20 October 2022 – VAI Health & Wellbeing Network Meeting Outcome
The Health & Wellbeing Network returned in October with an agenda focused on access to care and mental health services. As usual, here is your monthly round up complete with all agenda items, summaries and presentations for anyone who couldn’t make it on the day. If you would like to watch a recording of the meeting, you can access it here: https://youtu.be/CZepqRDLWj0
1. Hyperlocal Vaccination Programme & Public Health update (Navinder Kaur, VAI – navinder.kaur@vai.org.uk)
The COVID-19 Autumn Booster and flu vaccination campaigns are well underway, and demand for both is very high. Nationwide, the NHS has already administered 5 million Autumn Boosters, and almost 4 million flu jabs to those aged 65+, health and social care workers, pregnant women, and those with certain clinical vulnerabilities. Thanks to all who have helped protect our communities in this way.
In the last week the NHS has also contacted the parents and carers of 750,000 children who are not up to date with their vaccinations against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). We need your support with driving uptake and have attached a comms toolkit to help spread this important message. This comes as we continue to reach out to parents across London with the urgent offer of an additional polio booster – a toolkit for this campaign will help you continue to support this work and can be found here: MMR toolkit v3
2. The NCL111 Integrated Urgent Care Service (Clare Kapoor, NHS North Central London – clare.kapoor@nhs.net)
Clare and Robyn from the NHS NCL team joined us to describe the NHS 111 contract in the area. The integrated urgent care services provides access by phone and online with trained health advisors answering calls 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It also provides urgent GP face-to-face appointments at five sites across North Central London including home visits during out of hours periods. In a key change since 2016, appointments can now be booked into a variety of healthcare settings including GPs, extended access hubs, urgent treatment centres and emergency departments. The launch of the Think 111 Programme encourages residents to contact NHS 111 rather than choosing to attend emergency departments when they need urgent medical assistance but it is not an emergency. In an attempt to improve the service, the team have been engaging with stakeholders and partners across the wider Integrated Care System and residents that currently use the service to ensure their views and experience informs development. They have particularly considered the needs of residents who may find accessing some of these services more difficult. The team are still collating feedback from the community on how best to improve access so if you have any comments, please feel free to contact Clare using the email address above.
3. Mental Health & Co-Production at Hillside (Anna Di Mascio, Hillside Clubhouse – adimascio@hillsideclubhouse.org.uk)
Anna joined us to describe the brilliant services offered at Hillside Clubhouse, co-produced mental health charity and community supporting and encouraging each other in our journey of recovery. Hillside works with people across Camden and Islington to design and run a varied programme of activities, while providing support to rebuild confidence, re-engage with your community and rediscover a sense of purpose through workshops, training, volunteering and paid employment. They have an Open Day on the 31st October which will be co-delivered by staff and members where we will provide taster sessions of how staff and members work together in all the different projects. If anyone would like to attend, you can contact Anna directly using the email address above. There are two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. You can find out more here: Hillside Flyer
4. A Conversation Between Mental Health Outreach Workers (Emily Snowden & Sarah O’Connor, NHS/Age UK Islington – soconnor@ageukislington.org.uk)
Employed by both Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust and Age UK Islington, Sarah and Emily started in their roles in January as Mental Health Outreach Workers. They work with clients to help them to untangle and tackle some of the things that are going on in client’s lives and also to help them access the rich variety of support that is available in the community. For more information about their roles and how they fit within the wider mental health support available, click here. Referrals to the Mental Health Outreach Workers are via Central 1 & 2 Primary Care Network GPs and from Age UK Islington.
Age UK Islington provides information and advice to adults of all ages – we help people aged 16+ with social connection and any problems or issues with money, staying safe, well and independent at home, getting out and about and other issues to do with day-to-day living. Our staff also provide more indepth one-to-one support, helping to build confidence, skills and to engage with support to meet a client’s goals. For more information about Age UK Islington services and how to refer.
Email: gethelp@ageukislington.org.uk Telephone: 020 7281 6018 Website: www.ageukislington.org.uk
Carers Wellbeing Day
24 November, 10 – 2.30pm, in person with free lunch or online (morning and afternoon sessions)!
Upper Holloway Baptist Church, Tollington Way, N7 (Archway tube / Holloway Road bus routes)
Islington Carers Hub is hosting a Carers Wellbeing Day on Thursday 24 November: a day of “Calm, Wellbeing and Friendship” for Islington carers. It’s an opportunity for Islington unpaid carers to take a breather from caring, chat to other carers over a free lunch, receive some pampering and discover some techniques to help when life is challenging. There will be lots of opportunity to speak to local providers providing – cost of living support, dementia activities, employment and training opportunities.
Please see the flyer with the full programme, here. Booking https://islingtoncarershub.org/carers-rights-day/
Islington Carers Hub is dedicated to providing unpaid carers with guidance and support for their wellbeing and for those that they care for. We can provide a listening ear and help with money & housing issues, help to get a break, support with employment and an introduction to a network of Islington carers. We support unpaid carers who are 18yrs+ living in Islington who are caring for an adult, or who are caring for an adult living in Islington.
Email: info@islingtoncarershub.org Telephone: 020 7281 3319 Website: https://www.islingtoncarershub.org
