Health Checks recently took place in Wigton at Hopes Auction Mart as part of a Community Safety and Rural Crime event.
The event saw a number of different agencies attend the Auction Mart to address local rural priorities, which included health. Organisations provided attendees with the opportunity to see a wealth of information and learn more about local initiatives.
Health teams from Kewsick and Solway Primary Care Network (PCN) attended which included staff from Wigton Surgery, Your Health Matters Team, The Wellbeing Service and the Weight Management team from Wigton Hospital. Providing health checks and lots of information which is useful for rural and farming communities.
Catherine Penrice, PCN Operations Manager for Keswick and Solway said: "We're here to promote primary care and our Integrated Care Communities work and trying to reach out to our farming communities. We really struggle to get in touch with these groups on a normal day-to-day basis, as they're really busy and out in rural locations.
"So we've got various teams here at the Auction Mart for this event who all work closely together. One being Wigton Medical Group who are doing some mini-health checks here today, height, blood pressure, weight, collecting smoke and alcohol status which we will feed back to our GP Practices. We are all interconnected and this today shows to our patients and communities that we are working closely together as one, even if we are in these different teams and it's all to make sure we're delivering the right care for all our patients."
Helen Esslemont was involved in the overall event as Community Development Officer for Cumberland Council and explained: "We decided rather than setting up in somewhere like Wigton Market Hall and nobody coming to us, we would go to them.
"So we've come here today to Hopes Auction Mart where there's a busy sale day to speak to the rural farming community and I've asked along a number of organisations that would be of interest to the farming community and that fit in with the community safety and rural crime priority."
Poppy Wilson, Occupational Therapist on the Your Health Matters Team said: "Our team has been established for just over a year now and we're employed by the GP Surgeries to do a lot of prevention work in our community across the Keswick and Solway area. We're here today to target farmers, as we see them as a population of people who may not necessarily go to the GPs for help with things that they may be struggling with at home.
"That's our aim really to nip things in the bud with people before they get to that point of crisis in the future. We also do a lot of work around falls prevention, low mood, loneliness and especially working in the rural area, a lot of our patients are quite isolated, so we do lots of signposting to help people."
Hazel Stewart, Wellbeing Activator for the Wellbeing Service explained: "It's about trying to find out what's important to the person as an individual and then how we can support them to work towards their goals. Some of that might involve a bit of education or some peer support. We also do some health coaching or we might signpost or social prescribe.
"At the moment if people are interested in exploring how the wellbeing service can support them, they go to their GP or other Health Professional who links them up to the service. We have also got self-referral being developed to launch very soon.
"Events like today helps to create an interest for people so they can then find out more and it at least gives them the knowledge that it is 'out there', so that they can take it from there."
Primary Care staff reported back that it was a really positive event which many of the farmers who took part in the health checks had really appreciated the opportunity and discuss services available.
