Pregnant women and new mums invited to share their views at the 'Whose Shoes?' maternity services event
The NHS in the Black Country will be holding its fourth ‘Whose Shoes?’ maternity listening workshop on Tuesday 17 July 2018 from 10am-2pm at Grand Station Conference & Events Venue, Sun Street, Wolverhampton, WV10 0BF.
The event aims to gather views and feedback from pregnant women, new mums and their families in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, West Birmingham and Wolverhampton to understand what they need at every stage of their maternity journey and explore potential options and solutions for the development of local services.
This workshop is the result of local NHS organisations working together as a Local Maternity System (LMS) and three other workshops have already taken place across the Black Country. The LMS has been set up in response to NHS England’s Better Births report, which sets out a vision for safer, more personalised maternity care that reflects women’s choices and offers continuing joined-up care, and also supports the work taking place in the Black Country Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP).
Online digital counselling service for young people aged 11 – 19
An online digital counselling service for young people aged 11 – 18 has recently been commissioned by Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group (WCCG).
Kooth will be delivering a free, safe, confidential and non-stigmatised way for young people aged 11-19 to receive counselling, advice and support on-line. Counselling sessions are available from 12pm until 10pm Monday to Friday, and 6pm until 10pm Saturday and Sunday.
The therapy team are qualified counsellors and psychotherapists who deliver evidence-based interventions. They deliver CBT, solution focused and humanistic approaches such as narrative and other relational therapies. The counsellors have clear pathways into others services too, ensuring the young person gains information needed and are signposted to the most appropriate provisions.
The service can be accessed via www.kooth.com All information provided is confidential although young people will be asked to give some details to enable them to register on the site.
Stand Up and Speak Out during Safeguarding Week
Members of Wolverhampton’s Safeguarding Adults and Children Boards will highlight what people can do to help someone who they are worried may be at risk from abuse and neglect during Wolverhampton Safeguarding Week, which begins on Monday (11 June, 2018).
A host of awareness-raising events are taking place throughout the week, and people are being encouraged to Stand Up and Speak Out if they have any concerns at all that someone is being abused.
Activities include a pop-up shop offering advice and information in the Mander Centre - next to The Works - on Monday and Wednesday, 11 and 13 June, from 10am-5pm. Members of the safeguarding teams from Safeguarding Board partners will be on hand to speak to shoppers and also talk to people on a one-to-one basis about any concerns they may have.
Loudmouth Theatre Company will be presenting two plays at The Way Youth Zone on School Street; Helping Hands, focusing on the risks children face from grooming and exploitation, on Tuesday 12 June, and Working for Marcus, highlighting the risks of sexual exploitation to young people, on Friday 15 June.
In addition, safeguarding training is being delivered to faith groups throughout the week, while a major conference will be taking place on Thursday 14 June involving over 100 frontline staff from all members of Wolverhampton's Safeguarding Boards - including the City of Wolverhampton Council, West Midlands Police, Wolverhampton Domestic Violence Forum and health partners - to discuss what can be learned from domestic homicide and serious case reviews.
Ambitious Vision to improve health of City’s residents
Health chiefs in Wolverhampton have set an ambitious target to increase people’s healthy life expectancy – the length of time they can expect to be in 'good health' – by nearly 10 years over the next decade.
Latest data shows that the average healthy life expectancy for men and women in Wolverhampton is 56.4 years and 59.5 years respectively. The City of Wolverhampton Council's Vision for Public Health 2030 has laid down a target to raise this to 66 years for men and 69 years for women by 2030.
At the same time, the Vision seeks to increase the average life expectancy of men from 77.4 to 81 years and for women from 81.4 to 84 years by 2030 while also closing the gap in life expectancy between the City's richest and poorest residents by around a third. Currently this stands at 11.3 years for men and 9.5 years for women.
It comes as public health services in Wolverhampton are being transformed, with a new focus on addressing those factors known to impact the health and wellbeing of people on a City-wide level.
Fibonacci improvements to boost mental health care in Wolverhampton
Health and Social Care services in Wolverhampton have been given a boost after the successful integration of a mental health feed into the existing online data-sharing system, Fibonacci.
It will help Community Multi-Disciplinary Teams, such as district nurses, social workers and community matrons, have access to more information about their patients, meaning they can create a more co-ordinated health plan and improve care for patients.
This project has been a collaborative effort from health and social care partners across Wolverhampton, with representatives from Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group, the City of Wolverhampton Council, the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, Fibonacci and the Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation.
Andrea Smith, Head of Integrated Commissioning from Wolverhampton CCG said today, “The enhanced information provides further opportunities for information sharing at points where NHS staff provide direct care. This care will be enhanced by having an integrated view of patient’s health, social care and mental health key records meaning patients will not have to keep repeating the same story to different professionals.”
“This care will be enhanced by having an integrated view of patient’s health, social care and mental health key records meaning patients will not have to keep repeating the same story to different professionals.”
Cancer Engagement Event – May 2018
A really successful engagement event took place in May to listen to and share people’s views and experiences of cancer services in Wolverhampton. The event was funded by Macmillan Cancer Support and took place at the University of Wolverhampton. 25 people attended the event and participants included people in Wolverhampton who are living with cancer and who have previously had experience of cancer.