Group Walk

On Tuesday, as part of our project with Multiply Skills for Life, the group went on a walk in the Sirhowy Valley. 13 of us from Caerphilly People First were driven to the location of our walk, by Brian Hayter, the person who led the walk.

Brian handed out maps of the route, with some locations on the route marked with a number. There were 11 numbers in all, and each one represented a letter. The numbers were located on things like benches, fences, and wooden posts.

At the end of the route, once the group had matched the numbers to the letters, the word written on their sheets was ACHIEVEMENT. Congratulations to everyone who took part, and completed the walk.

Multiply Health Project

This report was written by Caerphilly People First member Morgan Jones:

This week, as part of our work with the Multiply ‘Skills for Life’ project, Bryan Hayter from Caerphilly Adventures visited us to talk to the group about our health, ways to stay healthy, and where the group will be walking next Tuesday. He handed us an orienteering map, showing the Sirhowy Valley, where we will be doing our walk.

He was followed by Rebecca from Multiply talking to us about healthy foods. She showed us a picture of the ‘Eatwell’ plate and the types of foods we should eat and types of foods we should avoid in order to keep our weight down and stay healthy. The group then measured our height and got on the scales to see how much we weigh.

Skills for Life with Multiply

This report was written by Caerphilly People First member Morgan Jones:

Whilst I was in Caerphilly People First yesterday, some people from an organisation called ‘Multiply’ came to talk to me and my CPF buddies about their Skills for Life project and how to calculate our calorie intake and log our daily steps.

To do this we put a watch on our wrist that monitors our steps, and how many calories we’ve burnt whilst walking. When we got back to the office we all recorded how many steps we did on our walk, and the group managed 6,500 steps each.

Health Meeting

Ffion and Natalie recently took part in an online meeting with Swansea University, attended by health professionals and other People First groups.  Ffion and Nat spoke about their experiences of COVID and lockdown.  Ffion talked about how she struggled with her mental health, anxiety and depression during this period, and how happy she is now things are back to normal and she has regained her freedom.  She also talked about her experiences of receiving the vaccine.  Natalie spoke about how frightened she was before having her jabs, and how ill she was afterwards.  Despite this she is glad she had the vaccine because it meant that she could start seeing her family again and make a return to work with Caerphilly People First.

Online Health Check Workshop

Caerphilly People First members recently connected to Conwy Connect’s Health Check Workshop.  We learned what a health check is and how important it is that people have one every year. You can book your annual health check by calling your GP.  The health champions who ran the workshop did a fantastic job and the event was very informative and fun.

Doctor Appointments

We have been working with members to access GP appointments.  As doctors in most surgeries are still not offering face-to-face appointments, they are recommending that people fill out an online form which asks about your symptoms, and also asks people to upload pictures if the issue is a rash etc.  One of our members, Tracey, who went through the process, found some of the questions complicated and hard to understand, but was thankful that the follow up from the GP was quick.

Public Health Event

On Thursday 15th August 2019, Ffion Poole, Kath Toms, Sharon Cochrane and Christy Taylor attended a public health event, run by the NHS Aneurin Bevan Health Board, held in the Congress Theatre, Cwmbran.  At the event we talked about future plans in terms of Health, Housing, Community, and Wellbeing.  It was a very successful and interesting day, and at the end of the event we received a goody bag to thanks us for our hard work.  We are looking forward to the next public health event.

ffion