Shrewsbury Football Club on Thursday 17th March at 2.30pm.

This event is open to people living with dementia, their carers and service providers.  Please do pass the attached flyer onto any friends or colleagues who you feel may be interested in coming.

We would be delighted if you could join us at this event. Please contact Healthwatch enquiries@healthwatchshropshire.co.uk or 01743 237884.

Click here to read the latest newsletter from the Shropshire Voluntary and Community Sector Assembly. With details of events, updates on the Big Conversation and recent news stories from across the county.

Understanding Your Child session

Monday 7th March, 9am-11am at Baschurch CE Primary School, SY4 2AU

To book a place on this FREE session, please call Children's Centre Services on 01691 656513

Visit www.shropshire.gov.uk/childrenscentres for more information

International experts on mental health to launch book in Shrewsbury

News from our partners University Centre Shrewsbury via Shropshire Newsroom. Click here to read the full story.

Mental Health Across the Lifespan book cover

Academics from across Australia, Wales and England will join with University Centre Shrewsbury (UCS) tutors to launch their new book which provides an introduction to mental health at each stage of life.

The publishing of Mental Health Across the Lifespan will be celebrated at a free event on Tuesday 8 March 2016, held in partnership with Routledge Publishers at UCS’ learning and research base.

Click here to read the full story and find out more.

Non-Emergency Patient Transport

Information from our partners at Shropshire CCG.

Non-Emergency Patient Transport (NEPT) is provided for patients who have a medical condition which prevents them from using other forms of transport.

Information regarding the NEPT service is also available on the Shropshire CCG website, along with a series of FAQs http://www.shropshireccg.nhs.uk/non-emergency-patient-transport-services

FAQs: http://www.shropshireccg.nhs.uk/nept-faqs

Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust

Are you affected by cervical cancer? Or know someone who is?

Do you have questions about cervical screening, HPV or screening results?

Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust provides information and support for people affected by cervical cancer, or people who want to find out more about screening, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

“Every year in the UK, over 3,000 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in women aged 35 and under.”

Take a look at the website and read stories of people’s experiences. There is a helpline number that you can call, and you can submit any questions to be answered by an expert panel.

www.jostrust.org.uk

The Silver Line – helpline for older people

The Silver Line is the only free confidential helpline open 24 hours a day 365 days a year for older people who are lonely and socially isolated. The charity delivers a range of services in support of older people in the UK who may be experiencing the detrimental effects on their mental and physical health and wellbeing that loneliness and isolation can bring. They support older people to engage or re-engage with their local services where possible while continuing to offer friendship and helpline service. The Silver Line is open every minute of every day and 68% of their calls are taken after 5pm and at weekends.

To find out more about how The Silver Line might be able to help in your local area please contact Toni Walsh or call her on 020 3793 9203.

Visit their website to find out more: www.thesilverline.org.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 15th April 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