Library meetings promote Health and Wellbeing for the Senior Citizens of Euxton.
It is difficult not to be aware of the many pressures faced by our National Health Service as people live longer, more complex and expensive treatments become available, and shortages of qualified staff become evident. Recent news of the problems at our own accident and emergency department at Chorley Hospital is a striking reminder that Euxton is not immune to these problems.
One part of the solution is to empower individuals and local communities to take control of their own health and wellbeing. Meetings will be held at Euxton Library. At these meeting we will be offering senior residents an opportunity to learn about some of the key issues involved.
At the first session in September, a group of senior residents met to hear a presentation on ‘Wellbeing in Later Life. They discussed how best to maintain and enhance their own healthy life styles focusing on the particular problems associated with trips and falls.
We invited Professor Romesh Gupta, OBE, former Consultant in Elderly Medicine at Chorley Hospital and Chair of the health promotional organisation ‘The National Forum for Health and Wellbeing to speak at this first event.
Professor Gupta, long-time resident in Euxton, said,
‘I really welcome the opportunity to become involved in this important community initiative.
By 2020, 1in 5 of the population will be over age 65, more than the number of under 16 year olds. The proportional growth in the population of the over eighties will be even greater. This is due to a number of factors including a better living environment and improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of ill health.
Increased individual awareness of the importance of healthy life styles has an important part to play in reducing the pressures on the NHS and in this series of meetings we will hope to build up this awareness and so promote the health and wellbeing of Euxton residents.
An initiative like this shows how essential our libraries are to community health in its broadest sense.’
The first meeting was very well received by those attending and it was agreed that future meetings would be held on the second Wednesday in each month commencing on November 9th, 10:30am – 11:30 m.
Future meetings will provide a real opportunity to hear about mental and physical health related topics of particular interest to older people. Participants will receive all the latest news and ideas from local health experts and have an opportunity to discuss them with fellow residents in a welcoming, friendly atmosphere. The range of topics to be covered, ranging from diet and diazepam to mobility and medication is so wide there is certain to be something there to interest everyone.
For further details of the programme including dates and topics for meetings please contact:
Euxton Library 0300 123 6704
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