IT'S ALWAYS A GOOD TIME TO TALK
As one of the events marking World Mental Health Day, the NHS Business Services Team based at Hesketh House, Fleetwood held a 'Tea & Talk' session. Here's the article that's just been published in their staff magazine.
Last week a tea and talk event was successfully held to raise awareness
about Mental Health Week and to raise funds for the Mental Health
Foundation. A fantastic £255.00 was raised from the cake sale and staff
taking part in the Guess-Tea-Mate cards which were sold around the site.
As part of the drive to talk about mental health Dr Mark Spencer, a local GP
from Mountview Practice accepted an invitation to give a talk about Healthier
Fleetwood and how staff at Hesketh House might get involved.
He started with a question, “is there a better way to improve the health and
wellbeing of the people living in the town than just prescribing more medicines and treatments?” He then went on to provide some thought provoking statistics that showed the residents of Fleetwood may expect to live shorter lives and experience more life changing illnesses than people in other parts of the country.
He provided an insight of the aims of the Healthier Fleetwood initiative, which is to
connect all parties in the town to share, promote and develop initiatives which aid
resident’s wellbeing. His mantra was the 3 C’s: Connecting to others, gaining self-confidence and being in control of your own life and your own decisions.
Mark invited questions from attendees and was keen to understand stories
about how people have or can take control of decisions affecting them, make
changes to their lifestyles and see the benefits for themselves and their
families. This could be in the form of taking more exercise, watching what
they eat or just getting out and about more to make new friends. Looking
after the mind is every bit as important as looking after your body.
We also heard information about the Community Project Fund which is a
mechanism to provide people with enabling funds for small but important
new projects or groups. The aim is to bring people together and re-establish
connections to reduce social isolation.
The turnout for the session was far greater than expected and there has
been positive comments received from those attending. Many found the talk
very inspiring and Dr Spencer was pleased, surprised and excited by the
level of interest from Hesketh House staff.
The next Healthier Fleetwood open meeting is at the Sea Cadets Base at
2pm on Tuesday 7 November.
Thank you to everyone involved in this event and their on-going support of Healthier Fleetwood.