Covid-19

LATEST COVID-19 VIRUS UPDATE

Due to the COVID-19 virus, it has been recommended by the government that changes will be required to be made to services across the country.

Health and Wellbeing Slough services will run as follows:

Stop Smoking

Covid-19 is a virus that impacts the respiratory system, and quitting smoking can potentially reduce the risk of serious lung disease. With the latest advice from the Government, we are unable to provide face to face advice. We are pleased that we will provide a local Quitline support to anyone wanting to quit, depending upon demand we will extend this to evenings and weekends. In addition, over the past few years, we have been building our own Artificial Intelligence ‘Quit With Bella’ app which can also be downloaded on Android and iOS. Bella is a personal stop smoking coach, based on NCSCT/NICE guidelines, and is available 24/7 (www.quitwithbella.co.uk ). A key component to “Quit with Bella” is the Bella community, this will not only provide support from others but also our own team of smoking cessation advisors.

Our team can still be contacted as follows:

 By telephone on 0800 0614734 / 01753 373646

  • By completing our online referral available on our website by clicking here.

Physical Activity and Adult Weight Management

During this pandemic, it is important that we encourage physical activity and wellbeing. Being overweight can increase your risk of Covid-19 symptoms. For now, we have reduced the availability of our face-to-face classes and instead the classes are all available virtually via Microsoft Teams. In addition, residents across Slough can use our free online ShapeUp4Life app.  

Our app offer is accessible anytime, anywhere! This NICE compliant, multi-disciplinary programme builds upon our extensive knowledge and successes from years of delivering face to face weight management programmes at the heart of the community. The user-friendly platform supports clients to make changes to their lifestyle and behaviours in order to not only lose weight but keep it off long term.

You can download the App on Android here or on iOS here, or check out our Healthy Lifestyle Tips Booklet here.

Children Weight Management 

We are working closely with the schools in Slough to restart our children’s weight management programme safely. We have also been working very hard to develop three AI digital platforms – Ask Teddi for 0-5, another app for children for ages 6 to 11 based on our Let Get Going programme and Beam App for ages 12- 17. These are currently under development and we are looking to launch these soon.

NHS Health Checks 

We have resumed the delivery of NHS Health Checks at two community centres in Slough. Click here to book an appointment. Alternatively, you can have a mini MOT over the phone by contacting our team of Wellness Coaches. We encourage you to take our online quiz available here which will look at a number of areas including healthy eating, drinking, mental health, activity, falls risk etc and give recommendations of services you need to access.

Falls Service

We have resumed our falls assessment clinics and are currently delivering a virtual strength & balance course via Microsoft Teams.  Our team of Wellness Coaches are also able to post you strength & balance booklets. We will supplement this by actual videos of how to perform these exercises. We are currently producing a number of videos, an example of one that we have already done is:  https://www.fallsfree4life.co.uk/Covid19.aspx 

Healthy Eating/Cooking Classes

For this, we are producing a series of self-help cooking classes videos, once these are ready we will incorporate these into our online Shapeup4life programme.

 

Public Health England disparities review finds Black and Asian groups more likely to die of COVID-19

Public Health England has published its review of COVID-19 disparities, looking at how the impact of the disease varies according to ethnicity and other factors, such as age, sex, deprivation, occupation, and geography. A link to the full report can be found here.

The review found that:

  • People of Bangladeshi ethnicity have around twice the risk of death as White British people.
  • People of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Other Asian, Caribbean, and Other Black ethnicity had between 10 and 50% higher risk of death.
  • Death rates in the most deprived areas are more than double those in the least deprived areas.
  • People over 80 were seventy times more likely to die than those under 40.
  • There was a strong regional pattern, with London showing the highest diagnoses and death rates.

The analysis was not able to account for other factors, such as comorbidities, occupation, and household composition. These are important, as there are high proportions of BAME workers in key occupations, and many from BAME groups tend to live in larger and multi-generational households, both of which can lead to higher risk of exposure to the virus.

It appears from the PHE analysis that the impact of COVID-19 follows a similar pattern to so many of the deeply ingrained public health challenges that we face – from morbid obesity to deaths from smoking. It is always the most vulnerable that are impacted by public health challenges, and that has a good deal to do with the environments and social determinants of health which people face.

Here at Solutions 4 Health we will continue to both provide and develop innovative, sustainable lifestyle and clinical services that improve healthcare for all, especially those who experience inequitable health outcomes.

 

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