Patient Care Group

24/09/2019

13/09/2019

Saturday 7th September saw Edmonton’s Patient Care Group (PCG) hold its event on Sickle Cell awareness titled ‘Let’s Get Real, Let’s Talk Sickle.’ 



It is estimated that there are between 12,500 to 15,000 people with Sickle Cell in the UK, many from the African-Caribbean, Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and Asian backgrounds, with numbers slowly rising due to the increasing number of migration and new births.



With the PCG having experience of the condition that affects red blood cells, and doing regular visits to patients at their local hospital, the group thought it would benefit members of their local community to raise awareness of this rare disorder.


Samantha Greaves of Sickle Cell Cause, a support group for those affected directly or indirectly by Sickle Cell gave an engaging talk highlighting what a Sickle Cell sufferer goes through. 
She also highlighted the importance of having checks to see if the mostly African-Caribbean audience have the Sickle Cell trait and what help and support is available to them. The talk was followed by a Q&A session.

Eseroghene Akarovwe, Head Coordinator of the Patient Care Group then spoke about the important work they do in the community. A short video was shown introducing the PCG Group followed by a member of the Victory Youth Group who shared her experience of receiving help and support by the PCG. 



As a bonus, Kaisar Abdallah of Diversity Living Services was on hand to take blood pressure checks and also praised the initiative to talk about Sickle Cell. She said “Amazing presentation which was informative. A well-needed community get together on a condition which is hardly spoken about. UCKG is doing a good job on raising awareness. I am glad I was able to attend to conduct the blood pressure checks. Everyone was very friendly.”

Samantha Greaves of Sickle Cell Cause said, “I am so very honoured to have been asked to open this powerful month of education with the Patient Care Group in Edmonton. Thank you UCKG. This was a great platform to share the awareness and a great team to work with. I look forward to coming back.”

There was also positive feedback from attendees.


Natalie Imlach from Enfield said, “I didn’t realise how much the trait can affect a person. I am glad I am now more informed because my son has the trait.”

Andrea Oferma from Tottenham said, “The event was amazing. I learned a lot about Sickle Cell and how to help anyone in crisis before medical help arrives.”

Deyonce Murdock from Tottenham said, “The event was very insightful beyond just the medical definition of sickle cell. It highlighted the social psychological and emotional implications of living with the disease. The speaker was successful in revealing the human side of fighting against the condition. I certainly took away from the event the need to keep informed and encourage others to be aware of conditions such as this.”

Eseroghene Akarovwe, Head Coordinator of Edmonton PCG added, “This event was very informative and an eye opener especially to the young people who attended who had no idea of the importance of checking for Sickle Cell traits. It also highlighted many ways we can help by donating blood and also signposting to organisations such as Sickle Cell Cause team. Overall, we received very positive feedback about the day.”


If you would like to know more about future Patient Care Group events taking place in the community, you can contact us on groups@uckg.org or call 020 7686 6020

04/09/2019

UCKG HelpCentres become official blood ‘Pressure Stations’ for Know your Numbers!® Week

Know your Numbers!® is Blood Pressure UK's awareness campaign which encourages adults across the UK to know their blood pressure numbers and then take the necessary action to either reach or maintain a healthy blood pressure.

Since its launch in 2001, Know your Numbers!® Week (Monday 9th - Sunday 15th September 2019), has helped over 1.5million people in the UK know their blood pressure numbers.

Eleven UCKG HelpCentres in the UK have registered to become official blood ‘Pressure Stations’ for September 2019’s Know your Numbers!® Week, providing free checks for the general public as well as for members and visitors.

If you would like to get your blood pressure checked at one of our locations, please see below for details of the days and times during the Know your Numbers!® Week.

FINSBURY PARK - (London):
Rainbow Theatre,
232 Seven Sisters Road, London, N4 3NX
Opening times:
Tues 10th (11am - 2pm)
Wed 11th (11am - 2pm)
Thurs 12th (11am - 2pm)
Fri 13th (11am - 2pm)
Sat 14th (12pm - 4pm)
Sun 15th (12pm - 4pm)

BRIXTON - (London):
386-388 Brixton Road,London, SW9 7AW
Opening times:
Sat 14th (11am - 1pm)

HACKNEY - (London):
20 Brenthouse Road, London, E9 6QG
Opening times:
Sat 14th (12pm - 3pm)

KILBURN - (London):
234 Kilburn High Road, London, NW6 4JR
Opening times:
Sat 14th (11am - 2pm)

LEEDS:
12 Regent Road, LS2 7QA
Opening times:
Sat 14th (9am - 3pm)
Sun 15th (9am - 3pm)

PECKHAM - (London):
176-178 Rye Lane, London, SE15 4NF
Opening times:
Mon 9th (6pm - 7:15pm)
Wed 11th (6pm - 7:15pm)
Sat 14th (11am - 2pm)
Sun 15th (11:30am - 5pm)

PLAISTOW - (London):
St Andrew’s Church, St Andrew’s Road,London, E13 8QD
Opening times:
Sat 14th (11am - 1pm)

SOUTHALL - (London):
71-73 The Broadway, London, UB1 1LA
Opening times:
Sat 14th (1pm - 5pm)

STAMFORD HILL - (London):
70 High Road,London, N15 6JU
Opening times:
Sat 14th (11am - 1pm)

STRATFORD - (London):
7 The Grove, London, E15 1EL
Opening times:
Sat 14th (10am - 1pm):

TOOTING - (London):
145 Upper Tooting Road,
(Entrance on Lessingham Avenue) London, SW17 7TJ
Opening times:
Sat 14th (11am - 2pm)

04/09/2019

Sickle Cell is a disorder of the haemoglobin in the red blood cells.

 Approximately, 15,000 people in the UK have Sickle Cell disorder with many more carrying the trait. 



On Saturday 7th September, the UCKG’s Patient Care Group based in Edmonton will be hosting its event ‘Let’s Get Real, Let’s Talk Sickle.’



Guests from Sickle Cell support group ‘ Sickle Cell Cause’ will be speaking about the effects sickle cell has on sufferers and what help and support is out there for patients, parents carers and others involved.


Come and find out all you need to know about Sickle Cell and help us raise awareness of this rare disorder.

This event is FREE to attend.



There will also be FREE blood pressure checks on the day for attendees.



VENUE:



Saturday 7th September - 1pm

UCKG HelpCentre

6a Sterling Way,

Edmonton,

London,

N18 2XZ

(Above Lidl)




For more information, please call 0207 686 6000 or email us on groups@uckg.org

03/06/2019

The Patient Care Group based in Tooting, held their Mental Health Awareness Week event, ‘Your Mind Matters! Let’s Talk About it!’ on Saturday 18th May 2019. ��

The speakers, Patricia Taylor, an art therapist and Shanley Lewis, an Assistant Psychologist, were warmly welcomed by all in attendance.��

Miss Taylor gave insight into the use of art therapy for mental wellbeing and shared her own personal experiences. She also shared how art therapy can be a way of releasing the negative thoughts and feelings that one could not, or would find difficult to express with words only.
Miss Shanley Lewis spoke about body image and the complexes individuals can experience.
�
During a brief interval, the audience was given a chance to experience art therapy with a hands-on session with card and colouring pencils.

�Annabel Owusu-Ansah commented, “the event helped me realise that mental health can be a result of many factors in a person’s life.” ��

Patricia Taylor commented “everyone just wants to be loved and cared for. Sometimes people just want to be heard and that’s their way of feeling loved but sometimes words cannot express what they have inside of them. That’s when art therapy can be implemented.”��

A member of the Patient Care Group mentioned that event was helpful in that she received insight into how to deal with mental health on a daily basis.
�
Meredith Asamoah, Vice Coordinator of the Tooting PCG spoke about what mental health means to her as she gave her real life experience on the subject and also spoke about the important work of Patient Care Group visiting and giving support to patients in hospital.

�In total, there were 36 attendees, with 6 first timers from the local community.�

For more information on future PCG events, you can contact the UCKG Community Outreach team on groups@uckg.org, or call 0207 686 6000 ext. 6139

01/06/2019

On Saturday 18th May 2019 more than 100 people turned out for the ‘Let’s Break the Stigma! Let’s Talk About Mental Health!’ event held by Edmonton’s Patient Care group during Mental Health Awareness Week.

The Patient Care Group held the event to promote awareness of mental health and the stigma surrounding it. Mental health affects thousands of people in the UK and is increasingly becoming a main topic of conversation. The PCG group wanted to address this by getting in specialists in mental health to come and address issues and answer questions from the local community on the day.

Bolanle Shonubi, a qualified and registered psychotherapist gave an engaging talk about mental health which included topics on schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. There was also time for Q&A’s. ��

Michael Walsh, (Vice Chair of Mind, Enfield) was moved by the performance by the Victory Youth Group (VYG), on depression, anxiety and schizophrenia and commented after, “The HelpCentre has made a very powerful contribution to tackling the stigma affecting our approach to mental health illness. The audience felt connected to the VYG drama as it was done beautifully and expressed how these people in this category feel while going through this low point in their lives.”��

A member of the audience, who had known about the event through a social media post created by the PCG Group commented that the VYG drama really touched her as it is what she goes through and people don’t understand her when she is depressed. She was happy that she found someone who understood what she was going through.

Bolanle Shonubi stated “the event was informative and educational and hopes there will be many more events like these.” �

Alicia Nantumbwe from Enfield said, “the event was really helpful and we learnt about the elements of mental health and how to cope, open up, how to talk about it and how to seek for help. Many people suffer with mental health in silence because of the stigma that is attached to it, but it was good to give back to the community that understanding that they needed.”

�Eseroghene Akarovwe, Head Coordinator of Edmonton Patient Care Group spoke about the work it does and said, “the event was really educational and helped break my own stigma about mental health.”

�“Based on the feedback received from the audience, the event has already had a massive impact on our community and we are looking forward to holding more events like this.”

For more information on future PCG events, you can contact the UCKG Community Outreach team on groups@uckg.org, or call 0207 686 6000 ext. 6139

29/05/2019

On Saturday 4th May 2019, the Southall Patient Care Group organised an amazing event in line with Mental Health Awareness Month called ‘The 2Ds: Depression and Dementia- Lets Talk About It!’ ��

According to the NHS, statistics state that Depression is the predominant Mental Health problem worldwide and Dementia is a growing challenge as the population ages and lives longer.�
In the UK, the number of people suffering with Dementia is estimated at 850,000.

Felix Kadzombe, guest speaker on the day explained what the causes of Dementia and Depression are, the signs and symptoms and treatment using visual and picture slides. ��

The audience was engaged in the talk and responded by having their equations answered by Felix. Afterwards, there was one-to-one sessions with Mr Kadzombe after the event for anyone who needed personal questions clarified.�

Lynda Ghaith from Southall who attended on the day said that the event, “helped her to see how to relate to other people and also how to help herself.”

Peter Njini who also attended from Surrey said, “the presentation was given in a simple and well thought way and was easy to understand and very insightful.”

�Southall’s PCG team led by Head Coordinator Hazel Browne, spoke about its work and gave everyone insight into how the group came about and their involvement in supporting patients in hospital. Other volunteers shared their experience of being helped by the PCG and are now themselves active members giving back to the community by going into the hospitals and supporting patients.

For more information on future PCG events, you can contact the UCKG Community Outreach team on groups@uckg.org, or call 0207 686 6000 ext. 6139

29/05/2019

Brixton’s Patient Care Group hosts its “Thumbs Up For Nutrition” event.

On Saturday 4th May, the Patient Care Group based in Brixton held its “Thumbs Up For Nutrition” event with the sole purpose to raise awareness and the understanding of the importance of nutrition to enhance overall health and wellbeing.


Over 120 people attended the event including first timers and family and friends.
On entering, participants were welcomed with a variety of healthy foods on display and seemed excited as to what was in store for them.



Head PCG Coordinator, Pansy Reid opened proceedings welcoming everyone and explained why the event was being held.
A poem was read out on nutrition to which the audience responded with a “Wow.”

Guest speaker, Mr Patrick Wasawo, spoke with great passion about nutrition and gave his own example of how nutrition helped him recover from shingles. He discussed the importance of eating healthy and the different types of food to eat and when to eat them, including why its is importance to eat fruits with seeds as opposed to eating them seedless.

The audience was really interested as Linda Musoke, a first timer commented, 
“It was a really good talk, thoroughly enjoyed it as it’s a subject matter that I am very passionate about. I honestly didn’t look so much at food, but what I saw was lots of live food, which showed thought and consideration to nutrition.”



Samuel Osefu, (a member of the Victory Youth Group) said, “I really enjoyed the fact that the event was interactive and not just based on research but on personal experience. I learned the difference between live food and dead food but also that fruits without seeds shouldn’t be consumed as they are not natural.”


Hugo Martins said, “the event was really helpful. I learned a lot on how to live a healthy life and that I really need to watch what I eat and drink. It really opened my eyes on how to be healthy.”



The message was well received by the local community of Brixton and they pledged to watch what they ate from now.


For more information on future PCG events, you can contact the UCKG Community Outreach team on groups@uckg.org, or call 0207 686 6000 ext. 6139

14/05/2019

With 1 in 4 people affected by a mental health issues, it’s time to break the stigma!



On Saturday 18th May 2019, the Patient Care Group (PCG), Tooting will be holding their “Your Mind Matters, Let's Talk About It” event.



Speakers will be on hand to talk on topics related to mental health and the work of the PCG Group.

This is a FREE event open for all to attend.

This is part of the UK’s Mental Health Awareness Week and is a FREE event open for all to attend.

Join the Tooting Patient Care Group this Saturday at the UCKG HelpCentre, 145 Upper Tooting Rd, Tooting, London SW17 7TJ. (Entrance on Lessingham Avenue)



For further information contact UCKG Community Outreach on 0207 686 6000 or email groups@uckg.org