PUBLIC HEALTH UPDATE ISSUE NO 108 – AUGUST 2017 Welcome to the 108th edition update. If you would like to contribute to future editions please contact: GARIOCH COMMUNITY [email protected] KITCHEN PROMOTES COOKING SKILLS WITH FAMILIES AT TASTE OF GRAMPIAN Table of Contents Garioch Community Kitchen (GCK) had a very fruitful time attending this year’s Taste Garioch Community Kitchen of Grampian in June. The GCK team of Promotes Cooking Skills with Families at Taste of Grampian staff and volunteers worked nonstop to Reducing Child Poverty in demonstrate cooking and food skills within Aberdeenshire the Children’s Educational Tent. The team Aberdeenshire Local Rambles engaged with 150 children to make the Group traditional Scottish desert Cranachan using Walk-Ability raspberries kindly donated by Barra Berries Confident Weaning Choices: A Simple Approach to Weaning and oats provided by Hamlyn’s. Health & Social Care Teams in Kincardine & Mearns Learn about While the children were happy making and Local Support Services tasting their recent accomplishment, the Garioch Community ‘Voice’ their GCK team continued to engage with Support to help Local Projects parents, carers, grandparents. The team Aberdeenshire’s Research Project A New Aberdeenshire Initiative to also distributed flyers and had countless Improve Activity Lives among conversations with different people, Older Adults in Care Homes including school teachers, about support Braemar Care Initiative – Making CCK can offer in schools. Care More Accessible in the Local Community Following on from the event the GCK is Inaugural Garioch Games for Over 65’s delighted to say that there is already a Staff Changes number of bookings for summer classes from people who had attended Taste of Grampian. They have also been invited to promote cooking and food skills at the forthcoming Turriff show. For more information please contact: Material for the next PH Newsletter should be submitted no later than th Tuesday, 24 October 2017 to Rachel Stewart [email protected] Public Health Coordinator – Garioch Email: [email protected] REDUCING CHILD POVERTY IN ABERDEENSHIRE This year the Scottish Government outlined its vision to eradicate child poverty in this country by 2030. The Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill has been introduced and it places a duty on Scottish Ministers and public bodies to publish child poverty delivery plans and to report on those plans annually. In line with Scottish Governments ambition, the Aberdeenshire Community Planning Partnership (CPP) has approved a strategic priority of reducing child poverty in Aberdeenshire for inclusion within Aberdeenshire’s Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP). Research has been commissioned by Aberdeenshire Council for the Poverty Alliance and the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit to undertake work that will better understand the nature and impact of poverty in Aberdeenshire, its impact on children and families and to inform action required by Community Planning Partnership in Aberdeenshire. Results will be available in October 2017. Key aims of the research include: A literature review to understand poverty and child poverty within a rural and small town’s context, consistent with the geography of Aberdeenshire. Engagement with practitioners to identify current work in Aberdeenshire to support families living in poverty and to identify the scope for further action. Qualitative research with families living in poverty across Aberdeenshire to further understand of the impact of poverty and support required for children and families. An event for partners across Aberdeenshire to learn about the key findings from the research and to consider recommendations emerging from the research. George Howie For further information of this work please Principal Health Improvement Officer contact: Email: [email protected] ABERDEENSHIRE LOCAL RAMBLES GROUP It’s home time for the Aberdeenshire Public Health team, but for some the wellbeing support still goes on! Dawn Tuckwood, Public Health Coordinator for the Marr area along with her fellow Public Health colleague Rachel Stewart set off with team of 10 people from the local Rambles Group to take on the challenge of scaling the great heights of Lochnagar Mountain. The group, aged between 17 – 70 plus, walked 13 miles and climbed 1155 metres in 6 hours. The group were treated to typical Scottish weather of sun, rain, fog, sun and more rain. ‘It’s was hard going but it was worth it says Rachel’. To find out about your local Rambles Group contact: Allan Nisbet Email: [email protected] WALK-ABILITY Walk-ability is a new charity based in Aberdeen that can organise and guide walks in the Scottish hills for the disabled and their carers. Their aim is simple: to ensure that everybody can enjoy time in the great outdoors regardless of their physical abilities. All walks are led by one or more highly competent guides, all of whom hold nationally recognised hill-walking qualifications and are experienced in the issues faced by disabled walkers. Where appropriate they will meet the client face-to-face before the walk to discuss any specific issues or concerns. The photo shows members of Walk-ability at their recent inaugural walk. The weather gods certainly smiled on them that day as they guided a blind client to the summit of Bennachie … and safely down again. For more information go to www.walk-ability.co.uk. CONFIDENT WEANING CHOICES: A SIMPLE APPROACH TO WEANING Toolkit undergoing final testing Weaning, or complementary feeding, refers to the introduction of food, other than breast or formula milk, to an infant until they are eating the same food as the rest of the family. Weaning should be started at 6 months and ideally not before this unless, advised by a health professional. However, according to a national infant feeding survey, over 3 in 10 mothers introduce solid foods by the time their baby is 4 months old and nearly three-quarters of mothers introduce solids by the time their baby is 5 months old. Conversations with parents, staff from Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP), Home Start and Community Learning and Development suggested a need for more up-to-date, coherent and parent friendly weaning resources. Aberdeenshire Public Health worked with these same partners to develop a toolkit comprising: - a visual flip chart presentation - detailed notes and background information for early years practitioners - fun games activities to support learning - a planner for parents that could go on the fridge, demonstrating textures at the various weaning stages. The colourful resource is undergoing its final testing by two health visiting teams in Aberdeenshire and Garioch Home Start and will be available after the summer. More information is available from Dr Mary Bellizzi Health Improvement Officer (Local Lovernment) Email: ([email protected]) HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE TEAMS IN KINCARDINE & MEARNS LEARN ABOUT LOCAL SUPPORT SERVICES Lunch & Learn sessions have been held in Kincardine & Mearns (K&M) as an opportunity to raise awareness and promote local services to health and social care teams. The outcomes of these sessions are to increase the knowledge of Health & Social care teams on the range of local support services and organisations available to signpost and refer their client group to. The sessions were initiated through the K&M Wellbeing network and K&M Welfare Solutions group which are both multi-agency groups who are working together to deliver on this project. The K&M Public Health coordinator and a Community Health in Partnership officer from Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action have taken forward organising and evaluating each session. So far Lunch & Learn sessions have been held in Stonehaven & Laurencekirk GP practices in February and April 2017 with up to fifty Health & Social Care staff attending. Representatives from ten Third Sector Organisations came along to share information on each day and further sessions are planned in K&M before end of 2017. Feedback from the sessions has been very positive with new connections made between organisations and staff who learnt more about existing services. Comments included: “As I am a student nurse I did not know about the local resources” “knowledge of services is getting better ” A follow up evaluation is planned to see if there has been any increase in referrals and signposting to third sector organisations from H&SC staff. For more information please contact: Carolyn Lamb Public Health Coordinator K&M Email: [email protected] GARIOCH COMMUNITY ‘VOICE’ THEIR SUPPORT TO HELP LOCAL PROJECTS In April 2017, local groups and organisations were asked to bid for a share of a funding of £35,000 from the Aberdeenshire Health & Social Care Partnership and Aberdeenshire Council, through a process called participatory budgeting, to help address local priorities by coming forward with projects that would “reduce social isolation” or “promote inclusion”. Sixteen projects from across the Garioch area applied and all passed the funding criteria and were accepted on to the second stage where each had to design a poster to “tell their story”. There were no limitations of what type of media could be used and how creative they could get. Out came the felt tips, paint, card, photos even glitter!!! In return we received an array of wonderful and unique, individual posters. Garioch oozed talent!! The posters were viewed by members of the public who cast their votes for those projects they felt should