Year: 2015

On Friday 15 May, we had a stall at the ‘Festival in the Park’ in Camley Street, organised by St Mungo Broadway to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week.We know that there’s concern about the wellbeing of mental health in-patients, and we’re planning work on this to make sure we’re checking the things that matter most to the local community.

After what seemed like one of the longest election campaigns ever, we have a new Government, and we’re waiting to see what this means for health and social care.

This month, our Chair, Connie Smith was featured in Camden Magazine.Connie is one of six trustees who support the work of Healthwatch Camden. Her role includes developing Healthwatch Camden’s strategy, priorities and influencing local service providers.

On 27 April Shelly, our Engagement and Volunteer Manager and Lindi our Communications Manager attended the Young People For Inclusion (YPFI) networking event hosted with Elfrida Rathbone.  Healthwatch Camden aims to champion equality by giving a voice to those whose voice is often not heard. 

The work of Healthwatch Camden ranges across health and social care, we have to keep our eyes open about issues arising in wide range of services.

On 23 April our volunteer co-ordinator Peter, attended the Bengali Volunteer’s Fair at the Surma Community Centre. Healthwatch Camden is always looking for volunteers from every part of the community to help us shape and improve local health and social care services.

Healthwatch Camden is keen to engage with young people in Camden. Health and social care services are better when they recognise the specific needs of children, young people and adults.So we attended the ‘Shout Out’ conference organised by LB Camden with the support and assistance of the Youth MP, members of the Youth Council and Youth Action Groups.

What sort of staff do we want in community health and social care services? What training and support will help staff to provide the sorts of joined-up services that we know people want? These are some of the questions that Healthwatch Camden trustee, Pam Hibbs, was helping to answer at the launch on 26th March.

Two chief executives of NHS trusts in Camden have been judged to be among the ten best in the country, according to the HSJ, the health care journal.Robert Naylor from UCLH is number 4 and David Sloman from the Royal Free is number 7.

Last week I went to an inspiring talk from Annie Laverty, Director of Patient Experience at Northumbria Healthcare, held at UCL Partners.Northumbria has a research-based approach to collecting and measuring patient experience. Annie has developed systems of collecting patient feedback that includes: