Category Archives: Health & Wellbeing

World Diabetes Day – Saturday 14th November

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Today is #WorldDiabetesDay  and the local NHS is urging residents to be more aware of the condition, learn how they can prevent or manage it and access support if they need it.
In Leeds, out of a population of around 800,000 people, approximately 44,000 people have diabetes, and a further 36,000 are at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.  People are more at risk if they’re white and over 40 or over 25 if they have African-Caribbean, Black African, or South Asian heritage.
This year, it’s especially important to be aware of the risk of T2 diabetes and to manage the condition well, because people with diabetes of any kind are more likely to catch coronavirus. While most people will have mild symptoms, people with diabetes can become seriously unwell, as their bodies have to fight with the virus as well as problems caused by fluctuating blood sugar levels.
For more information about the condition, how to prevent or manage it and where to find support if you need it visit: NHS Leeds Diabetes support or https://www.diabetes.org.uk/
You can check your risk of developing T2 diabetes here: https://bit.ly/1WauZbi

Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service – Older Adults Class

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Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service will be starting their ‘Live Well in Later Life’ class on Wednesday the 18th November. The class is designed for older adults or for anyone who can relate to difficulties older adults may face (e.g. retirement, loss, isolation, physical health difficulties).

The class will run for 5 weeks from 18th Nov-16th Dec and starts at 10:00. Due to current covid restrictions they are delivering the class online though the Microsoft Teams platform.

Here’s a little bit of information about the class from their website.

Later life can be a big time of change, which can lead to us feeling low or perhaps more worried or stressed. You may have noticed little changes, or started not feeling like yourself. Sometimes we can experience big life stressors that have a big impact on our wellbeing.

The Live Well in Later Life course aims to help manage these difficulties by teaching you techniques that you can use everyday to tackle low mood and worries.

You may benefit from the course if you have:

  • Recently retired or semi retired, or are experiencing work related problems
  • Increased caring responsibilities for family or friends
  • A physical health condition that maybe impacting on your wellbeing
  • Experienced a loss or bereavement
  • Become more isolated
  • Stopped doing things you used to enjoy
  • Worry a lot or are having trouble sleeping

What we cover in the class:

  • Week one – introduction, understanding mental health
  • Week two – sleep and improving physical symptoms of anxiety
  • Week three – low mood and our behaviour, how to increase motivation
  • Week four – Negative thinking and managing worry
  • Week five – maintaining progress and further resources

The classes are based on guided self-help cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) which is an effective therapy for treating depression and anxiety symptoms. You will learn how your thoughts, feelings, behaviours and physical symptoms interact and impact emotional wellbeing. The classes are run by qualified psychological wellbeing practitioners.

These are psychoeducational classes, not group therapy – The idea is to watch, listen, and learn about mental health and ways to improve it, and clients are encouraged to make changes outside of the classes to improve how they feel.

If they would like to join the class, you can sign up on their website – https://www.leedscommunityhealthcare.nhs.uk/our-services-a-z/leeds-mental-wellbeing-service/online-group-classes/live-well-in-later-life/

You will receive information and instructions on how to join using Teams when you have signed up. You will need to have access to a computer or tablet to be able to join.

Shared Moments: ‘Oliver feeling uncertain??’ written by Oliver Cross

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Anxiety is an ordinary consequence of being sane and if you fail to feel it during a major pandemic, you probably need help. Depression, too, is to be expected if you’re dealing with broken work routines, precarious earnings, threadbare television, confusing government announcements or the scores of things we’ve recently had to add to our worry lists.

But I’m a ‘vulnerable’ 70-year-old, so all this is overshadowed by the raw reality that the possible effects of the virus include, as well as anxiety and depression, a lonely and unpleasant death.

We tend, even if we’re in the undertaking or terminal care trades, to think that death, the only certainty in life, won’t apply to us. This is why, over the centuries, millions of people have marched willingly to war and why, right now, so many are stressing the possible psychological or economic effects of the virus rather than acknowledging the fact that, worldwide, it will leave hundreds of thousands dead, possibly including me.

Of course fretting about the non-fatal effects of the virus can be dismissed as a predictable displacement activity – a feeling that, with death knocking at the door, it’s time to change the subject. But the current spike in depression and anxiety is real enough and may be terrible for some; it’s just that diphtheria or smallpox would generally be a lot worse.

I’ve long been suspicious of the idea, which has become a sort of universally-agreed wisdom, that we should give the same status to mental illness as we give to physical illness, assuming there are enough physiologists in the world to separate the two, which there probably aren’t.

Like all 70-year-olds, I’ve seen the awful effects of severe illnesses, both ‘physical’ and ‘mental’, but most diseases, complaints and conditions could best be regarded, especially in the age of Covid-19, as trivial, or at least bearable.

Ordinary headaches, ordinary colds, indigestion, feeling anxious while waiting for exam results, feeling down because you can’t cheer on your team… they all, as they so often put it now, have an impact on your mental wellbeing, but they hardly ever  kill you.

Thank you Oliver, until next time….

Additional guidance and support for vulnerable people during lockdown

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The government has revised its guidance on those over 60 or who are deemed to be clinically vulnerable and could be at higher risk of severe illness from coronavirus. If you fall into this category, you should:

  • be especially careful to follow the rules and minimise your contacts with others
  • continue to wash your hands carefully and more frequently than usual and maintain thorough cleaning of frequently touched areas in your home and/or workspace.

There is support available if you need it.  Please contact us at Caring Together if you need any help or advice, or for more information about other support available in the city see: https://www.leeds.gov.uk/coronavirus/people-and-communities

Current information on who is classed as ‘vulnerable’ or clinically extremely vulnerable is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-national-restrictions-from-5-november#protecting-people-more-at-risk-from-coronavirus. (If you fall into the latter category you should have received a letter giving you detailed guidance)

 

Poetry Corner: ‘ Dumpty written by John Lithgow

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‘Dumpty’ by John Lithgow
Trumpty Dumpty wanted a wall
To stir up a rabid political brawl.
His Republican rivals, both feckless and stodgy,
Succumbed in the end to his rank demagogy.
Dumpty’s wall made no earthly sense,
A boondoggle built at enormous expense.
But he promised, in speeches despotic and shrill,
He’d make certain that Mexico footed the bill.
Trumpty Dumpty kept insisting.
More and more citizens started resisting.
Sadly, there won’t be an end to this tale,
At least until reasonable people prevail.  
Dumpty: The Age of Trump in Verse (Dumpty, #1) by John Lithgow

NHS Services during the pandemic

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Information from NHS in Leeds:

Your GP practice is still open, although initial contact should always be by telephone or online consultation. You will be seen face-to-face if necessary. Our staff are working hard in these difficult times, so remember to be #BeKind         

Thank you for your patience.

Your NHS is working hard to maintain a wide range of services despite a significant increase in demands from Covid. It may take longer to treat you than we would normally want or expect. 
Find out more, including how to access the right service: bit.ly/3nWuDqa

Nature Revealed+Caring Together Nature Writing Project: web series concludes

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Dear all,

To conclude this web series on our nature writing workshop with Caring Together, we are very pleased to be able to share a downloadable curated booklet, which includes the handwritten pieces and typed transcriptions, for everyone to enjoy.

We are especially grateful to the workshop participants for giving us their permission to share their fantastic work online. To download the PDF booklet, click the link below! 

                         
PDF Booklet Curated and Transcribed by Dr Lucy Rowland

‘Remembrance Day Commemorations’

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Dear all, see below a message from Leeds City Council – note the dates below

Our annual Remembrance Sunday commemorations will look very different this year, due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic.

Due to the risks posed there won’t be the usual service or military parade at Victoria Gardens in Leeds. People are being urged to undertake their own acts of remembrance at home by observing the national two minute silence, displaying an image of a poppy in their windows and watching the pre-recorded Act of Remembrance and wreath laying ceremony with the Lord Mayor, Lord-Lieutenant and Royal British Legion.

Residents can download an image of a poppy from the Royal British Legion website to display in your windows to remember those who died. You can also donate to the poppy appeal as a one off donation or a regular gift. https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/

Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Eileen Taylor said:

“Remembrance Sunday is a time when our city comes together to honour the heroic efforts, achievements and sacrifices made by so many of our armed forces during times of conflict.

It fills me with great pride to still be laying a wreath as part of a pre-recorded event on behalf of the city as part of this year’s commemoration. I would like to encourage the people of Leeds to take the time to remember from the safety of their own homes the ultimate sacrifice paid by those to whom we owe so much.

I am immensely disappointed not to be able to gather in person this year, but I am sure you will understand that the protection of all those who would usually have taken part or supported the event is our highest priority.”

Cllr Judith Blake, Leader of Leeds City Council said:

“This year has seen the marking of the 75th Anniversaries of VE and VJ Day through virtual events as well as marking Armed Forces Day virtually too.

Our priority in the current climate is to prevent the rising spread of infection and even though there will be no public event in the city centre, we would encourage people to pay their respects at their local memorials at any time during Remembrance Week while maintaining social distancing.”

Our council buildings will be lit up in red from Friday 6 November in honour of our brave service personnel who have lost their lives in times of conflict and the gates to the war memorial on Victoria Gardens will be open throughout the week of Remembrance (Friday 6-Thursday 12 November) for individuals or families who wish to lay a wreath.

Leeds Libraries

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Leeds Libraries

The following libraries/hubs will be open from Fri 6 Nov The following libraries/community hubs will be open from Friday 6 November providing limited services throughout the lockdown:-
Central Library (opening hours: Monday to Saturday 11am – 3pm)
Community Libraries:
• Armley
• Compton Centre
• Dewsbury Road
• Headingley
• Reginald Centre
• Seacroft
Opening hours for the libraries listed above are: Monday to Friday 10am – 4pm, Saturday 10am – 1pm
Please check https://www.leeds.gov.uk/leisure/libraries for full details.

 

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Nature Revealed+Caring Together Nature Writing Project

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Dear all,

A final reflection on our Caring Together Nature Writing Workshop. In this piece, Dr Lucy J Rowland considers how the group’s writing reflects on the challenges of Climate Change in fascinating and creative ways…….

Click on the link below to read more:
https://landlinesproject.wordpress.com/climate-change/