- Register today for our Annual General Meeting - meet the team and celebrate 2020/21

- Putting a face to an unmet need-opportunity for over 65s  

- Support to help you think ahead about how you would like to be cared for 

- What is England's "Living with Covid" plan? 

- Get involved in Lambeth Mental Capacity Week this week 

- Support for unpaid carers looking after someone with a mental health condition 

- Help create the new strategy for South London and Maudsley NHS Trust

There is still time to register for our Annual General Meeting (AGM) which we are holding online on Zoom this Wednesday. Join us to hear all about our achievements over the year 2020/21 and meet the staff and trustees who work at Healthwatch Lambeth.

Register for our AGM today

Key event information

• Date: Wednesday 16 March 2022
• Time: 6pm (GMT)
• Hosted online on Zoom

Reasons to join our AGM

• Hear about the main projects we delivered, and how your feedback helped us change services for the better
• Meet our staff and trustees
• Learn how our volunteers support our work

If you have any questions, please contact us. Email: info@healthwatchlambeth.org.uk or see other ways to get in touch on our website: Contact us | Healthwatch Lambeth

The social care system is there to help with keeping us safe, healthy and looking after ourselves. But not everyone that needs support is getting it, and not everyone that reaches out to ask for help is successful. If this sounds familiar, we would love for you to share your story with us.

Healthwatch Lambeth are doing interviews and speaking to people like you, who feel overlooked or underserved by the current social care system. We want to understand how your care needs or responsibilities impact your lives, whether your needs are being met by social services and find out if more can be done to support you. 

Being able to show the real experiences of people like you will help us make the argument for a better social care system more powerfully.

To be eligible you need to:

• Be over 65 years old
• Have care needs, however you understand this, that you need support with
• Have had an assessment with adult social care recently or are thinking of asking for one (it does not matter if you were not found eligible for support)

Interviews will take 45 minutes, and we can get you an interpreter if English is not your first language. 

If you are interested in taking part, please contact Sara Lyon, Older People Engagement Lead:

• Call: 07943 986 256
• Email: Sara.Lyon@healthwatchlambeth.org.uk

Thinking and talking about, and then recording what it is important to you will help make sure that family, friends and professionals understand what you want and respect your wishes.

It can also give you and your loved ones peace of mind, enabling you to live well and get the most out of life. Planning now can make a stressful time later easier for you and those around you.

Lambeth Advance Care Planning Consortium offers free, one-to-one support to help people make an advance care plan.

How to request support from the Consortium

• Fill out a MyCommunity Lambeth referral form (tick the ‘Advance Care Planning Conversations’ box in the Support section)
• Give the MyCommunity Lambeth team a call on 0333 360 3700

Learn how to find your GP on the internet and explore useful apps that can help you prepare for and manage your appointments and more.

The Clear Community Web is helping local people get connected at free sessions in Lambeth. Our very own Anna D’Agostino will be a guest speaker at the next session.

Join us at to learn more about:

• Finding your GP online
• NHS app/Patient Access/Dr iQ
• Safety and privacy
• Information and advice
• Help from a volunteer

When and where:

• Date: 31 March 2022
• Time: 2pm-4pm
• Venue: Myatts Fields Centre, Eythorne Road, SW9 7RH  

How to register:

• By phone: call 07523 646 27
• Online: Register on Eventbrite or email info@clearcommunityweb.co.uk

In England, all remaining legal restrictions have been removed as part of the prime minister's "Living with Covid" plan.

This is the government's plan for removing the remaining legal restrictions while protecting people most vulnerable to COVID-19 and maintaining resilience.

What are the restrictions in England under the new plan? 

• Adults and children who test positive are advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people, but there is no longer a legal requirement to do that.
• If you are fully vaccinated and someone you know tests positive, you no longer need to take daily tests for a week.
  
• Self-isolation support payments and national funding for practical support ends.
• From 24 March, the COVID-19 provisions within Statutory Sick Pay and Employment and Support Allowance regulations will end, although if you have COVID you may still get support under your normal conditions of employment. 
• From 1 April, look out for the new government guidance around the ongoing steps that people with COVID-19 should take to minimise contact with other people. 

The government has said that the most vulnerable individuals in the population should continue getting booster jabs every six months. This includes:

• Adults aged 75 years and over,
• residents in a care home for older adults and
• individuals aged 12 years and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in in the COVID 19 healthcare guidance Green Book.

It is still important to know how to stay safe and help prevent the spread. Find out the latest guidance on the Government website: Find out how to stay safe and help prevent the spread of COVID

Anyone aged 16 and over is eligible to get their booster COVID-19 vaccination. This latest development comes as Lambeth and London continue to see a significant number of cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Young people aged 12 - 15 are also eligible for their first and second dose.

In addition to that, the first or second dose is available to unvaccinated people in these groups:

• Residents aged 12 and over
• Unvaccinated NHS and social care staff
• Booster doses for anyone aged 16+

We are gearing up for Lambeth’s Mental Capacity Week which will take place between 14th and 18th March and we want as many people as possible to get involved!

There are lots of different sessions available that are designed to support you in the application of the Mental Capacity Act, and you can find out more below.

To see the full range of topics being covered and secure you place, check out the full programme.

Events and resources from the programme

• Lambeth Mental Capacity Act Guidance
• Reflecting on learning
• Working with a change resistant drinker: Ian's Story
• Do you know your DoLS from your LPS?
• Making Safeguarding Personal and MCA
• Sexual Relationships and Mental Capacity
• Applying the Mental Capacity Act in the Community
• Planning for the future (financial Lasting Powers of Attorney and deputyships, Advance Care Planning Consortium)

 Join these regular, free meetings that offer advice and support to help you with your caring.

• Learn from NHS care workers and meet people who are carers like you.
• Runs every last Friday of the month fom 4.00pm - 5.30pm

To join contact Matthew McKenzie on 07881301059 or email mmckenz11@hotmail.com

Age UK are hosting a craft event with a Later Life specialist called "Picture your Care". Come along to make a collage and ask any questions about later life care.

Free lunch and hot drinks provided.

• When: Monday 4 April 2022, 9 am to 1 pm
• Where: Art4Space 31 Jeffery’s Road Stockwell SW4 6QU4th April 20229AM-1PM

LIMITED SPACES - Register your FREE place today

There are only 20 spaces available. To register a place, email Elleh4490@gmail.com or call 07563018023.

The Trust's 2022/26 strategy has been built on the feedback of hundreds of staff, service users, carers and partners with the support of many community organisations. Patients believed that the Trust should measure its success through personal experiences. 

This month South London and Maudsley NHS Trust are running a series of online workshops to help come up with ways that patient experiences can be used to keep the strategy on track.

How to join

• Register for one of the online workshops: Co-producing Qualitative Measures Workshops
• If you cannot join a workshop, you can complete the online survey instead: Co-producing Qualitative Measures Survey

Have you had aches and pains or difficulty with day-to-day activities related to a musculoskeletal (MSK) condition? MSK conditions affect the joints, bones and muscles, they also include autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. 

The South east London Planned Care Tea are looking to improve the MSK patient journey in south east London and are keen to understand views of people with lived experience of MSK conditions.

Join one of these webinars to hear about initial proposals to improve the MSK patient journey, ask questions and give your views on what works well and what could be better: 

• Tuesday 29 March 1:00-2:00 pm - Register here.
• Thursday 31 March 6:00-7:00 pm - Register here.

For further information please contact Emma James (MSK Project Manager) emma.james17@nhs.net