Taking care of yourself with help from Barnsley health services
South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is backing this year’s Self Care Week with an extensive programme of local events.
Self Care Week 2012 takes place from November 12-18. It aims to help people take care of their health and lets them know what services are available to help them do so. The campaign is run by the Self Care Forum in partnership with the Department of Health every year.
Local health services are participating in activities throughout the Barnsley area to mark Self Care Week and encourage residents to be aware of the help on offer to them. This includes the nurse care navigation service, the stop smoking and weight management services and therapy services. Residents can find out more about these services during a week of awareness-raising within the town centre and at local supermarkets.
Paul Hughes, service lead for the telehealthcare service, said, “Self care doesn’t mean leaving people to look after themselves: far from it. To us it means keeping fit and healthy as well as knowing how to take medicines, treat minor ailments and, importantly, seek help when you need it. If you have a long-term condition, self care is about understanding that condition and how best to manage it in order to live life to the full.
“Our health services will be out and about throughout the week to offer support and advice to local people about using services appropriately and recognising how and when we can be most useful.”
The nurse care navigators from the Barnsley care navigation service will be in a different part of Barnsley each day during Self Care Week, including Barnsley Interchange (Tuesday morning and all day Thursday), the town centre (Wednesday morning) and Goldthorpe Library (Friday 10am-2pm). They will promote self care, in particular informing the local community about the services they provide, such as:
•information and advice in relation to managing a long term condition
•help to enable people to access services that may meet their needs
•support to identify things that people may wish to change to improve how they feel.
Paul continues, “Self care also means caring for your family, so we expect the events to be very popular with those who wish to find out how they can best care for their loved ones’ needs as well as their own. Anyone wishing to know more about self care is very welcome to come along and talk to us at the events.“