Archive for June, 2010

Today sees the launch of the National Men’s Health Week. This campaign is being run all over the country to encourage men and boys to become more physically active. Men’s Health Week 2010 will highlight the many ways of staying healthy, from eating well and exercising more to cutting back on alcohol and cigarettes.

The week is not just about encouraging more men to take part in sport – there are many other ways of staying healthy. Men should try to find easy and enjoyable ways to fit more physical activity into their daily routine – from cycling instead of taking the bus, swimming at lunchtime or finally sorting out that garden! If men can start getting active, whilst eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day they can halve the risk of getting serious long-term diseases like heart disease, high blood pressure, and several types of cancer.

Here are our top 10 ways to live a healthier lifestyle:

• Get more active

• Eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day

• Stop smoking

• Have all your jabs

• Maintain a healthy weight

• Wear a condom

• Be safe in the sun

• Cut back on your alcohol intake

• Recognise stress and try to manage it

• Enjoy yourself

By following this simple advice you can stay healthy, improve your well being and live longer. To find out more about ways of getting active and staying healthy just go to www.wandsworth.nhs.uk

The Mayoral Community Reception at City Hall

Monday 5^th July 2010, 6.30pm – 8.00pm 

The Mayor of London’s forthcoming Mayoral Community Receptions at City Hall are designed to bring Londoners together to celebrate the capital’s diversity, and encourage greater community cohesion and improved integration in this city. These receptions will also honour those who make their area or neighbourhood a better place to live, and will very much encourage community participation and civic engagement.

The inaugural event will bring together those living in the Assembly Constituencies of Lambeth/Southwark and Merton/Wandsworth, and will be held on Monday 5 July 2010 at City Hall from 6.30pm to 8.00pm.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) is keen to invite an array of community organisations and leaders from faith, elders, women’s, LGBT, minority ethnic groups in Wandsworth.

If you would like to represent your organisation at this event, please contact:

Richard Reddie

Senior Co-ordinator,

External Affairs,

City Hall,

The Queen’s Walk,

London, SE1 2AA
Tel: 020 7983 6527
Email: Richard.Reddie@london.gov.uk

www.london.gov.uk

The tenth annual Carers Week will take place from Monday 14 June with various events helping to raise awareness and express appreciation for carers in the community. Carers Week will highlight why supporting carers is so crucial and identify what must change in order to make sure that they are not taken for granted.

Seven national charities will organise for over 100,000 carers to take part in thousands of activities all over the UK to celebrate their wonderful work. We have arranged two free outings for Wandsworth Carers to the Science Museum and the National History Museum providing transport, entrance fees, lunch and volunteer support. We are also hosting a sponsored walk along the river Thames, passing through some amazing areas of London.

This week will also see Wandsworth Carers Centre celebrate its 15^th Birthday. We will be marking the occasion with a special event on Thursday 10 June which will give Carers a chance to have a break, have fun and get advice on how to enrich their own lives. The theme ‘A life of my own’ will encourage carers to talk about parts of life that many people take for granted e.g. their own health and wellbeing, family occasions, going on holiday, a meal out or even an evening with no worries or responsibilities. The ‘Rethink’ support group for carers of adults who experience mental illness, hosted at the Wandsworth Carers Centre, will be visited by guest speaker Jeremy Walsh, Associate Director at South West London and St Georges Mental Health Trust. The group is open to all family members, friends and neighbours who support someone with a mental illness.

Stephen Warren, Associate Director of Commissioning for NHS Wandsworth, said:

“We are delighted to be able to give something back to the carers of Wandsworth who invest so much into this community. We are always trying to recognise their work and this week promises to be a great opportunity to engage with Carers on issues that are important to them. It looks set to be a very successful and rewarding week”.

1. For more information on all the events taking place please visit http://www.wandsworth.nhs.uk/Stayinghealthy/carers/Pages/CarersWeekevents.aspx

Wandsworth LINk have now released their first Enter and View Report on Hospital Discharge at St Georges. Below is an introduction to the report, to read the full report merely click here, Enter and View Final Report May 2010

“Hospital discharge was chosen as one of Wandsworth LINK’s four priorities. The Enter and View Team wished to discover more about how patients and their carers experience the discharge process. We intend later to follow the patients into the community to assess the quality and appropriateness of their care and support at home which will help to inform our opinions about the Transformation Agenda-another of the LINk’s priorities. We planned a visit to St George’s Hospital to seek the opinions and views of the patients who were being discharged and their carers.

We wanted to find out how the policies work on the ground on the day of discharge. Particularly seeking to establish whether the discharge was safe and how the patients and their carers felt about the process….”

People using services for neurological conditions and/or their carers are being invited to participate in a three day training programme leading to action for change.

Community Partners is a project of Wandsworth Care Alliance working actively with service users, patients and carers, providing training so that participants can help shape more responsive social care and health services.

Community Partners has now teamed up with the Neurological Team at NHS Wandsworth, to offer training for a group of people using the long term neurological conditions services and/or their carers.

The training will cover these areas:

Day one:         Information gathering: ways to find out from a wider body of people living with and caring for people with neuro conditions about what needs to change

Day two:          Specialist nursing: finding out how specialist nursing currently operates and starting to work with the specialist nurses towards change

Day three:       Communicating about the conditions: service users and carers have repeatedly said how little their condition is understood by agencies and staff.  Day three will be about producing a video for health and social care staff to learn what they need to know if they are to provide effective respite and other services.

The training will be held at the Randall Close Day Centre in Battersea, a fully accessible venue, on Monday 22 and 29 June, and Monday 6 July, 10.30am to 3.30pm.

If you would like to take part, please contact (by post, email or phone): 

Susan Wheeler-Kiley

Wandsworth Care Alliance

89 Bickersteth Road, SW17 9SH

Phone: 020 8516 7768

freechoice@wandcareall.org.uk

You can also contact Susan if you have questions or just want to find out more.

New support for carers working in Wandsworth is now available with the the launch of the Carers Emergency Support Team.

The service is available for carers looking after an adult living in Wandsworth.

It means that the person cared for would be properly supported if the carer was involved in an emergency and unable to look after them.

Carers can meet with The Carers Emergency Support Service Worker and then develop an emergency plan.

To arrange an appointment to develop an emergency plan please contact 020 8877 1200.

After registration carers will receive an Emergency Pack with an Emergency Card included.