Its coming...
The Big Leeds Chat is back!
So the #BigLeedsChat is happening on 7 November at Leeds Market.
Keep an eye out for updates soon.
www.bigleedschat.co.uk
STOP THE PRESS!
The success of last year’s Big Leeds Chat has not gone unnoticed by Healthwatch England! We are pleased to share that we’ve been nominated for a national award for ‘Helping more people to have their say’. Healthwatch England told us that they’ve had over 145 submissions across the network, so to be shortlisted for this award is a fantastic achievement!
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Working together to improve mental health crisis services
 Following our big piece of work to find out about ‘how it is to have a mental health crisis in Leeds’ we have now completed our report. We had feedback from almost 700 people who told us about their experiences of mental health crisis in Leeds. People told us about the lack of information on where to go for help when the support was received they had mixed experiences, depending on who provided the service. Read our full report or for a paper copy call the office on 0113 898 0035.
A selection of the comments are now available to read or listen to, on our website. Check out what people said.
We are working with partners across the city to develop a citywide approach to mental health crisis support and have asked them to provide an action plan to address our recommendations. We have already started working with Mindwell to look at ways of having clear accessible information for people when is crisis and for ongoing mental health support.
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YouthWatch Leeds tackling Jargon
Have a look at YouthWatch’s latest video filmed and produced by them, this is just scratching the surface of the jargon that is still used in health and care. This will be shown at the Citywide Communications meeting and will be shared with West Yorkshire health and care organisations through the West Yorkshire & Harrogate Health and Care Partnership.
To watch the video click here
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Improving services for people with visual impairments
 We found from our recent visual impairment project that 65% of the participants’ communication needs were not asked and/or met.
Three quarters of respondents wanted to see improvements in health and care services.
We made recommendations in the following areas which will help health and care organisations make improvements:
- Complying with the Accessible Information Standard (AIS)
- Accessibility
- Staff training
- Social support
- Information provision
Click here for audio version
Click here to read the report
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A message from our Volunteer Manager
Craig has been busy recruiting new volunteers over the last month. We would like to welcome our new YouthWatch Leeds volunteers, Rose, Ashur, Leah, Aqsa, Chloe, Eloise and we are also pleased to Welcome back Ghazal & Mariya after a short break from volunteering.
Well done to many of our YouthWatch volunteers who have aced their A-levels and are disappearing off to uni. Louis is going to study Medicine and Alex will be studying performing Arts.
Olivia, Imogen, Elizabeth are all hoping to carry on volunteering as they will be attending Universities in West Yorkshire. What a talented bunch of young people we have.
Alison recently stopped volunteering for Healthwatch Leeds after securing full time employment. She rated her overall volunteering experience with us as Excellent!
 Alison said “Healthwatch Leeds have extremely supportive & friendly staff. The team spirit was fantastic. I felt extremely valued as a volunteer co-worker. I came away from my time at Healthwatch Leeds with more skills, more confidence and a real sense of having made a positive contribution to improving health and care services in Leeds. It was great to be involved in a project from start to finish and see the results of our efforts!"
We also said goodbye to another project support volunteer who completed her MA History of Health, Medicine and Society at University of Leeds and returned down south.
Ruby said "I really enjoyed my Project Support role at Healthwatch Leeds and am very grateful for the research opportunities and the experience I have gained from it". "It was great to read the finalised Mental Health Crisis report and know that I contributed towards it."
Coming up we have some opportunities for volunteering involving getting out and about in communities, listening to people's experiences of health and care. If this is something that interests you, get in touch.
If you would like to volunteer for Healthwatch Leeds please contact Craig by calling 0113 8980035, or email craig@healthwatchleeds.co.uk
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Yorkshire & Humber Hypermobility project
“To everyone who participated in the Healthwatch hypermobility syndromes project, a very big thank you'
All the project work, including the final report, conclusions, recommendations and next steps can be found at: Healthwatch Calderdale's website
Also below is the link to the latest case study video, produced to accompany the report: video created by Healthwatch Kirklees
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