Leeds Health and Well-Being vision hits Europe

Our guest blogger, John Walsh, Mental Health Support Worker for our York Street Health Practice, has been jetting around Europe to spread the work about the success of our integrated Adult Health and Social Care approach to helping the most vulnerable people in Leeds. Here he gives us a two part insight in to what he learned at a recent conference in Oslo:

I had the privilege of attending the European Conference on Outreach Work in Oslo. This conference was attended by over 300 delegates from 20 countries. It drew together practitioners, academics and service users to discuss how we can work together to reach and empower marginalized youth and adults. The conference was formally opened by the Crown Prince of Norway, the Minister of Health and Social Care, the Mayor of Oslo and Thomas Kattau from the Council of Europe. I attended from York Street Health Practice along with my colleague Jo Smith, the mental health social worker for the homeless from Adult Social Care. Jo works at the Mental Health Homeless Team which is part of the local authority. Jo also works at the Street Outreach Team in Leeds run by CRI.

During our time in Oslo, Jo and I were involved in two workshops. The first was a joint session on 'Child Poverty' with two colleagues from Europe. Dr Francine Mestrum, a member of the International Council of the World Social Forum, spoke about how we cannot separate child poverty from family poverty and societal issues. She made the point that only in research are these things separate. In real life these things coalesce and feed into each other. Hence the need for a holistic approach. Stefan Weber a social worker from Berlin spoke about his work with marginalized people and poverty.

In our contribution we presented three things; a picture of Leeds and all its key features, some national and local data on poverty and a summary of the need for a vision and strategic approach. We spoke of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy for the city as a dynamic vision for the people and children of Leeds. The vision is that Leeds becomes a healthy and caring city for all ages; it seeks to create healthy communities, give people a say in decisions affecting them, address mortality rates in poor areas and improve the quality of life for all people in Leeds. We spoke of how we enthusiastically embrace this vision and seek to both imbed this in our service and spread it across the city.

We also discussed that the right process and right ideas are not enough without the right people - people of vision and care. We presented Cllr Lisa Mulherin, the chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board, as an example for her influence in the development of this inclusive and positive vision for the city. She has been a tremendous support to health and wellbeing initiatives and has acted to support the most vulnerable people in our city by creating new ways of working in a collaborative and learning manner across a city. Three examples of this include the implementation of 12 integrated care teams in the city, the Homeless Accommodation Leeds Pathways (HALP) and work around making sure that people had food by setting up a food network for homeless people and a wider food action plan and network across the city for all people lacking food. We also mentioned the role and work of Cllr John Hardy. John has been instrumental in the creation of these vital food plans and links and caring work on the streets to support homeless people.

We ended by discussing the great services working on the streets and in communities in Leeds. We broke the workshops into small groups and asked them to feed back good news and practice from their cities. Perhaps the most poignant moment for me was when a delegate said to the workshop that what he had seen and heard had convinced him to start to work with others involved in different areas of inclusion and seek alliances for the poor and vulnerable across his city. At the conference meal that night some delegates said to us that it was helpful to hear the good things happening in Leeds.

Incredible Years with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service

Leeds Community Healthcare Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) offers assessment and help to children and young people with significant emotional and behavioural difficulties (e.g. anxiety, depression, eating disorders) and their families.

We work across the Leeds area in community based teams and try to meet with families in a place near to where they live.

We recently completed a parenting group which provided parents of children with mental health issues strategies to manage difficult behaviours, as well as strengthening relationships, communication, understanding and self-esteem, through the use of play, praise and rewards.

The West CAMHS Incredible Years Parenting Group is an evidence-based structured treatment programme based on over 30 years worth of research. The parents who attended our recent course were very dedicated, completely took on board the principles and experienced exceptional improvements in a short space of time with their children, both at home and school. CAMHS Incredible Years. They followed the principles of the 'Incredible Years Pyramid' and one of the parents even made a cake reflecting the diagram!

The participants also kindly attended the induction session of the next Incredible Years group, in their own time, so that they could pass on the benefits of their personal experiences. We received some wonderful feedback such as:

"Thank you for all your help and support, it has been life changing."

"Just to say how lovely this journey has been, and thank you for sharing your time, skills and knowledge. It has made a huge difference to our lives."

The parents have been a joy to work with, and hearing about how much happier and calmer things are each week has been so rewarding to us, as practitioners and healthcare professionals.

This guest blog post was written by Vandhna Sharma, Child & Adolescent Mental Health Practitioner

To find out more about the work CAMHS do, or to get in touch, please visit our website.

Cooking Up a Storm at Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food in Leeds Kirkgate Market!

Yesterday we visited The Ministry of Food in Leeds Kirkgate Market where our Family Intervention Service is sponsoring some of their clients through an eight week cookery course.

Councillor Judith Blake was invited to visit the session to find out more about the scheme and award the participants with their certificates on completion of the course.

During the session the participants demonstrated the skills they have learnt so far as we were treated to a delicious fish stew with a buttered spinach accompaniment. The session started with some information about what ingredients they would be using and the importance of having fish and Omega 3 in your every day diet.

The class then busily started their prep as the tutor talked them through the different steps of cooking the dish. They were encouraged to utilise all of the skills they had learned so far and put them into practice whilst also learning how to prepare an exciting new dish. The session also involved a trip to the fish market to see exactly where their ingredients came from and find out what else the stalls have on offer, including live crabs!

The team at our Family Intervention Service identified 10 families who they thought would benefit from the programme, in the hope that the skills the parents learn will be built into their family’s daily lives and they will be able to prepare quick, healthy and cost-effective meals for the whole family.

The Family Intervention service works across East and North East Leeds providing support to families with complex needs. The work of the team is focussed on supporting and motivating families to help them move forward with their lives in a positive way.

Jamie Oliver, who has introduced the network of local food centres and cookery teachers across the country, said "I was thrilled to hear that the guys at the Leeds Community Healthcare Family Intervention Service have helped a group to attend the Ministry of Food Centre. I always hoped that the Ministry would be open to everyone who wants to learn to cook, regardless of their circumstances. It's hugely important that initiatives like this continue."

Find out more about the work our Family Intervention Service do here:

http://www.leedscommunityhealthcare.nhs.uk/our_services_az/family_intervention_service/

...and more about the Ministry of Food projects here:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/jamies-ministry-of-food/index.php

Pirate play day at the Leeds Family Intervention Service

Amal Sirrieh from the East Leeds Family Intervention service tells us about the recent pirate fun day hosted by the service.

The offers support to families and communities who may be in need of help in a range of areas. The service works predominately with families and children aged between 0-10 years old.

The service has recently organised an event aimed at bringing families involved in the service together to gain feedback about the support they have been receiving. As the core work completed within the team is focused around improving the home situation for children, it was very important to ensure the voice of the child was captured within the event. To ensure this took place, members of the team put their creative minds together to think about how to best achieve this. The outcome was well received by all – pirate theme.

Children were invited to make and decorate their own pirate hat, to create wall mounted collages to take home, visit the balloon station where hats, animals, swords and fishing rods were in high demand. Last but not least was the face painting area where children went to transform themselves into an animal of choice. It was great to see everyone enjoying themselves and meeting new people.

Mixed in among all of the fun and activities, were the feedback tables. To ensure anonymity within responses, colour coded stickers were provided that were linked with certain questions. The aims and objectives were to try and grasp the children’s perspectives of changes that have come about since working with the service and how they have affected them. A number of islands were created to represent positive and negative feedback these were called stormy, cloudy and sunny island. Adults were also invited to share their thoughts of the service.

The event was very successful in that lots of feedback was received. The children really enjoyed this aspect of the event and were transported to a land of sand, sea and pirates.

My work experience with Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust - by Harrison Dickens

Our guest blogger Harrison tells us about his experiences working for LCH...

Hello, my name is Harrison Dickens. I came to LCH for my work experience, and I spent most of the week working with Ian and his team at the IT helpdesk, and it was very interesting. On Thursday, I came down to the Comms team and learned about community talk and the intranet Elsie. Both the IT team and the Comms team made me feel very welcome, and I have enjoyed being a part of the teams.

On my first day, I was introduced to the IT team by Ian, and they all made me feel very welcome. I had a document of tasks that I needed to complete throughout the week, and most have been enjoyable. But even though there was on gruelling task, it still made me think that a job in IT is what I’d like to achieve. The atmosphere in the room was relaxed, and everyone was very friendly. I spent Tuesday working with Paul, and seeing what an IT helpdesk employee does. I loved it, as he allowed me to help him fix problems with laptops and log a call for an engineer to come and fix! I reset someone’s password for them, and used phonetic alphabet to reset someone’s Toughbook. I watched (and took part in) the Toughbook training, and it was interesting to see how the NHS Toughbook project comes to use.

Thursday was fun, as I met the Comms team and saw Emma and met Chloe. It was interesting to watch the Elsie training, as it is what the LCH use so I got a better understanding of what they use on Elsie. After that, I helped Sarah do the community talk. She showed me how she makes the community talk, and I was tasked with making it. Once I had done that, I went to a membership event with Emma and Chloe. It was interesting to see what the members enjoyed about the event, and to see the questions they had for the event.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time working here, if only for a week. Thank you everyone, for being so welcoming :D

Membership...focus on men's health

Stephen's Story
Read Stephen's story on why he became a members and some of the issues that affect men's healh today...

"I joined Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust after I saw an advertisement on a Leeds bus telling me that I could participate in, and help to shape, our NHS. This was appealing as I had spent the majority of my working life in or connected with the NHS and although it remains dear to my heart, sometimes it fails to reach the standards required. I believed that in the right environment I could contribute by using the experience I had gained from being both an employee and a patient to help overcome the challenges that the NHS faces now and in the future.

Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust has provided me with the forum that I sought offering me a platform as well as practical involvement so that I have played a part in shaping what is to come. It also helps me to keep up to date with how the NHS is changing.

Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust has also provided a pathway for wider involvement, working with the NHS Leadership Academy, Clinical Commissioning Groups, the CQC Action Team, the Open University pre-registration Nursing Programme and the opportunity to become an ‘Expert by Experience’ (a member of the CQC inspectorate).

Here are fourteen of the major issues (in no particular order} that I believe inform men’s approach to physical and emotional health:

• With the increase in female doctors, some men are too shy to discuss or be examined for ‘personal’ ailments
• Being ill does not correlate with male icons such as sports film and rock stars
• Some men feel that they are expected to be strong (illness being regarded as a weakness)
• Most health campaigns are targeted at women
• Poor previous experience of healthcare may be influential to some
• Most nurses are women
• Continuous contact between men and their GPs is easily broken after childhood (even children are most often taken to doctor’s by mother)
• Statutory Sick Pay is too low
• Women are entitled to more free prescriptions
• The media constantly publicise that the NHS is under strain
• Fear of discrimination at work
• Closing local services
• Difficulty in making a GP appointment
• Some men like to feel that they are in control of their lives, sometimes the NHS usurps this."

Find out more about being a member and our 'What's Up Man' campaign focusing on men's health here.

Work Experience with LCH NHS Trust

My name is Caleb Dodd and I go to Carr Manor Community School. From the 27th to the 31st of January I was extremely lucky to be given the opportunity to undergo work experience with the Communications department at Stockdale House.

During Rob’s Blog on Monday morning I was given a special mention from Rob Webster, the Chief Executive, this was followed by a warm welcoming from the whole Stockdale House team. Immediately I felt comfortable in the working environment here.

I completed lots of tasks over the week. Some were interesting and enjoyable, some were arduous and repetitive. That was one of the things I picked up in my time here; some things however boring have to be done. Another thing I was shocked about upon arrival was the amount of work that is done around here. On Monday morning I was reassured by Gillian Neild, Communications, PR and Marketing Manager, that it would be impossible to finish all the jobs on my schedule. My daunting schedule would seem straightforward to some of the people here as they do twice the amount!

Although the working atmosphere was relaxed, there were times where I’d look up from my desk and see a room full of people relentlessly typing away, working. The professional environment suited me. I enjoyed the feeling of being a part of a team operation on a massive scale.

I did things like writing press releases, writing for Community Talk (the weekly staff e-bulletin), social media research, updating the calendar, packing boxes of NHS branded gifts, graphic design work, writing this blog post and attending a aunch event. A fantastic variation in challenges.

The H.A.L.P. (Homeless Accommodation Leeds Pathway) event was very interesting. I learnt so much about this new program. It was a pleasure to be in the presence of people who are making such an impact on homelessness.

The week was a massive learning curve for me. I was given an insight into communications that I hadn’t had before. I got to be a part of a huge organisation even if only briefly. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here.