Last month our Integration Team organised another successful Health and Wellbeing Day. The event, held at the nearby Burlington Church Hall was an opportunity for our community to talk to people from local organisations and health service providers, and even a team of midwives!
We were delighted to host a wealth of local Health Service providers including OneLife Suffolk, Suffolk Mind, BSC Multicultural Services, Suffolk GP Federation, ACE Anglia, St. Elizabeth Hospice, HealthWatch, Lighthouse Women's Aid.
Attendees had the opportunity to find out what these organisations do, as well as get advice to support their own health and wellbeing. In addition we had a team of midwives in attendance who met and chatted to learners from different communities, having conversations around pregnancy, family, and support available locally.
“[Attendees] really engaged well, listened well and wanted to know about our service.” -Lighthouse Women’s Aid
“We spoke to many different people who had questions about learning disabilities or health. [And we] spoke to different community leads about access to learning disability liaison nurses, easy read resources, and what services are available in the community for people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.” -Ace Anglia
We’re thrilled to say it was a very successful day, with over 75 attendees, including a group brought along specially from Suffolk Refugee Support. We got some great feedback from attendees saying they had learnt a lot from the session, from improving their mental health to the importance of taking vitamins during pregnancy. Here’s what some attendees had to say about the day:
“I learnt that there are multicultural services and so many things to help us to get a better lifestyle.”
“It was good to know there are community services to help us.”
A huge thank you to The National Lottery Community Fund and Suffolk and North East Essex Maternity and Neonatal services for the generous funding that made this event possible.
We are dedicated to improving health and wellbeing in the local community. As well as events like this Health and Wellbeing day, we run a weekly course ‘English for Health’ where we help learners to speak, read and write simple English in order to increase their personal confidence and wellbeing. The course includes how to read and write simple texts and personal information geared towards accessing health services. For more information on this course please contact esol@ipswichcm.org.uk or visit our ‘Learning’ page.
Thanks to funding from our local NHS we are running a one year project for pregnant, wanting to be pregnant, and new parents from migrant communities in the Westgate Ward area of Ipswich. The project aims to increase connection, communication and engagement, while building trust in local maternity and health services. For more information on the project please get in touch with the Maternity Project Co-ordinator Monika at mpuchala@ipswichcm.org.uk You can also read more about Monika’s story and the project here.
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