The Gathering

After what seems like months ago when we began putting word around, the very first get-together of our Cumbrian Young People's Health Panel is finally upon us and will be held this Saturday.

Colleagues in Public Engagement and Childrens' Services have gathered together a good mix of ages, personalities and experience to help tell the county's NHS how they want their services shaped.

It'll be a fascinating process to see how this group of young strangers works through the challenge of being asked to be themselves and begin to express their views against a backdrop of a very personal, common theme. Health care can easily polarise adults' opinion, so the two staff are prepared to be surprised, impressed and explore new ways of thinking in equal measure.

Stop Smoking Widget

If you're in your mid-twenties or a parent of someone around that age, you might remember the Tamagotchi craze. A little plastic toy with an LCD screen which required you to look after a creature every few hours. These days, things have moved on with gadgets - or more specifically, widgets for your computer desktop - looking after us.

Possibly one of the most genuinely useful freebies around on the internet, this gives you daily messages of encouragement, keeps track of how much money you're saving and counts how many days it's been since your last cigarette: All great motivators for staying smokefree.


Get it from nhs.uk's Tools section here and click on 'download for windows' (or Mac)

If you'd rather have some human support in giving up, there's free, local advice and support available from Cumbria Stop Smoking Service:

Telephone - 01900 324 222
Text ‘QUIT’ to 82540

or visit the Cumbria Stop Smoking Service website.

Vintage Good Advice

As relevant now as it ever was, this is from the 1948 National Health Service Public Information Film, 'Coughs and Sneezes'.

This clip shows how to reduce the spread of disease from sneezing and coughing. Today, this is known as respiratory hygiene or 'cough etiquette' and is an important way to reduce the spread of diseases such as swine flu. For a modern version of this educational film, watch the creative video, Why Don't We Do It In Our Sleeves ? at http://www.coughsafe.com/media.html

(from markdcatlin on youtube)

New Children & Young People's Panel

The process recently set in motion to make radical changes to Children's & Young People's Health Services is progressing fast. The core aims are to offer fair access to all services to people around the county - no matter where they are - and that those services should be of consistent quality throughout.


One way that the NHS Cumbria decision-makers are ensuring that the soon-to-be appointed service provider is up to the task, is to set up a fairly informal panel consisting of two relatively small groups: Children and their parents, plus a group for just young people, up to around nineteen years of age. One of the roles of the panel is to interview the prospective health providers and assess their suitability. The panel would also be asked to meet on an occasional basis to make sure newly-evolving services are staying on track.

In all, we're looking for up to ten families and ten young people to take part in the panel, which is a unique opportunity for people with experience of the Health Service - good or bad - to influence how it should be for the next years. Travel expenses will be provided together with the usual tea, coffee plus a light bite to eat. If anyone would like more info, contact me, Elle at ellemc143@gmail.com or on 0779 5640455.