Health and Wellbeing - For Every Family

Introduction

In this section we look at family health, wellness and ways to improve your own health and wellbeing focusing on a range of topics including:

Mental Health
Smoking
Alcohol and drugs
Sexual Health

Substances

How alcohol can affect you

Alcohol can impact your:

mood
energy levels
motivation

We often drink because we want to change the way we feel.

Growing evidence suggests that alcohol can have a negative effect on our mental health and physical health, with guidelines suggesting that we shouldn’t drink more than 14 units a week. This is around 6 pints of lager, or 7 glasses of wine.

If you have concerns look out for the following patterns:

using alcohol to block how you feel
using alcohol to help you to sleep
using alcohol to fill time
drinking alcohol more regularly
drinking more and more alcohol

For facts about alcohol, visit NHS: Alcohol.

If you are concerned about your alcohol intake, contact your GP for support.

To find your local GP visit https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-GP

Or, contact the stadultrecoveryservice.co.uk, which is specifically for adults affected by alcohol misuse who live in South Tyneside.

Support for drugs or substance misuse

If you have a problem with drugs, there’s lots of of addiction services that can help.

If you have a problem with drugs, you have the same entitlement to care as anyone coming to the NHS for help with any other health problem.

With the right help and support it’s possible for you to get drug free and stay that way.

Where to get help for drugs

A good place to start is to visit your GP.

Your GP can discuss your concerns with you
assess the nature of your problems
help you choose the most appropriate treatment and
might offer to treat you, or refer you to your local specialist drug service.

Many drug treatment services accept self-referrals.

If you’re not comfortable talking to your GP, you might be able to approach your local drug treatment service directly.

Alcoholic Anonymous

Find drug and alcohol services

South Tyneside Alcohol Recovery Service

Mental Health

Mental health is just as important as our physical health.

Our mental health is how we are feeling inside and emotionally.

It can affect your ability to:

Work
Study
Do the things you need and want to do
Get along with others
Look after yourself
Talking about your feelings and mental health can help.

If you are concerned about how you are feeling, there are lots of services that can help.

Qwell

Qwell provide free online support and counselling for people over the age of 18 years.

Website: https://www.qwell.io/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Qwell.io

Other support available

South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust

SHOUT

Mental Health Services

Kooth

Advice for parents

Papyrus HOPELINEUK

Together in a crisis Sunderland and South Tyneside – Mental Health Concern

Overview – Postnatal depression

Sexual Health

Sexual health is an important part of your physical and mental health as well as your emotional and social wellbeing

It’s important to take care of your sexual health including talking about sex and relationships with your loved ones

Local information and support

Sexual health services in South Tyneside are free, confidential and available to everyone regardless of sex, age, ethnic origin and sexual orientation.

They aim to make sure that people are given the information and skills they need to make informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health.

South Tyneside sexual health services provide:

advice on sexual health, relationships and family planning
free contraception
free testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
free HIV testing
free emergency hormonal contraception (the morning-after pill) for young people
Services might be delivered by nurses, specialist doctors, your local/regular doctor, pharmacists or outreach workers.

Not all service providers offer the full range of sexual health services as outlined above, and it’s always best to check what’s on offer in advance.

To find service available in South Tyneside Information and services from South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust Sexual Health Service

LGBTQ+

We want you to feel proud of your own identity and accept who you are.

We understand this is not always easy and we want you to feel supported:

Humankind: LGBTQ+ North East is the local LGBTQ+ support service offering friendly and practical support such as: one-to-one support sessions, sexual health guidance, fun activities, support accessing clinical gender identity services and more.

Information about national LGBTQ+ services can be found here.

South Tyneside Sexual Health Service

Contraception Choices

Smoking

Support to quit smoking

You can get free, flexible, friendly support to help you quit.

Support includes:

Specialist one to one support and advice.
Nicotine replacement therapy.
You are three times more likely to quit with our support.

There are lots of reasons to quit smoking.

For information about the benefits of quitting, visit Quit smoking – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Ask for support

You can ask for help for yourself or for someone you know by speaking to a smoking adviser:

Phone: 0191 424 7300

Email: [email protected]

Online and digital support

Free personal quit plan: https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/personal-quit-plan/

Call the free Smokefree National Helpline to speak to a trained, expert adviser: 0300 123 1044

Oral Health

South Tyneside and Sunderland Community Dental Service provide a full range of dental treatment for patients of all ages whose complex needs mean they have difficulty in accessing general dental services.

We aim to provide high quality dental care locally for patients with a wide range of individual needs. This includes individuals who are medically compromised or have mental health issues; adults and children with severe learning disabilities or physical disabilities and children with behavioral management issues.

For more information, visit: https://www.stsft.nhs.uk/services/dental-services

A Parents’ Guide to oral health and dental care for children with a learning disability, autism or both

Click here to view

Looking after your child’s oral health

Babies should be registered with the dentist as soon as first teeth appear and regular visits should be encouraged. It is important to start brushing your baby’s teeth as soon as they appear. You can find out more about looking after your baby’s teeth:

Quick Links

Keep Warm, Keep Well Visit Site

Healthy weight and physical activity Visit Site

NHS Health Check Visit Site

Greenhope Oasis Allotments – Neca (https://neca.co.uk/greenhope-oasis-allotments/)

Greenhope Oasis Allotments (NECA) Visit Site

Find drug and alcohol support near you | FRANK (https://www.talktofrank.com/get-help/find-support-near-you)

Find drug and alcohol support near you Visit Site

Anxiety UK Visit Site

Who we are - Escape Intervention (https://www.escapeintervention.org.uk/)

Escape Intervention Services Visit Site

Home | Compact For Race Equality South Tyneside (https://www.crest.uk.com/)

CREST Visit Site

WHIST – Women's Health in South Tyneside (https://www.whist.org.uk/)

Women's Health in South Tyneside (WHiST) Visit Site

Healthy Lives Maternity Wellbeing Programme Visit Site

Activities

Baby Explorers

For ages conception to mobile – a programme of 6 sessions. Focus is on bonding and attachment, communication, health and wellbeing, safety, development milestones and learning through play. Booking essential – please contact the family hub directly.

Weigh Baby Clinic - Appointment only

A weekly clinic to get your child weighed, with advice and support from a Health Visitor. Appointment only by calling 0191 283 2677.

HENRY Understanding Behaviours

90-minute workshop The workshop gives opportunities to share experiences within a small group with other parents and carers, find new ways of reducing stress and gain new ideas to manage daily family life to get your little ones off to a great start.

Learning With Play 0 - 4 Years

This group promotes quality time and learning through play, as well as an opportunity for you to access information and advice from professionals.

Solihull Parenting Group

A programme based on the Solihull approach that supports parents and carers to understand their child’s behaviour in the context of their development and child-parent relationship. For more information and to book a space on this eight-week activity, please contact the hosting Family Hub.

Early Words Together (3 - 4 years)

A 6-week programme to help families to support their child’s communication and development. Receive free books and spend quality time with your child. For more information including where and when this programme is running, please call your local Family Hub.

KalmaBaby Yoga (Booking required)

We have teamed up with KalmaBaby South Tyneside to bring you a course of KalmaBaby Yoga sessions. Cost: £7

Triple P Baby

Triple P Baby is an evidence-based programme which supports parents with the transition into parenthood. It explores sensitive and responsive parenting and aims to further develop positive relationships with your baby. Please call your local Family Hub for more information.

HENRY Preparing for Parenthood (Antenatal)

A 6-week programme to help expectant parents develop a healthy lifestyle for themselves and their baby whilst preparing for birth and caring for a new baby.

Little explorers

Little Explorers is a 6-week programme for toddlers led by Early Years Practitioners who will provide you with guidance and support to use in your own home. The programme focuses on communication, health and wellbeing, safety, development milestones and leaning through play.

Baby Sensory

Baby Sensory provides ideas for creative play, tummy time, movement, visual development, textures, scents and music in simple practical ways that can easily be repeated at home. A combination of original and traditional songs and rhymes are also used to develop early speech and language skills, and sensory signing activities to help you and your

Clarty Art

Art for All! Offering art classes and workshops for children in South Tyneside.

Solihull Approach Antenatal

Solihull Approach Antenatal is an evidence-based program that helps prepare parents for their journey into parenthood. It is a 4-week programme that covers subjects such as: helping you and your baby through pregnancy & birth, stages of labour, feeding your baby and much more…

VIG

Everyone is an expert in their own baby but sometimes you need help to see it. The VIG Approach is family centred and moves at the families pace, with their individual goals in mind. The VIG practitioner will share various video clips with you, detailing the best moments of your parent/child interaction. You will reflect

Learning With Play 0 to 4 Years (Young Parents)

A playgroup for young parents under 21 with children aged 0-4 years. This group promotes quality time and learning through play as well as information, advice and guidance. The session includes songs, rhymes, outdoor play, sensory, crafts and messy play. Voluntary contribution of £1. Booking isn’t required.

KalmaYoga (5+)

We have teamed up with KalmaBaby South Tyneside to bring you a course of KalmaBaby Yoga sessions. Make yoga and massage fun with serious developmental benefits. Yoga inspired stretches with child in order to promote healthy and deeper sleep patterns, suppleness in joints and muscles, co-ordination and gross motor skills. Who the sessions are for:

Clarty Art

Art for All! Offering art classes and workshops for children in South Tyneside. Summer Schedule Week 1 – Mad about Minibeasts @ Biddick and Whiteleas Family Hub Making nature bugs from leaves, twigs and recycled materials and creating butterfly symmetry paintings. Week 3 – Traditional Tales @ Marine Park Family Hub Creating Fairytale

Little Inventors Workshops

gi.responsiveImage.initialiseResponsiveImage(‘c_aa7e0eb1-4a4d-4879-a7d5-e0f90e98cf5f’); This is a free activity. Come join us at South Tyneside Family Hubs for our Little Inventors Workshops! Join Little Inventors for an educational and fun workshop where families can work together to help us build a better future for our oceans through creativity and innovation. We need your creative minds to help us