Kirklees learning disability health team help people to become ‘Happy and healthy’ at LD week event

The Kirklees learning disability health team held their first ‘Happy and healthy’ event in celebration of learning disability week 2019.

The event, open to all, was hosted at Dewsbury Minster on Thursday 20 June from 11am to 2pm. It featured a variety of activities, information stalls and games for attendees to get involved in while learning useful information about the support available from the learning disability health team.

One of our learning disability nurses involved with organising the event, Sophie Robinson, said: “We were already thinking for a while about health events and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss tapping into the publicity and positive mood of LD awareness week. Messages to improve health don’t have to be lecturing or serious, they can be fun!”

The event featured:

• Information about the team
• Stress busters
• Healthy eating tips: the team held a ‘sugar swap’ stall with advice on healthy eating, guidance on sugar content and information on sugar free alternatives.
• Meaningful occupation: the occupational therapists used a stall focusing on self-care with demonstrations on activities such as brushing teeth, shaving and using cream to encourage repetitive actions. The stall also featured a mystery box containing various models of fruits and vegetables hidden to allow people to identify objects through touch whilst also promoting healthy eating.
• ‘Let’s talk about feelings’: creative activity to discuss feelings of happiness, sadness and describing triggers of emotion to provide beneficial feedback for our services.
• Relaxation and mindfulness: various techniques of relaxation and mindfulness activities were on display including hand massages, progressive muscle relaxation, colouring and drawing.
• Love Activity, Hate Exercise: hosted by the physiotherapy team, the activity provided information, details and guidance to promote activity (over exercise) to encourage participation and interest for service users to take on fun activities on a regular basis.
• Interactive activities and games: including splat the rat, giant connect-four and a range of group sessions such as parachute games, dance and muscle relaxation.

The ‘Happy and healthy’ event was well received by everyone in attendance with enthusiastic responses and positive feedback.

One member of care staff described a service user’s experience of the relaxation station by saying: “This person will not normally tolerate her feet being touched, but has done really well today…best day ever”.

Find out more about our Kirklees learning disability health service on our service directory or by contacting 01924 316714.

Our learning disability week 2019 events continue tomorrow with our Wakefield community learning disability team hosting a health café at Wakefield College from 10am – 1pm. Contact 01924 316926 for further information.