Community Wellbeing Practices e

Community Wellbeing Practices
e-bulletin update #6 04/04/14
Welcome
Dr. David Lyon
I am pleased to introduce the sixth e-bulletin for the Community
Wellbeing Practices initiative running in Halton. This e-bulletin is
full of updates and examples of how the initiative is benefitting
patients and communities in the borough.
GP at Castlefields
Health Centre and
GP Body Governing
Member at NHS
As a GP at Castlefields Health Centre, the Community Wellbeing
Halton CCG
Practices initiative has provided me with extra tools to be able to
help my patients, by taking in to account the social factors that
affect a patient’s health. These tools have helped me to explore
an alternative dimension of a patient’s life that complements the
traditional medical model. We are also beginning to see a
reduction in acute admissions, to which I am convinced this
initiative is making a contribution.
It can sometimes be confusing to keep up to date with all of the
community provision that is available in the local area, but it is
reassuring to know that each practice’s Community Wellbeing
Officer is able to offer the vital knowledge to help signpost patients
to the right sources of support.
We have already seen some extraordinary outcomes for patients,
community groups and GP Practices so far as part of the initiative,
and the initiative is gaining a significant amount of interest from
other CCGs and primary care settings from around the country.
I will look forward to seeing the initiative continuing to grow in the
future.
News
Here’s a brief summary of some of the updates and activities from the Community
Wellbeing Practices (CWP) initiative over the last three months:
NAPC endorses CWP work as best practice
We’re working with the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC) to support other
localities in taking forward wellbeing interventions in primary care, including GP
Practices and Pharmacies. Nav Chana (Vice Chair of the NAPC) said of the initiative,
“We are delighted to endorse Wellbeing Enterprises CIC and NHS Halton CCG in
developing the Community Wellbeing Practices approach as an innovative way of
responding to the health and social challenges that patients and communities are
faced with today.”
Simon Banks (Chief Officer of NHS Halton CCG) added, “This initiative has come
from our general practices and is an excellent example of innovative clinical
commissioning. NHS Halton CCG is proud that this has been recognised by NAPC
and the PIN and we hope that it finds resonance in many more CCGs and local
communities up and down the country.”
On the back of this, in January our Chief Executive Officer (Mark Swift) and Simon
Banks were invited to a meeting with Secretary of Health Jeremy Hunt MP to discuss
the methodology and approaches used as part of the Community Wellbeing Practices
initiative in Halton - Mr Hunt described the initiative as a “brilliant idea” and this
meeting was followed up by a visit from NHS England in March.
Wellbeing Enterprises team expands!
We’re delighted to expand the CWP initiative
to all 17 practices in the borough, and as part
of this process we have recruited five new
Community Wellbeing Officers. Oli Gomersall
will be working with Grove House and Tower
House practices, Sara Buls will be working
with Hough Green and Heath Road practices,
and Donna Corless will be working with
Windmill Hill and Upton Rocks practices. Two
new Community Wellbeing Officers, Jennifer
Cowell and Louise Horne, will be starting at
Wellbeing Enterprises in April.
Wellbeing Enterprises team
We are also delighted to introduce our new Administration & HR Officer, Jayne
Owens, to the Wellbeing Enterprises team.
Click here to view full profiles of all of our team members.
Community Wellbeing Officers join MDT meetings in primary care
Our team of Community Wellbeing Officers now attend multi-disciplinary riskassessment profiling meetings in the borough to help support patients who are at risk
of a hospital admission, by providing a range of social interventions. Up to March
2014 we’ve received 29 referrals through into the Wellbeing Review service. Ann
Nolan, Clinical Facilitator at Halton CCG and Halton Borough Council, said “This
innovative approach considers both the health and social care needs of individuals
and their carers.”
Patients can now book wellbeing appointments through their GP Practice
We are delighted to announce that all Community Wellbeing Practices have now setup their electronic appointment system for Clinicians to book a slot for patients to
have a Wellbeing Review appointment with their practice’s Community Wellbeing
Officer.
These appointment systems have resulted in a 56% increase in patients attending
Wellbeing Reviews, and you can visit our blog to view case studies of how patients
are benefitting from these appointments.
Showcasing wellbeing in Halton
In the last three months we have delivered 18
social prescribing groups to 196 patients,
including a photography course, Nordic
Walking, Tango on Prescription and Christmas
Crafts. We also delivered five ‘Living Life to
the Full’ life-skills courses to 44 patients, and
five Outreach talks to 52 members of
community groups. We were also delighted to
host a ‘Christmas Extravaganza’ event at
Castlefields on the 13th December, which
featured performances from the drama,
ukulele and guitar social prescribing groups
that we facilitated earlier on in the year.
Tango on Prescription in Halton
Our Programme of Activities for April 2014 will be released and circulated shortly.
The programme features social prescribing groups including drama, reading and
confidence & assertion, delivered in partnership with local third sector agencies.
Joining up the dots to create a garden at Murdishaw
Stemming from one of the Doctorpreneurs
projects, we have teamed up with Liverpool
Housing Trust, Jigsaw Housing, Groundwork
Cheshire and Liberty Gas to share resources
and expertise to revamp the Murdishaw Health
Centre courtyard. In February, a team of 6
local volunteers came together to undertake
the first stage of the makeover, replacing
concrete flags and building raised beds. Once
fully completed, we’ll be working with
Volunteers working hard!
Murdishaw Community Centre, the Health
Improvement Team and local primary schools
to enable local members of the community to learn and benefit from the new garden.
Launching the ‘Purple Book’ to help patients with dementia
We have been collaborating with the
Alzheimer’s Society, Halton Carers Centre,
Age UK Mid Mersey, Later Life & Memory
Service, Sure Start to Later Life, Halton Adult
Placement Service, Home Instead Senior Care
and Halton Speak Out alongside the Practice
Manager and Clinicians at Grove House
Practice to develop the ‘Purple Book’. This
book has been launched to assist people with
memory problems (and their family/Carers) to
The ‘Purple Book’
help maintain their independence within the
community.
Practice Manager Jacky Slator said, “My mum has Alzheimer’s, and there were so
many different appointments and people to speak to, particularly in the lead up to and
after the diagnosis, it got very confusing. Putting all of a patient’s basic information
into the ‘Purple Book’ can be such a help for the patient and their family during a
difficult time.”
30 Grove House patients attended the launch event of the ’Purple Book’ on Saturday
29th March at St Paul’s Medical Centre.
We’re recruiting Wellbeing Volunteers!
Funded through the National Association of
Primary Care, we’re proud to launch a
volunteering scheme through GP Practices.
Volunteers can help to facilitate practical or
creative community groups, offer peer support
to patients, help out at community events,
provide administration support or be a
wellbeing advocate by spreading the message
of wellbeing through GP Practices.
Wellbeing volunteers
Volunteers receive full training, ongoing
support and a snazzy purple uniform! For
more information about becoming a volunteer please contact Wellbeing Enterprises
on 01928 589799.
GP Practice staff Ignite their Lives!
We hosted two of our award winning ‘Ignite
your Life!’ sessions for 102 GP Practice staff
during the PLT sessions in January and
February. Attendees included reception staff,
administration staff and Practice Managers,
and the session was hosted to train staff up in
wellbeing and wellbeing promotion. Feedback
from the events included, “Loved the singing brightened up my day!”, “Really enjoyed the
session - thank you for showing us an
overview of what you do.” and “Please can we
have more of these events!”
‘Ignite your Life!’ for practice staff
We have also recently trained up 104 local ‘third sector’ professionals (including
Halton CCG staff) in our mental health awareness and wellbeing training programme
during four sessions that we facilitated between December and February.
CWP independent report
Back in Autumn, we commissioned two Public Health consultants to review and
articulate the model of change and how the Community Wellbeing Practice initiative
fits within the current health system. The report also identifies areas for improvement
and the next stages of development to address them, based on a review of the model
in practice within its first year of implementation. Over the last few months we have
been implementing these recommendations in full - click here to view the full report.
Coming up
Here’s a taster of some of the projects and developments coming up as part of the
Community Wellbeing Practice initiative in the next three months...
Working in partnership with public health
In January we welcomed our colleagues Sharon McAteer and Dr Ifeoma Onyia from
Public Health, who have been supporting us to utilise local intelligence (including
practice-based Joint Strategic Needs Assessments) to develop local action plans that
include community based projects with partner organisations.
As part of these plans, we’ve also been busy consulting with practice patients, PPG
members, Clinicians and other stakeholders to gain their views on local health
priorities and opportunities. Last year we delivered 8 practice-based wellbeing
projects through the ‘Doctorpreneurs’ initiative, which encouraged Clinicians to use
their creativity to suggest ideas to improve the wellbeing of patients. This year, we
will be canvassing patients for ideas for local wellbeing projects and how we can
mobilise the skills and assets of patients to benefit others - we’re calling this initiative
‘Patientpreneurs’. If you have any ideas for wellbeing projects to run from your
practice then please contact us on 01928 589799 - we would love to hear your
suggestions.
Mindfulness comes to Halton
We’re delighted to be able to offer new
‘Mindfulness’ courses to patients across
Runcorn and Widnes from March 2014.
Mindfulness means maintaining a moment by
moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings,
bodily sensations and surrounding
environment, and it can help patients to
reduce negative emotions and stress, and also
improve memory and attention skills.
Promoting ‘mindfulness’ in Halton
For more information about the Mindfulness
courses please contact Helen Trahar or April Lander on 01928 589799.
New branded materials for patients
We’ve rolling out new prompter cards (pictured
right) for Clinicians to hand out to their patients
when they are booking a Wellbeing Review
appointment, or if the patients would like more
information about any of our services.
These cards are being used in conjunction
with the automatic practice system
appointment slots, where Clinicians can
directly refer patients to the Wellbeing Review
appointment system through their GP practice
IT systems.
New promotional materials
Social Value Act update
Halton is just one of four localities in the UK to take part in the Delivering Social
Value for Health programme, funded by the Department for Health, Social Enterprise
UK and the Institute of Voluntary Action. An important aim of the programme is to
support the development of the local voluntary, community and social enterprise
sector by enabling it to better articulate the contribution that it makes to delivering
social value in the borough. We’re supporting the development of a Social Value
Charter with full sign-up from Halton Borough Council and Halton CCG. Wellbeing
Enterprises are a lead agency helping to design and develop the charter and sitting
on the task group.
On the 3rd March, Mark Swift and Dave Sweeney (Director of Integrated Care, NHS
Halton CCG and Halton Borough Council) presented Halton’s partnership
methodology and progress at the 2014 Manchester Healthcare Innovation Expo on
behalf of partners in the borough - click here to view a copy of the PowerPoint slides
that were presented on the day.
For more information about the Social Value Act please contact Mark Swift on 01928
589799 or email [email protected].
Case studies
Here’s a case study from one of the patients that has engaged in the Community
Wellbeing Practice initiative:
Penny
Penny presented at her GP Practice appointment with complaints that her COPD was
becoming unbearable to manage in her everyday life. In addition to her prescription
being altered, she was referred through by her GP to have a Wellbeing Review with
the practice’s Community Wellbeing Officer.
Penny had the opportunity to explain to the Community Wellbeing Officer that it was
living in a first floor flat that made her condition worse, and that she had applied to live
in a bungalow several times with no success. Because of this restriction, Penny was
starting to avoid everyday activities, “Going up and down the stairs restricted my
breathing and I was feeling more isolated not being able to go out.”
During the Wellbeing Review, the Community Wellbeing Officer helped Penny to
complete her application form, and to help her articulate how her flat was impacting
upon her health and wellbeing. Subsequently, Penny has been successful in her
housing application and is so grateful to the support provided by Wellbeing
Enterprises, “I can’t thank you enough – this has helped my situation so much and I’m
now able to get out everyday and do the things that I enjoy like meeting with friends
and going shopping.”
Check out Wellbeing Enterprises’ new blog
We’ve also published a new blog that includes case studies of patients who have
benefitted from the Community Wellbeing Practice initiative - click here to view the
blog.
View from a GP
“As a GP, I normally offer patients a listening ear, fill out the right
forms and prescribe medicines, however the Community
Wellbeing Officer helps me offer an alternative approach to
helping patients. For example, I never thought I’d see Nordic
Walking being offered in Widnes!”
Dr. Burke
Appleton Village
Surgery
“Sometimes medicine isn’t the answer, and having conversations
with patients about accessing activity groups or trying new things
has given me a greater depth to understanding my patients - it
feels like you’re reaching out to the circumstances in their lives.
The service is free and it has no barriers - it’s suitable for
everyone; male or female, married or single, young or old, rich or
poor.”
“There are real, tangible services that can help the patients.
When the patients come back for an appointment with me our
conversations are completely different - you can see how they
grow. For example one patient has come back to me after
attending a local social prescribing group, and he is a completely
different person - he’s off his meds, he’s coping a lot better at
work and his family feel like they’ve got their Dad back again.”
“The Community Wellbeing Practice initiative has made me feel
more useful as a GP - I’ve enjoyed being able to offer it, it’s more
human than only being able to offer another medication.”
Key Statistics
Here’s some key statistics and milestones that we have reached as part of the
Community Wellbeing Practices in the last three months:
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1,456 interventions across 12 practices
44% of referrals made by GPs/other organisations
88% of patients rate interventions 8/10 or more
57% patients report improved wellbeing scores
19% of patients accessing services report a disability
Our interventions have
demonstrated significant
improvements in subjective
wellbeing levels using
SWEMWBS scores - on
average, a patient’s wellbeing
levels increase by 2.1
SWEMWBS points* (the
equivalent of shifting from
‘below average’ wellbeing to
‘average).
* This data is statistically significant (p
value >0.001%)
Research and information
Wellbeing and why it matters to health
Health is the top thing that people say matters to their wellbeing - this report provides
evidence on why wellbeing matters to health throughout the different stages of
people’s lives. This report gives a flavour of some of the important issues and
relationships between wellbeing and health throughout someone’s life. For health
professionals, understanding the different parts of personal wellbeing may offer
insights into how their own work fits into a wider context and how what they do can
influence wellbeing. Click here to view the full article.
BMA: Social determinants of health - what doctors can do
In this report, the British Medical Association calls for doctors to address social
determinants of health through working with individuals using tools such as social
prescribing and brief interventions, through working with communities by
commissioning health promotion and ill-health prevention and through using their
position to influence and advocate for change on the social determinants. Click here
to view the full article.
The King’s Fund: Clusters of unhealthy behaviours over time
People’s health behaviours are widely known to affect their health and risk of
mortality, however less is known about how these behaviours cluster together in the
population, and how multiple lifestyle risk patterns have changed over time between
different population groups - this paper considers these questions in relation to policy
and practice. Click here to view the full article.
Solidarity - NEF paper
The New Economics Foundation (NEF) have produced a report that outlines how
solidarity is crucial in being able to achieve social justice and wellbeing for all, a fairer
and more equitable distribution of power and environmentally sustainability. Solidarity
is essential because none of the goals can be achieved by individuals or groups
simply fending for themselves and pursuing their own interests - click here to view the
full report.
Contact us
We’d love to hear from you - what do you think about the e-bulletin? Please take a few
minutes to fill out this short survey, your feedback is very important to us.
Our contact details are:
Wellbeing Enterprises CIC
Bridgewater House
Old Coach Road
Runcorn
WA7 1QT
T:01928 589 799
E: [email protected]
W: www.wellbeingenterprises.org.uk

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