What Is a Community Wellbeing Practice?
Newtown Surgery is a Community Wellbeing Practice, which means that it is connected with community support and services that can help patients to stay well throughout life.Patients also have access to a wide range of free courses, events and one-to-one services in their local community to improve their health and wellbeing.
Each Community Wellbeing Practice has a designated worker (called a Community Wellbeing Officer) who is available to help patients improve their wellbeing.Your Community Wellbeing Officer at Newtown surgery is Darren Shearer who can be contacted on 01928 589799, info@wellbeingenterprises.org.uk or by making an appointment through the practice reception.
Click here to view a list of FREE activities and events currently taking place
What services are available?
- Wellbeing Review – Book a one-to-one Wellbeing Review with your Community Wellbeing Officer and learn top-tips to improve your health and wellbeing, access support to do the things you really enjoy and connect to local services and groups that can help.
- Living Life to the Full –12 hours that can change your life! Living Life to the Full consists of eight weekly 1.5 hour sessions that have been shown to help you improve the quality of your life by learning how to deal with feeling worried or fed-up, as well as how to incorporate practical top-tips in to your life to improve your wellbeing.Get back in control of your thoughts, feelings and behaviour!
- Wellbeing activities – Boost your wellbeing and take part in a range of free practical and creative groups to learn new skills and meet new people – we run courses such as gentle exercise groups, craft sessions, confidence building courses or learning a musical instrument or language.
- Volunteering – Interested in giving back to your local community? Volunteer through your GP Practice in a variety of volunteering roles such as leading creative classes, offering peer support, helping to run events or sitting on the volunteer support network group.
What is ‘wellbeing’?
Wellbeing refers to ‘feeling good’ (e.g. engaging with life and having a connection with people and places) and ‘functioning well’ (e.g. having a sense of meaning, influence and control over life).We need both of these aspects to be fulfilled and to have a positive experience of life.
There are five really simple things that everybody can do, that are guaranteed to improve your wellbeing – these are called the ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’:
- Connect – With the people around you.With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours.At home, work, school or in your local community.Think of these as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing them.Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.
- Be active –Go for a walk or run.Step outside.Cycle.Play a game.Garden.Dance.Exercising makes you feel good.Most importantly, discover a physical activity you enjoy and that suits your level of mobility and fitness.
- Take notice –Be curious.Catch sight of the beautiful.Remark on the unusual.Notice the changing seasons.Savour the moment, whether you are walking to work, eating lunch or taking to friends.Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling.Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.
- Keep learning –Try something new.Rediscover an old interest.Sign up for that course.Take on a different responsibility at work.Fix a bike.Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food.Set a challenge you will enjoy achieving.Learning new things will make you more confident as well as being fun.
- Give –Do something nice for a friend, or a stranger.Thank someone.Smile.Volunteer your time.Join a community group.Look out, as well as in.Seeing yourself, and your happiness, linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and creates connections with the people around you.
For more information about the Five Ways to Wellbeing and how they can improve your life, book a Wellbeing Review with your Community Wellbeing Officer.
How can I get involved?
Anyone can become involved in their local Community Wellbeing - patients, Patient Participation Group members, GPs and nurses, staff, local residents and local community groups.
To find out more about the Community Wellbeing Practice initiative or to access any of the free services, please contact Victoria Jackson Community Wellbeing Officer for Newtown Surgery by:
More about Community Wellbeing Practices
The Community Wellbeing Practice initiative is a service provided by social enterprise Wellbeing Enterprises CIC , commissioned by NHS Halton Clinical Commissioning Group .We are working with all 14 GP Practices in the borough of Halton, working in partnership with public, private and third-sector organisations to deliver the Community Wellbeing Practice initiative.
Wellbeing Enterprises is an award winning social enterprise – our mission is to support individuals andcommunities to achieve better health and wellbeing. We do this by educating the general public; unlocking the assets within our communities and working collaboratively with our partners to tackle the underlying causes of poor health.