The Big Health Day is a free health and wellbeing event for adults with learning disabilities and their families and carers.Organised by Project 49 day service in conjunction with South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, this year’s event included several health related stalls, exercise taster sessions, a stage area with live music and a hospital uniform fashion show hosted by Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
The Big Health Day aims to bring together professionals, local services and the community to give easily accessible information, health and wellbeing advice and opportunities for people with learning disabilities, their family and carers. Project 49 is community-based resource run by Southend Borough Council that currently provides innovative services for 140 adults with learning disabilities in the Southend-on-Sea area, encouraging and supporting them to live the fittest and healthiest lives possible.
The Big Health Day is one way of raising awareness of these services, ensuring everyone in the locality with a learning disability has the same opportunities as the service users of Project 49.
Debbie Chapman, Assistant Manager at Project 49, said: “It is well known people with learning disabilities have poorer health than the general population. On average men die 13 years earlier and women die 20 years earlier. “There is evidence that with the help of education, exercise, and people taking steps to manage their own health, many admissions to acute hospitals can be avoided. Every adult with a learning disability is entitled to an annual health check from their GP surgery to help detect, treat and prevent new health conditions.”
Visitors to this year’s Big Health Day were also given a unique opportunity to learn about the signs and symptoms of bowel cancer and other diseases of the large intestine with the help of a giant inflatable colon. Provided by Inflatable Body Organs, the walk through replica of the human colon, which measured 7m by 4m, was hired by Southend University Hospital and had over 200 visitors alone, giving each of them a closer look at conditions like polyps and Crohn's disease as well as different types of cancers.The hospital’s Specialist Nurse for Learning Disability, Sarah Haines, said: "For people with learning disabilities constipation and bowel problems are real big issues and can make people extremely ill. It isn't a subject that people easily feel they can talk about, so we wanted to focus on something fun to help improve awareness of bowel care. And with a giant inflatable bowel there isn't a lot else people can focus on. "It really helped to bring the issue to life and visualised just what is going on in your tummy to promote conversation, debate and give people the confidence to talk about it with a fun yet educational introduction."
Around 300 people attended this year’s Big Health Day with the event seeing a notable increase in visitors annually since it started in 2013.
For further details please contact: Pete Shrimplin (Project 49) - 01702 212434 Paula Pearl (SEPT) - 01268 739134 “For information regarding the Inflatables contact [email protected] or www.iborgans.com