Month: August 2015

On 26 July, Peter, our Community Outreach Officer, manned the Healthwatch Camden stall at the Camden Mela. This popular Mela organised by Kings Cross and Brunswick Neighbourhood Association attracts over 5,000 local residents.

On Saturday 8 August, Shelly our Community and Engagement Volunteer Manager, and Peter our Community Outreach Officer attended the Queen’s Crescent Festival.  The festival is organised by Queens Crescent Community Association, this year’s theme was ‘Community, Family and Healthy Living’.

On Thursday 10 September we have our first ‘meet and greet icebreaker session’ for Healthwatch Camden volunteers, between 2 – 4pm.The idea for the session is to share ideas and experiences from volunteers who have already attended one or more of our numerous events through-out Camden, and also to inform potential volunteers about our work, and define the roles that we can offer.

We’ve been doing a lot of looking at statistics recently. It’s got me thinking about how targets and performance measures are used. Public services are, of course, accountable for how they spend our money. One of the most visible ways that government holds NHS services to account is through targets.

Peter, our volunteer co-ordinator attended the Camden New Town Community Festival in Camden Square Garden, on 19 July 2015. The festival runs every year and is a celebration of history, music, dance and our multicultural community.

On July 15, Shelly, our Community and Engagement Volunteer Manager, spoke at Camden Council’s planning meeting for people with learning disabilities. The aim of the discussion was to better understand the health and social care needs of people with learning disabilities in Camden.

On July 5 we attended the Alma Street Fair, organised by Inkerman Resident’s Association. Peter our Community Outreach Officer, manned the Healthwatch Camden stall.

“Being” HealthwatchThe theme of this year’s Healthwatch England conference was “Being Healthwatch”. Now that the Healthwatch network has been in place for two years, how do we fulfil our role? The answers are different for each local Healthwatch, because the context in which we work is different. For us in Camden, being Healthwatch means working in partnership with our large and diverse voluntary and community sector.