Author: Fran Arnold

Walking is good for our minds, bodies and neighbourhoods. Spring is a perfect time to get out and get walking – and it’s FREE!!!

Walking has so many benefits for our wellbeing, including:-

Physical Wellbeing

Good for our heart, muscles and joints, and can lower risk of some conditions e.g. dementia, certain cancers, diabetes, heart disease and depression.
Walking can also help you lose weight.

Mental Wellbeing

Walking gives you energy, helps you feel happy, can reduce stress, improves self-esteem, helps you feel more positive and can relieve anxiety and depression.

Connections

It’s a great way to socialise and connect with others, and all the family can get involved.
It’s also a great way to connect with nature and discover new places.

It is recommended that adults get 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week, and just 20 minutes walking per day can make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing.
Why not try taking a walk at lunchtime or in a morning and feel the benefits yourself?
Another great thing about walking is that you can incorporate it into your daily life e.g. walking to school or shops, walking and talking with friends or taking the stairs instead of a lift etc. Build your strength, start small and work your way up to longer walks if you need to, going at your own pace.

There are lots of easy to access places to walk in and around Darnall and Tinsley e.g. High Hazels Park, Tinsley Park golf course, Bowden Wood, so why not take a visit? The link below is a walk starting from Darnall Community Park – it is just over 2 miles long, taking in the Canal and Olympic Legacy Park: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1wjGjDuwYYjumW2ZQcVTqOz3RDu5qo1zr&usp=sharing

If you fancy a group walk, why not join our Health Walk in Darnall on a Mondays at 11.00am (ring 0114 249 6315 to register) or watch this space for new group walks coming soon.

As lockdown eases if you fancy going further afield, have a look here: https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/home/parks-sport-recreation

to see details of parks and green spaces in Sheffield.

Or if you’re feeling adventurous, have a look at:

https://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/home

and public transport details:

https://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/visiting/planning-your-visit/publictransport/peak-district-bus-routes

We are keen to encourage connecting with nature whilst walking and have attached a daily diary to help motivate you to get started or increase your walking, not just in May but beyond. Challenge yourself to do 20 minutes walking as part of your daily exercise.

There are lots of useful websites to with ideas and resources to help motivate you, e.g. https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/

We would love you to send us any pictures of walks or if you have any walking ideas or routes to share, please let us know!

Did you know that 10-16 May 2021 is Mental Health Awareness Week? The theme this year is #ConnectWithNature.

Mental health issues can affect anyone, and Mental Health Awareness Week is an opportunity for people to talk about any aspect of mental health. This year’s theme is nature. Nature has benefits for our mental health and wellbeing. Nature can reduce stress and help bring connection with the world and each other.

At Darnall Well Being, we are encouraging people to connect with nature; that could be by combining this with the benefits of physical activity and getting out for a walk, sitting in your garden, looking out of your window or looking after any plants you have in your home.
Next time you connect with nature, have a think about what you hear, smell or see. We would love you to share this with us – send us your pictures or let us know how it made you feel and any benefits it had.
Send any photos to dwb.enquiries@darnallwellbeing.org.uk
Or tag us in your photos on social media: @darnallwb

Our leaflet with more details about this, and about useful contacts who can help with mental health support, is available to download here:

If you’d like to get out for a walk, but feel a bit hesitant after the past year of lockdowns, please contact us and we can welcome you along to our Monday walking group in High Hazels Park. The group follows two different routes, so you can choose the route that is best suited to you. Group members have said have said that coming back to walking with us post-lockdown has helped their confidence to get back out for walks, after isolating for some time. Sam, who is in his 80s, was so happy to be back on the group walks that he came running with his walking stick to get there on time!

On our Health Walk on Monday 10th May, group members took time to see and hear the birds and squirrels around them, and to smell the wet grass and blossom in the park. Building those connections with the natural world around us is just one way that nature can help with our mental wellbeing – the Wildlife Trusts list some other ways nature helps too:

Paul, one of our volunteers, suggested an unusual, fun activity to help connect with nature – why not build your own hedgehog house?! Information on how to do that here:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2019/08/how-to-make-hedgehog-house/

And if you need some inspiration for other things you can do to take care of your mental health, the Mental Health Foundation have come up with this helpful poster, packed full of suggestions:

Monday 18th January 2021 is known as Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year – but did you know that this idea came from an ad campaign to sell holidays and isn’t actually true?

We know it’s really important to look after our mental health every day of the year, and to help us all through what may be an especially difficult time of year in lockdown, we have put together some useful support and contacts to help with mental health and wellbeing.

Help is available

There are plenty of ways that you can speak to someone, if you’re struggling – don’t suffer in silence! If you need to speak to someone urgently, please see the options here. The following are also local organisations who can help:

Sheffield Flourish run a number of groups and help people to support themselves with their mental health.

Sheffield Mental Health Guide – links to lots of mental health support options across Sheffield

Sheffield Mind – working locally to improve wellbeing and provide advice and support to anyone experiencing a mental health problem.

Sheffield Samaritans – available to talk about however you’re feeling and support you.

Andy’s Man Club Sheffield are a peer support group for men and their mental health.

There are a number of apps and websites that you can use to help manage your mental health – some great, free examples are:

You could use the NHS Your Mind Plan to help you manage your mental health – and Sheffield Flourish have also produced a Mental Health Toolkit that you can use to support yourself with your wellbeing.

NHS Catch It – helps you learn how to manage feelings like anxiety and depression

NHS Stress & Anxiety Companion – helps you to handle stress and anxiety whilst you’re on the go.

There are also lots of videos online that can help in different ways. Here are a few examples you could try:

Honest Guys – meditation and relaxation videos to help you relax

Yoga With Adriene – yoga videos for all abilities and ages.

Netflix – Headspace Guide to Meditation

Finally, be kind to yourself and try to make some time every day to do something that you enjoy, even if that’s as simple as walking around the block or reading a book for a while. Spring will be here before we know it!

Some Darnall Well Being staff challenged themselves to walk or run 25 miles in December 2020.

Inspired by a challenge started by Manor & Castle Development Trust, DWB staff Claire, Lucie, Sarah, Fran, Milda, Yvonne and Lucy committed to walking or running an extra 25 miles in December 2020. The idea was to help them get outside and keep active during the darker, colder winter days – watch the video to see how they got on!

We hope our efforts will encourage others to get out for a daily walk, whatever the weather. Since a new national lockdown was announced on 5th January 2021, please remember to exercise in accordance with the guidelines:

You can continue to leave the house for exercise, and you may exercise alone, with one other person, or with your household or support bubble. Exercise outside the home should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area. You should maintain social distancing throughout.

14th November 2020 is World Diabetes Day, so we want to share with you some of the Diabetes support that we have continued to provide throughout Covid-19.

In March 2020, we had to stop our Diabetes group meetings, along with all of our other face to face activities. However, our Health and Wellbeing Workers have remained in regular contact with the Diabetes group ever since, to make sure they were coping well and managing Diabetes with all the additional stress around them during Covid-19.

Our service has also remained open for those who need it most, so we have continued to receive new referrals from different sources (both medical and social), requesting support to help people to manage Diabetes.

Our Health and Wellbeing Workers support people with Diabetes in a variety of ways, according to each individual’s needs and abilities. Some people need information on how to manage or prevent Diabetes, so we are able to provide them up to date information and uesful links. Others need more than just information, so where possible, we’ve been providing online one to one support via WhatsApp or Zoom. At these sessions, we’ve been able to share our resources and information, and support clients in setting realistic and achievable goals for Diabetes self-management

We’ve had some lovely feedback from some of the people we’ve supported during this time:

Really great job you are doing, we feel supported and get help when we need.

Thank you , I feel prevention is what I can do for myself from Diabetes , I will keep in touch if I need more information our struggling.

Client who we recently helped with Volunteer language support via WhatsApp)

When the Practice nurse referred me to you to lose weight and  manage Diabetes, I thought how will it work in this critical time and lockdown? But DWB found the best way to support me. I appreciate the help and support I get – thank you.

Mrs W;  

Some useful information and links to Diabetes UK Sheffield are attached below for you to use:

Flu kills over 11,000 people every year, on average.

Some years it’s much more and it hospitalises many more each year.

This is anything but an average year.

As Covid-19 is likely to be circulating with flu, protecting those at high risk of flu, who are also those most vulnerable to hospitalisation as a result of Covid-19, is vitally important.

We think of it as ‘just the flu’.  But it’s a virus. It can cause severe complications, particularly amongst those at high risk. So when it comes to flu, there’s no ‘just’ about it.  

The flu virus spreads from person to person, even amongst those not showing any symptoms.

It can cause severe complications, particularly for high risk groups. Don’t put off getting the flu vaccination. If you’re eligible get it now. It’s free because you need it. Contact your GP or pharmacist to book an appointment.

Worried or Unsure About Getting a Flu Jab?

There’s lots more information and questions answered about the flu jab on the NHS Sheffield CCG website here.

Greg Fell, Sheffield’s Director of Public Health, has also made a video busting some common myths about the flu jab. You can watch it here:

We know there can be false stories shared online about vaccinations and that these can be worrying. You can always check the truth about online stories about vaccines via the independing fact checking website Full Fact.

The leaflets below are produced by the NHS and give information about the flu vaccine in different languages. Other translations are available on the Public Health England website.