Irish in Britain collaborated with Ashford Place to host a successful Community Health Event on 9 November. This is part of series of health events we have been working with member organisations to jointly host.
Alongside the wonderful team at Ashford Place, were delighted to also partner up with Brent Health Matters to ensure that attendees would get the most out of the day.
The event was a massive success with over 220 people there, including 160 attendees and 60 staff and volunteers. The aim for this health event was to incorporate Covid-19 vaccines and health checks, but also give community members the opportunity to link in with other local organisations, surrounding health and wellbeing.
The Ashford Place Community Health Event offered attendees the opportunity to receive free health checks, the Covid-19 Omicron booster vaccination, diabetes checks and BMI and blood pressure checks which were all provided by Brent Health Matters and the NHS outreach team.
Attendees also had the opportunity to have a consultation with a local pharmacist, GP and a dietician whose services were in great demand throughout the event.
Talks
A great addition to the Ashford Place Community Health Event was the introduction of scheduled talks on the top floor of the centre. Different health experts came to speak on topics that were of interest to the health and wellbeing of the Irish population in Britain. These included talks on heart health, breast cancer, bowel cancer screening, oral hygiene and mental health.
Marie from M2M Community Solicitors also came along to talk to attendees about will writing and power of attorney which was hugely popular with many attendees commenting on how helpful and approachable the speakers were.
The mezzanine was filled with activity throughout the event with community health stalls set up around room. These provided the opportunity to discover the health and wellbeing support that can be found within the local area and to find out about all the different community initiatives and services available.
Different stalls
Stall holders included the Macular Society, Advice4Renters, Health Watch, NHS Bowel Cancer Screening, Haemochromatosis UK, Rethink Mental Illness Brent, M2M Community Solicitors, Safe Home Ireland, London Ambulance Service, Ashford Place and Irish in Britain.
A series of energetic exercise tasters were held on the day including Gentle Seated Exercise with Donna. ICAP provided a Dance and Movement Psychotherapy and stretch and breath Demo which was a wonderful addition to the day.
Helen Tierney provided wonderful entertainment on an array of instruments including a harp, piano and accordion. The London Rose, Hailey Reynolds made a guest appearance and joined in with all the activities. All attendees were offered a home-made Irish stew with one attendee commenting ‘it was the best Irish stew I’ve ever had’.
This event shows the positive impact that such community health initiative can have. Thank you to Ashford Place, especially Renee Gallagher for her great work, to bring this event to life, to Brent Community Health for their collaboration and support, to the stall holders and most importantly, everyone who came along and made it the successful event that it was.
Renee Gallagher, Ashford Place said:
“Ashford Place were delighted to partner with Irish in Britain to deliver a Health and Wellbeing Event . The high number of people in attendance on the day demonstrated that there is an appetite in the Irish community of Northwest London and a need for this method of disseminating and providing access to health information and services.
“We were happy to see our extensive community space in full use throughout the day and to confidently host Brent NHS teams and a multitude of health and information stalls and talks. It was also a good reason to showcase our community catering with our Irish stew and soda scones being a big hit with attendees. Thank you to Ellen for all her hard work, we look forward to working together again soon.”