It’s always a good time to talk!
On time to talk day (2nd February 2023) in Bishop Auckland town hall, Wellbeing for Life, Stamp It Out and Durham County Council brought...
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Since the start of the Coronavirus social distancing and self-isolation started, the Wellbeing for Life Service have supported 5,942 people across County Durham with welfare telephone calls, making nearly 14,000 contacts ensuring people have the essentials they need to be able to stay home and stay safe.
Wellbeing for Life, Social Prescribing Link workers and the Macmillan Joining the Dots Teams have worked tirelessly together to support people who have urgently needed grocery shopping, prescription collections and mental wellbeing support.
Julie Form, Wellbeing Manager, said ‘The team have been working to contact as many vulnerable and shielding people as they can from information they have received from Durham County Council.
They have successfully sourced, not only grocery provisions and arranged controlled drug collections and deliveries, but they have also helped people with installing wheelchair ramp access to their homes, found fridges, microwaves and counter top cookers to support people to cook in their own households.
I am extremely proud of what we have achieved so far and we intend to carry on ensuring that everyone is staying at home and staying safe’.
The teams are making daily phone calls to hundreds of people, and they’re getting some lovely comments. One person said ‘Can I just say thank you for calling me today and you have helped me smile again, yourself and all your colleagues are all angels in disguise and your halos are shining bright at this time, thank you all so, so much’.
The Wellbeing for Life Service are working in partnership with the County Durham Together Hub along with many local support services across the County.
Picture above shows:
Top row from the left – Michelle Gibson, Wellbeing for Life Area Lead. Emma Lenton, Wellbeing for Life Practitioner. Christine Kay, Macmillan Joining the Dots Facilitator.
Middle row from left – Vicki Moffat, Wellbeing for Life Area Lead. Emma Spencer, Social Prescribing Link Worker. Laura Birkin, Wellbeing for Life Practitioner.
Bottom row from the left – Liz Oakes, Wellbeing for Life Trainer. Nikki Williams, Wellbeing for Life Practitioner. Julie Form, Wellbeing for Life Manager.
Wellbeing for Life have been working with a fantastic group of people at Macrae House in Murton, Seaham which has secured support from believe housing.
The group formed a few months ago with support from their Wellbeing for Life Practitioner, David Hall, who has been delivering fun activities to help members improve their understanding of how to look after their bodies and take part in a range of activities. The sessions are designed to help with both physical and mental wellbeing with one-to-one support also available.
In such a short time, the group have recieved fantastic recognition for their hard work and dedication, so much so that they have recieved £500 to purchase equipment including skipping ropes, exercise mats and other sports equipment.
The funding officer at believe housing, Damian Pearson said “The group behind this project are so enthusiastic and it’s great to see the practical results from our support so quickly. When we created our community funding programme it was a grass roots groups, like this one, that we had in mind. The team here have taken a relatively small amount of funding and turned it into a valuable recource for their community that will pay dividends for a long time to come”.
Katie Wooton, from Murton said “Since the group has started there has been a noted improvement in both physical and mental wellbeing among the users. We are all looking forward to growing up in strength and stride towards a healthier future”.
This week we are supporting Mental Health Awareness week and the topic of Body Image.
Everyone, whatever their age and background, has the right to feel comfortable and confident in thir own body. Supporting the Mental Health Foundation’s message, we believe that more must be done, beyond the steps we can personally take to look after our own mental health.
Overall, the main picture is one of societal pressures on body image, driven by the commercial sector, particularly the fashion and cosmetic industries, which predominantly use ‘idealised’ images to sell their products.
This is having serious limiting effects on the day-to-day lives of millions and cannot be ignored.
‘One in eight adults in the UK have experienced suicidal thoughts or feelings because of concerns about their body image.’ (Mental Health Foundation, 2019)
Throughout the week our Wellbeing for Life Fecbook page will be full of vidoes of very brave people speaking about their own experiences with their body image. Why not take a look and take part in this year’s campaign at www.facebook.com/CountyDurhamWellbeingForLifeService/