Q2 WBFL Staff Newsletter

Staff Newsletter

A message from Julie

Hi everyone,

And Gosh it’s been a summer and half hasn’t it!

It’s great to see all of the services in full flow and things beginning to feel much more normal again, but it’s also really exciting to see what the new normal is. I think its important to stress that just because things aren’t the same, it doesn’t mean they aren’t as good as they were, different is good and we have learned a lot of things through the pandemic which have made us more adaptable and more fit for the times we now see ourselves in.

All of the services have performed really strongly over the first two quarters of the year, with all of them exceeding their targets, BUT the best thing by far, is seeing staff back in the offices and laughing and smiling, and sometimes crying, with their colleagues. We did marvellously well fully remote working, but you can’t beat a bit of face to face time with your colleagues.

A message from Julie

The winter is set to bring with it a whole host of challenges with a potential spike in COVID numbers, flu more virulent than ever and all of these pressures on the cost of living. We will need to adapt our services to make sure we are keeping our clients and patients as safe and supported as we can as the nights draw in and the temperature drops. It is also really important to remember to look after ourselves and each other. Our clients and patients may be feeling the pinch but so are all of us. I’m sure there will be some genuine worries about money and paying bills and Christmas, and on and on, so in all that we do, please remember to be kind to one another. Look out for your colleagues who appear to be quieter than normal, out of sorts or preoccupied and just to take the time to ask them how they are, and how they ’really’ are? Sometimes just a show of support is enough but remember that through PCP and the Trust we have lots of support in place to help us through the tricky times. Let’s try and make winter fun for us as well so let’s see more face to face team meetings, more mixing of the teams and definitely more cake!

Take care all, I am so proud our services and don't forgot to use those happy stories to remind of yourself and each other of the difference we make to people’s lives, each and every day.

News in the North Hub

“In the North we have been delivering our 121 sessions fortnightly, whether that be in a surgery, over the phone or within community settings. The reason for this was to enable the team to be able to support our clients from the waiting list sooner and in a way that provided a more sustainable change. We have found giving clients support over 16 weeks opposed to 8 weeks we see more clients complete plans and our practitioners are managing larger caseloads efficiently. Ultimately we are supporting more clients sooner… Still not soon enough! This has enabled us to free up time to be able to deliver 5 eat wise group sessions per week across the patch, one of which being an evening session delivered digitally and we are developing a digital session which will be delivered over the weekend and are about to open up another...

News in the North Hub

...face to face group at Waddington Street. We currently deliver group sessions weekly as group engagement has shown to work better over a shorter period of time. Our team is really busy but on the whole enjoying the challenge. Our waiting list is not currently going up and has very recently began to drop slightly, this will continue to go down as we have two fantastic new members of the team who will begin to support clients and we will continue to build their capacity."

Our fantastic team have really got behind the changes we have implemented. We are on track to deliver some fantastic numbers in 22/23 but the most important thing for me is that our team are managing their caseloads incredibly well, maintaining a healthy work life balance and are still enjoying their work on the whole. All whilst doing our very best to deliver support to those who really need it most.

Apprentices Get Stuck In

Fearless, determined and ready to wield a litter picker our new apprentices – or as we call them Community Wellbeing Assistants have now been with Wellbeing for Life for almost 6 months!

You have all welcomed them into the service and helped them settle in over the past few months.

As well as completing their college work they have been busy out and about shadowing lots of different activities we offer and over the past few weeks have started to deliver their own groups and activities.

Well

Practitioner.

“

Wombling Free

Ellie has been busy ‘Wombling’ in and around Willington over May and June and this culminated in a triumphant joint endeavour to remove a bucket from the top of a statue, with one of the participants marching off to get a broom from the local shop.

Abbie and Courtney have supported an auto immune group a Citizens House in Consett. They both delivered a pick and mix assortment of activities such as a pamper and mockta making session, cha based exercise throug to a craft activity making some lavend bunnies!

I feel I have gained a huge amount of confidence delivering these groups and I'm really enjoying helping clients with some physical activity and social interaction”. - Tina

East South Hub News

The East South Hub continues to work hard and we are seeing a decline in the waiting list, this is due to staff working extremely hard and being super productive.

New groups have started up with the East South Hub, Corinne Coull is running a new Eatwise group at Shotton and East Durham Trust, as well as offering virtual support to clients.

Julie Hughes has been working with GEM partnership to offer health checks and general promo work. This has led to a future group starting soon.

Julie Hughes will also do a one off craft session with the Friendship Group at Healthworks... AND has a new Eatwise group running at Wingate which so far has proved popular with 11 new clients!

Going Greener

The

Impact

Estates & Facilities

In Wellbeing

So

Plan

Reduce

Travel & Transport Reduce

Supply Chain

Medicines

Food & catering

Increase

Reduce

used

Models of Care Reduce movement of

Workforce and systems Increased

Adaptation

On

Going Greener

What will we do this year?

TRAVEL

•Promote cycle to work schemes

•Look for best practice in reducing travel

•Advise on efficient driving techniques

•Sign post eco car schemes

•Summarise CDDFT Green travel plan

PERSONAL IMPACT

•Green Page in Newsletter

•Great ideas suggestion box ‘how I got

greener!’

SUPPLY CHAIN

•Awareness raising

•Provide advice on Environmental purchasing

FACILITIES

•Have green champions on site to audit office green performance

•Have switch off campaigns

•Highlight energy costs

WHAT ARE GREEN CHAMPIONS ?

Green champions will be established at all sites and offices.

They will do quick checks on a periodical basis to check that we are doing all we can to improve our environmental performance, such as:

•Is recycling in place?

•Are there bins for recycled products?

•Is there scope to compost materials?

•Are the bins getting emptied regularly?

•Are bins sufficient for the volume of material?

•On the day of a check are all non occupied work stations switched off?

•Are all lights working properly?

•Are pipes lagged?

•Are radiators switched on at the right temperature?

•Are environmental products used in kitchens and bathrooms?

If you want to volunteer to be a Green Champion please contact Bill at bill.oxbrough@nhs.net. This role will not need a lot of time but will give us a massive benefit

Social Prescribing Link Workers

Back in July our fabulous Social Prescribing Team took part in a very musical Team Building Day! African drums, juggling scarves, doing the Charleston and we even got an impromptu lesson in Northern Soul dancing from our very own Lisa Jose!

It’s not often that our countywide team can get together and have some fun; we’re all locked away in our GP surgeries or still working from home so to come together and find out more about our colleagues was an uplifting and most certainly enlightening experience!

Our morning consisted of learning how to play the African drums together. It didn’t take long before we got the hang of it and with the helpful rhythm of some very unique phrases, we soon mastered the art of playing in rounds –we’ve never concentrated so hard!!

Our lovely Senior SPLW, Susan Fern, took us through some great team building activities and we soon found out that coordination isn’t our strong point; there are only a couple of us who can juggle scarves, but there were more on the floor than in the air!

Social Prescribing Link Workers

We settled down to learn a little more about each other and realised that we’ve got a very eclectic mix of people in our team; from being arrested in Greece to having multiple degrees; zip wiring across the Tyne; designing and making our own clothes; running marathons and having an interest in Odonata (look that one up!).

Our final activity of the day came in the shape of a Wellbeing for Life colleague, the wonderful Ellie Dhiman!! We can safely say that Ellie put us through our paces and had us dancing about all over the place! It was great fun and we would recommend anyone to join Ellie in her activity sessions; she’s absolutely fantastic!

So if you come across an SPLW and they’re muttering ‘Grand ma, is eat ing saus ag es’, they’re just practicing their drum rhythms and trying to figure out when the next rhythm starts ‘My name is Bert, and I want, my, din ner!’

We're excited to announce the first cohort of the Level 3 Link Worker Qualification is starting in Quarter 3! We already have 18 people signed up.

Wellbeing for the Time Being

Congratulations to Amanda Gibson, Kayleigh EckersleyMorris and Gemma Gibson who have been awarded the Level 4 in Cancer Rehabilitation delivered by the Wright Foundation a leading provider of exercise referral and specialist population training.

The course consisted of a pre course multi choice assessment before attending the week long course. In order to pass the qualification they were required to undertake the following assessments:

Deliver a group presentation on the risk factors, treatment (and its side effects and implications to exercise programming) of cancer in rehabilitation. Achieving at least 70% on a multiple choice exam Write a 3,000 word Case Study based on a theoretical cancer patient and finally Deliver practical video recorded ‘role-play of an exercise session from their delivery plan detailed within the case study.

After the passing the course the team put their learning in to practice by delivering specific cancer exercise sessions that include a weekly ‘Walk and talk’ session’ at Chester

Wellbeing for the Time Being Olivia has been seconded into the service to provide patients with Level 2 Weight Management support! Olivia will deliver Eatwise sessions to our Prehab patients both in person and virtually including evening sessions.

Joining the Dots

Joining the Dots have been working closely with Willow Foundation the only national charity working with seriously ill young adults aged 16 to 40 to fulfil uplifting and unforgettable Special Days.

Since 1999 Willow has fulfilled more than 17,000 Special Days for young adults living with life threatening conditions to offer families a space to de-stress and spend quality time together during such a difficult time. Paula Spark has given some wonderful examples of the work done between Joining the Dots and the Willow Foundation recently.

"A 28 year old man was referred to our service. I asked what support I could give and he said would I be able to maybe get him and his family a break away because it has been a very stressful time for his partner and two young children, aged 10 months and 6 years old.

I contacted the Willow Foundation to made the referral. Recently, he said the family was given a 3 night stay in a Luxury Lodge, all expenses (including transport) was covered by Willow Foundation. When I spoke to the client, he was thrilled to tell me he has finished intensive treatment that day, and even ‘rang the bell’!

Joining the Dots

A 39 year old lady was referred into our service. Support was given around finances and appointments.

Married with two children (aged 6 & 7), the family had a really tough year, as she has not been well enough to enjoy family time.

I thought they would like a break away, but they expressed not have the finances, so I contacted Willow Foundation.

This lady contacted me to say that she was overwhelmed by the generosity by Willow Foundation when they were given a two night break to London with rail fare. On the second night it is this ladies 40th birthday and they have been given tickets for the theatre to see Mary Poppins the musical!

A 37 year old man was referred to our service two years ago. He has an incurable brain tumour, and has been working with Joining the Dots through finances and emotional support.

Married, the couple have 3 young children and have not had much time to themselves to destress and relax, so Paula referred them to Willow Foundation.

Willow Foundation contacted the couple to gift a two night stay in London, with return rail travel and tickets for the theatre to see Wicked the musical. They were so thankful to Joining the Dots and Willow Foundation.

Joining the Dots

Macmillan Coffee Morning

We raised £551!

We bid a fond farewell to Christine as she starts her family fun filled retirement. We'd like to thank Christine for all the incredibly hard work over the years, it has been a privilege to have you at Joining the Dots! Christine & Meg will be a huge miss!

World Suicide Prevention Day

Saturday, 10th September was World Suicide Prevention Day.

#WSPD is an annual campaign that falls on the same date every year, aiming to raise awareness of suicide statistics, and create a world where fewer people die from suicide.

Following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, our social media and website platforms took part in the National Mourning.

We are passionate about the need for #WSPD, and our Digital Engagement team worked hard to create an extremely powerful video we'd like to share with you all.

This year's theme is 'Creating Hope Through Action', and we hope this video encourages you to make a difference in the world.

Search 'Wellbeing for Life' on YouTube.

Take the time to speak to your friends, family, even a stranger who looks down you could save a life today.

!

Subscribetoour YouTubechannel

Special thanks to the Wellbeing for Life Digital Engagement and Marketing Team for working together with Artmouse Promotions to create this video.

Our YouTube channel is filled with videos to help you, and your clients, stay fit, happy and healthy.

Who's New, Who's Flew?

Who's New?

Nicole Martin Wellbeing Practitioner, Teesdale

Laura Elliott

Administrator

Jude Binks

Hunter

Christmas