Public Health

PUBLIC HEALTH

UPDATE

ISSUE NO 86 – JUNE 2013

Welcome to the 86th editionupdate.

If you would like to contribute to

future editions, please contact:

Morethan 40 public healthcolleagues from all areas of NHS Grampian gathered together on a sunny Thursday morning tothink and chat abouthealth behaviour change including its role in our work.We thought about changing health behaviour using a three layered 'behaviour map' from health psychology.We enjoyed stimulating guest mini presentations, small and larger group discussions focussing on using and applying this.

For all who are interested, the slides from the dayincluding the'behaviour map' are available on hi-net at

Hopefullywe can keep sharing and learning from each others' expertisein health behaviour change across our different work streams in public health. Ideas for further learning and how health psychology can support this are very welcome.

Anne Whitcombe, Eleanor Bull andEmma Bell

Westhill & District Men’s Shed

Make friends, share interests and help our community

Westhill Men’s Shed: How are we doing after 4 months?

The Westhill Men’s Shed was opened on 4th February 2013. Every week we have an average of 60 men coming to the Shed and numbers grow by 1 or 2 each week. The reasons they come are as varied as their life histories which, with the majority being retired, are fascinating. A major factor is that they like the company of other men; receiving or giving advice, telling stories of events in their lives. Some men simply come in for a game of cards and a chat.

The shed is based on the successful pattern developed in Australia; a workshop and a hobby/relaxation area. People bring in their own projects to do in the workshop. Some don’t have the facilities at home, socome along for the company or to get advice on a technique they are not familiar with. Some like to pass on their knowledge and becomeknown as an expert, always willing to help using their particular expertise.

The shed also runs projects which anyone may join. The first project was to restore a stationary engine and water pump (built about 1950). A core team soon developed and a lot of man-hours have been spent on a regular basis. It seems to have been so well attended because there are a lot of engineers in the area, who did not just participate as a way to earn money, but as an enjoyable way to keep practising their craft. Talking to them is also important that they are aware they are not working alone, but have interaction with others. Not everyone involved is retired though- working age men come along on our late night opening hours.

And of course the kettle goes on, on a regular basis. It is almost as if union rules were in effect because everyone downs tools and comes for a chat.

For any enquiries, please contact:

on Shed phone: 07881 533754

The FirstAberdeenCity’s Local Tobacco Alliance (LTA) engagement event took place

at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Servicefacility on North Anderson Drive.

The Local Tobacco Alliance is a coming-together of those organisations that have an interest in reducing and regulating tobacco use - for example, Trading Standards Officers, Environmental Health Officers,Local Authorities Officers foreducation, NHS smoking cessation services and voluntary sector organisations. Over 60 key staff from across agencies and sectors in Aberdeen city took part in the event, including Aberdeen City Council, NHS Grampian, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Scotland, as well as, third sector groups, including Aberdeen Foyer, ASH Scotland and ACVO, who chaired the group. Attendees were treated to a showcase event with a number of local colleagues presenting snapshots of their projects.

The event started off with Fred Mc Bride, Director of Social Care and Well-being, giving everyone an overview of AberdeenCity’s continuing success in moving towards the Scottish Government’s aim to have a generation of Smoke free Scots by 2035.

Some key facts discussed were:

The estimated prevalence of smoking in Aberdeen is now 23% (24% for Scotland). In addition, estimated yearly costs of tobacco in Scotland include:

£34million to clear smoking related litter from streets;
£12million from fires caused by smoking in commercial premises;
£692 million from productivity losses due to excess absenteeism, smoking

breaks and lost output due to premature death (nearly £70million in Grampian);

£271 million to treat smoking attributable diseases in the NHS

Fred ended his talk by advising that The Community Planning Partnership in Aberdeen needs to provide leadership, to make the choice not to smoke the easy choice for people and create smoke free environments across the City. It has a key role to play by working collaboratively to change culture, reduce barriers and change norms that exists with society to create the environment and support all people to make choice not to smoke.

Brian Pringle, Director of Projects and Service Development at ASH Scotland also gave an inspiring and well-received talk covering the national picture in Scotland. He commented:

‘This was a dynamic event that brought people together across sectors to share their work and thoughts about reducing the harm from smoking and tobacco across Grampian. It’s great to see so many different local organisations joining together, and it’s especially relevant when people have to do more with fewer resources. This alliance can forge working partnerships and drive change that will benefit people across the region and I look forward to hearing more as plans develop.’

For more information about the work of the LTA, please contact:

The Ellon Health & Wellbeing forum has met since February 2012 and is made up of partner organisations and departments within Aberdeenshire Council, NHS Grampian, voluntary organisations and the local community. The forum meets every 6-8 weeks and is working on specific priorities for 2012/13 as follows:

1.Review activities for older people involving sports centre and/or sheltered housing based activities.

2.Review need for setting up of a lunch club for older people

3.Growing vegetables, healthy eating and socialisation via a community garden, shared gardens, allotments

4.Increase communication and opportunities for older people to engage in the local area

Community Allotment - A sub group of interested people and organisation representatives
got together to develop a small community allotment space behind the ParishChurch in Ellon (near the riverside). The landowner gifted the land for a minimum of 5 years for use by the community. The garden needed some work and funding was sought from the Formartine
Community Planning Group and through the Council's mental health team. It is envisaged that
service users from Mental Health Aberdeen and the council substance misuse and mental health service will continue to use the space. We also have interest from EllonAcademy and
Ellon Out of School Club as well as some of the local primaries to use the space. The space is available for anyone to use and we will have a formal launch of the garden later in the summer.

A short physical activity pilot for older people was completed in November 2012 where participants were referred by a health professional to local leisure services. Physical activity sessions included gentle exercise classes, swimming and short health walks around Ellon.

A full report of the outcome of the pilot can be made available on request.

An audit within Ellon was completed in January 2013 to assess how aware the community is of local activities in the area. 133 people completed the questionnaire. Copies of the results can be made available on request.

“Fit Like Ellon” -From reviewing the outcomes of the audit, the Ellon forum decided to work with the community council and partner organisations to increase awareness of what community groups and activities are available for all age groups by holding a “Fit Like Ellon” event on 8June 2013. To date some 41 organisations agreed to take part and feedback from the day will be evaluated to assess if the local community are more aware of what is available in their area.

Mens Group-A subgroup is also reviewing needs for a group for men living in the Ellon area. If you would be interested in a group of this type, please come along to an initial meeting on Thursday, 4 July at 10am in the Ythan Centre, Schoolhill Road, Ellon. There is no barrier relating to age or interests – you just have to be male!

Healthy Eating– Finally, for information, NHS Grampian - Public Health Team is looking for input from local groups to complete a short survey on healthy eating/food skills within the Formartine area. If you are part of a group and would be interested in doing more around healthy eating please complete the survey on the following link:

If you are interested in any of the above please contact:

Interested in becoming a safeTALK trainer?

Do you want to make your community more aware of suicide prevention?

Are you ASIST trained?

What is a safeTALK?

safeTALK is a LivingWorks’ programme that trains people to recognise persons with thoughts of suicide and connect them to suicide intervention resources. These suicide alertness skills complement the skills of suicide intervention caregivers. safeTALK is a response to a long-known need for a programme that can be delivered:

in less than a half day
to communities with a range of skills and experience
by one trainer with groups of up to 30 participants.

What skills do I need?

The following are essential:

you are ASIST trained
you are a skilled presenter
you have good group facilitation skills
you are committed to promoting suicide safety through open and direct talk about suicide.

Committment

willing to undergo two day training course followed by two days of preparatory work
committed to delivering a minimum of three safeTALK inputs per year.

Next Steps

Contact:

A total of 6 teams (27 staff), working for NHS Grampian and based at InverurieHospital, have recently taken part in health promotion activity. These staff, consisting of occupational therapists, nursing staff, admin staff, public health and management, used pedometers to measure their steps, which increased from 26 miles in the first week to 199 miles at end of the 6 week period.

Staff reported positive health benefits from increasing their physical activity and in meeting colleagues from other departments encouraged each other to walk further each week. “From lunch time walks to weekend challenges, the teams have achieved great results in such a short period of time”.