Lewisham Healthwatch Wellvember Fayre

8/13/2019 Lewisham Healthwatch Wellvember Fayre

1/6

Hello everyone, welcome to another audio blog by Matthew Mckenzie, a carer

from Lewisham working with the South London and Maudsley along with

Slamtwigops to promote services and keep carers, service users and health

professionals informed.

You can check out our acebook page which usually has daily news updates onmental health news in and around South London, we sometimes upload photos

to acebook and love likes and discussions. eel free to follow Slamtwigops

twitter page on updates and perhaps retweet anything you feel interested in. !r

for more in"depth details you can follow Slamtwigops blog which sometimes has

similar updates to acebook, but more in"depth topics on many updates

concerning mental health and health communities in South London.

#ow on Monday, $% #ovember $&'(, ) was back over at the *ivic Suite, *atford

to attend the Lewisham Healthwatch ayre $&'(. +here was free hand or head

massage in the rela-ation room, free light buffet, arts and crafts in the family

room/ plus an opportunity to talk to them about peoples e-periences of health

and social care. 0e also got to hear about what Lewisham Healthwatch is, what

they are doing and how they will be doing this in the borough of Lewisham.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

1ut what is Lewisham Healthwatch2

+aken from their site.

Healthwatch will give people a powerful voice locally and nationally. 3t a local

level, local Healthwatch will work to help local people get the best out of their

local health and social care services. 0hether its improving them today or

helping to shape them for tomorrow. Local Healthwatch is all about local voices

being able to influence the delivery and design of local services. #ot 4ust peoplewho use them, but anyone who might need to in future.

0e got to hear a bit more about why Healthwatch was set up and given some

e-tra responsibilities from the *5! of Healthwatch 5ngland, 6atherine 7ake.

1efore ) go on to that, ) might as well tell you what ) got up to first. irstly )

booked myself into the event and told the reception that ) am taking some

photos for SLaMs blog site, which they were ok with this. ) then met up with one

of my carers friends and we visited some of the stalls. 1ut what stalls were on

hand to visit at this event2


2/6

0ell there was a good selection. +he first stall ) visited was the )38+s stall, which

stands for )mproving 3ccess to 8sychological +herapies. +his stall had a vast

arrange of booklets and leaflets. )38+ Lewisham is a free and confidential #HS

service which offers a range of psychological therapies to adults '9 years and

over, who are registered with a Lewisham :8 or live in the borough of Lewisham.

+he aim is to improve the mental well"being of people e-periencing difficulties

such as;

low mood

sleep problems

feeling down due to unemployment or difficulties at work

low self"esteem

panic attacks...and more.

)38+s is also available in other boroughs such as Lambeth, Southwark and

perhaps *roydon.

+he ne-t stall was the Young Minds stall, which was run by Saffron 0orrell,


3/6

#ow 6atherine spoke about the following.

0hat is Healthwatch2

0hy Healthwatch was formed

" 1eing from the health care act because of the rancis en>uiry and

0interbourne ?iew investigation.

" 0e need to get services right from the beginning.

"

6atherine then spoke about

" How Link came before Healthwatch

o 0hat makes them different2

o How they oversee of all health services.

o 8lus how Healthwatch can give you have a very powerful voice

at a local level.

o Healthwatch has a duty to provide information and advice to

communities.

o +he power of health watch is how many know that Healthwatche-ists.

6atherine then spoke about Healthwatch at a #ational level.

" @uties and powers

" She spoke about *A* which is the *are Auality *ommission

" She then mentioned more on Healthwatch 5ngland, plus they

feed back to the secretary of state

"

Healthwatch tries to build the awareness. Make effective use of their local

powers.

Healthwatch 5ngland has relationship with Healthwatch Lewisham.

+hey have an emerging network to keep people in touch with each other.

3t the centre at what they do is helping people raise their voice in healthand social care concerns.


4/6

+oo often they hear people fall between the gaps of health and social care.

0e each have a right to access health and social care, but too often those

services are not providing access.

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Miriam Long then spoke a bit more about the activities throughout the day and

they still wanted to hear what Healthwatch Lewisham should focus on " on their 9

or B ob4ectives, which )/ll pick up on soon.

0e then had a game of bingo, but instead of using numbers, we used carer andvoluntary organisations throughout Lewisham. 3pparently one person won both

the prizes....how did that happen2

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

http;CCwww.burgessautistictrust.org.ukC

#e-t there was more stall visits and the ne-t stall ) visited was from the 1urgess

3utistic +rust who help to raise awareness of autism and to give advice and

support to those in a similar position. (& years on, they have grown in

e-perience and e-panded the range of services offered.

+heir purpose is to unlock potential, improve lives and widen horizons, one notch

at a time.

0ho do they help2

+hey are here to help anyone that suffers from or is affected by an 3utistic

Spectrum *ondition.

+hey will always make an assessment of those re>uirements, make

recommendations and estimate costs where it is appropriate.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
http://www.burgessautistictrust.org.uk/http://www.burgessautistictrust.org.uk/


5/6

) then visited the *arers Lewisham stall and met up with @iane Dones who is the

*5! of *arers Lewisham. ) bought some Emas cards from their stall, so this time

) can give out cards before Emas is over, because ) usually leave things till the

last moment.

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

3fter visiting the stalls, ) went off to have some refreshments, but was not sure

who provided the food this time. ) then meet up with a few other carers and

headed off to the workshop to give Healthwatch Lewisham my ideas on what

they need to prioritize on.

0e were given F red stickers and had to choose where to place each of the F

stickers on the G categories.

+hey were @omiciliary *are

Mental Health Services

3ccess to 8rimary *are

*arers assessment and support

Se-ual Health and H)?

)ntegrated *are

5nablement

*are Homes

Lewisham and :reenwich Hospital Merger although ) believe that merger hasbeen done, not sure if it/s fully functionalI

) visited one last stall and this one was on the #HS complaints 3dvocacy.

+he #HS *omplaints 3dvocacy Service is a free and independent service that can

help people make a complaint about a #ational Health Service #HSI.

Most of us use the #HS at some point in our lives and many of us use them >uiteregularly.


6/6

#ow we know the #HS work hard to make sure that people are satisfied with

their services and receive good >uality treatment.

1ut things can go wrong.

8eople may want to complain about a service they receive from the #HS, or

might want to complain on someone else/s behalf. +here are different ways to do

this.

*heck out their site at " http;CCnhscomplaintsadvocacy.orgC

0hat did ) think of the event2

+he event ) en4oyed >uite well and many did turn up, but not as much as )thought. )t could have been >uite cold, but overall a fairly good turn out. ) had

some trouble networking, but ) did meet up with some old friends. +he food was

>uite good and ) did en4oy the bingo and learnt more about other charitable

organisations in the borough of Lewisham.
http://nhscomplaintsadvocacy.org/http://nhscomplaintsadvocacy.org/

Documents

Lewisham Healthwatch Wellvember Fayre