Health & Wellbeing

New research reveals that motorists who need glasses or contact lenses but don’t wear them whilst driving, increase their chance of an accident four-fold. One in six drivers have had an accident in the past two years but this increases to 67 per cent for those who need glasses or contacts but don’t always wear them.

The Department of Health and NHS England are starting to make progress with the actions needed to implement access and waiting time standards for people with mental health conditions, but much remains to be done, according to the National Audit Office. The report from the spending watchdog is the first in a planned programme of work on mental health.

A life-saving Birmingham organisation – born out of NHS cuts during its last re-organisation – has been recognised in the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise for its excellence in innovation. The Perinatal Institute, members of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, was founded by Professor Jason Gardosi in 2013 and has received the coveted award for developing a safer method of monitoring the growth of babies during pregnancy.

When you look in the mirror, how youthful is the face staring back? Proving that age really is nothing but a number, in recent years there has been a growing focus on what our biological age, rather than our chronological age, can tell us about our overall health and longevity. Determined by lifestyle approaches to stress, diet, exercise and sleep; recent studies reveal that one in five people in the UK were found to have a biological age more than eight years older than their chronological age, effectively losing almost a decade of their life.

Modern day living is busy so to help people find time to think about their health, One You, with the help of Dr Hilary, is taking to a bus stop in Trinity Street, Coventry, to ask people how they really are. This is one of nine state-of-the-art interactive bus stops which are now live across England as part of Public Health England’s (PHE’s) One You campaign, to encourage adults to make simple changes to improve their health.

Shellie Taylor-Joyce swapped her text books in the West Midlands for the sub-zero temperatures of the Arctic during Easter – all in the name of John Taylor Hospice. Together with four friends, the 44-year-old teaching assistant from Castle Vale endured cold winds and treacherous trails to travel by dog sled from Oteren in Norway to Jukkasjärvi in Sweden – a distance of more than 250km.

Two of Birmingham’s leading charities – Ladies Fighting Breast Cancer (LFBC) and Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) Charity – are improving Breast Cancer services in the city, with the arrival of their jointly-funded mobile mammogram unit. Purchased by the two charities as part of their £1 Million Appeal, which was launched by Lord Digby Jones in 2013, the new mobile mammogram unit has arrived at Broad Meadow Heath Centre in Kings Norton.

It was a celebration of achievement as Dr Peter Lewis retired from his current post as Executive Medical Director at BSMHFT after 15 years of outstanding service to the trust and also the community. After qualifying as a Medical Officer in 1972 from the University of West Indies, and completing his higher training in Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, he returned to the Caribbean to work as a consultant Psychiatrist at St Anne’s Hospital.

A Birmingham-based hospice is using sound therapy to support patients at end of life. Staff at John Taylor Hospice have added an innovative well-being project, called Life Echo, to the mix of activities and care services already offered to day hospice visitors. Through a series of one-to-one sessions, participants are encouraged to share their most positive memories of sound which are then recreated into short recordings for their personal use.

Etherington's Pastys have been awarded the SALSA accreditation, a highly endorsed food-safety standard signifying a greater standard of excellence in food hygiene practice. Etherington's Farm Shop, based in Wheal Rose, Scorrier, features an award-winning Bakery, Butchery Academy and Conference Room, committed to sourcing from local producers. The company pride themselves in achieving the highest quality and practice certification in their marketplace.

In a move that signals the launch of a radically new approach and partnership, the former Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell has been appointed as independent chair of the board that will oversee the delivery of a five-year blueprint to transform health and social care in Birmingham and Solihull.

Over two fifths of residents in the West Midlands have confessed to being so unfit they would get out of breath running for the bus, according to new statistics released as part of the British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) brand new fundraising challenge MyMarathon. The BHF poll revealed almost half (47%) of adults in the West Midlands said if they went running now the furthest they could manage is just half a mile or less.

With a pollution and sandstorm cloud coming over the UK, people are questioning what this means for people, families and their health. The young and the elderly are the most vulnerable and those that already suffer from allergies and asthma should take extra care.

Cyclists are being warned that they are at 10 times more risk of injury after drinking alcohol versus being sober. Statistics show that cyclists who are impaired by alcohol are more likely to hurt themselves in a fall, are less likely to wear a helmet and are much more likely than sober cyclists to be severely injured or killed with a significant link shown between alcohol use and head injury.

More than 270 cyclists took to their bikes to raise vital funds for Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice’s ‘Ride the Reservoir’ challenge. On Sunday 20^th March, cyclists of all abilities took part in the Hospice fundraising challenge winding their way around the West Midlands and Worcestershire lanes. Starting at the King Edward VI Five Ways School in Birmingham, participants could opt for a 60km or 14km route both passing the reservoir.