World Book Night - We celebrated in the daytime...how civilised :)

Jan Billington from Maddocks Farm Organics was a World Book Night representitive. She very kindly gave us a pile of Nigel Slater's autobiography 'Toast'. Our Jan and I decided the Knit and Natter group would be keen to get reading so on Wednesday Our Jan handed them out. The books caused exactly the kind of buzz and delight I imagine Jamie Byng (who had the brilliant idea back in 2009) hoped they would. 

 

The 2nd Health Question Time on Back Pain

Ruth Tucker and I have a limited number of tickets left for the Back Pain Health Question Time. If you would like a ticket or two, ring the cafe on 01884 831300 (do ask to be put through to the cafe). Tickets can be collected on the night.

Coeliac's Cookery Course

Jan and I first met John Crompton and his wife when he popped into the cafe. We were chatting and discovered John is a chef with lots of special interests. One of which is recipes for coeliacs. John was busy with his business 'Cromptons Kitchen' but promised he would come back to the cafe to talk further when he could...and he did!

We met on Monday and have planned for John to come to the cafe to run an evening workshop where he will make gluten free savoury and sweet dishes from scratch with taste fabulous. Coeliacs don't have to settle for second best when it comes to the taste of their food. John will be making profiteroles and chocolate cake amongst other things. On his website it says,

John, who is an Artisan Salt Blender and a member of the Craft Guild of Chefs, has always stood by the maxim that "cooking is a marriage of flavours", and his aim has been to reproduce this belief in his blends.

So if you would like to book a place on John's subsidised course on Wednesday 16th February from 5:45-8:00 pm at Cafe Sustain, pop into the cafe or speak to Ruth Tucker.

If you would like a free ticket to come to our second Heatlh Question Time on 26th January 2011 please ask at the cafe on 01884 831300 (ask for cafe) or email Ruth Tucker on ruth.tucker2@nhs.net.

Crafting at the Cafe in 2010

I have been really quiet since the beginning of December as I was struck down with something horrible which knocked me for six. Thankfully all the cafe team have been snapping away so here a a few of our crafting events from December.

Pottery Painting with Katy from Smiling Daisies

Upstream's Craft Drop-In

Barbara Clift's Willow Star Workshop

Wednesday's Course

We still have a couple of place left for Wednesday's course in the evening. The daytime one is full.

Alex Laird, Living Medicine, has kindly agreed to come down from London to run two sessions at the cafe.

Plants to Combat Coughs, Colds and Sneezes

Helen Kearney, Living Medicine, ran a fantastic session at the cafe on Wednesday night. The course tonight was excellent. I have lots to tell you about it but will do so tomorrow. Tonight I have a new blend of tea to drink, onion syrup to try and a mustard food bath to get my feet into!

This is Helen Kearney



Making Onion Syrup (for productive coughs) by layering onions, garlic and sugar.



Leave overnight and strain the syrup into a clean jar. Store in the fridge. 

We made our own teas by mixing the herbs. Helen labelled each herb with its uses. I made a rose, calendula and lime tea.

Etoille tested Helen's thyme and licorice syrup and her wild cherry bark syrup.

Non Shaw's fabulous poster

Our choice of herbs for tea-making

This is take two of four! Tomorrow we will show you from start to finish how to make onion syrup...

 

Helen says:

"Here is a recipe for elderberry syrup

Pick elderberries that are ripe with no signs of mold ( September to late ish October).

Using a fork remove the elderberries from their stalks.

Place elderberries in a large saucepan and just cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20mins.

Strain the berries through a muslin cloth, squeezing out all the juice.

Add 400g of white sugar to 600ml of juice and half the juice of a lemon.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Pour in to hot, sterilized bottles and screw on well fitting lids.( I use passata jars, they work well as the liquid cools it contracts and forms a vacuum seal with the lid)

Un opened the syrup will keep for months. Store in the fridge when opened. Use the syrup with hot water and maybe lemon, ginger added as a winter warmer and to combat colds and flus/help relieve symptoms.

The onions from the onion syrup I added to some stewed red cabbage that I made last night and it was very good!

Two shops where you can buy loose herbs (much cheeper than supermarkets) to make teas and use in cooking are Seasons on Wells street in Exeter and Reapers in Tiverton."

The First Health Question Time on Tiredness & Fatigue

Tonight (8th November) we held our 1st Health Question Time upstairs at the Culm Valley Integrated Centre for Health.

The panel answered questions from the 40-strong audience on tiredness and fatigue. The opportunity to question your healthcare professionals: GP Dr Claire Matthews, Pharmacist Fraser Perman and CAM practitioner Simon Mills, with Chair Dr Michael Dixon is a new and exciting idea. And it worked. We have had so much positive feedback and everyone, the panel included, got something new from the experience. 

Dr Matthews reassured the audience that GPs are happy to see you if you feel usually tired. She talked about revising your medication with your GP if you find it is affecting your level of tiredness.

Pharmacist Fraser Perman talked about the importance of talking through the over-the-counter remedies you are taking with your GP or pharmacist if you are taking prescription medicines, as these can affect each other. He also talked through the services that pharmacists offer. 

Simon Mills told us about the wonders of cinnamon and its uses after a member of the audience told of her successes after taking a teaspoon every morning. As a result Fraser had some in his coffee this morning at the cafe. The uses of cinnamon were the talk of the cafe today. Simon also talked through what CAM practitioners can offer patients to help with tiredness and fatigue.

There were far too many gems of information to share here but I am going to list the key questions below and if you would like to know the responses given, please talk to Ruth Tucker (health facilitator) at the surgery and she can talk you through the self care opportunities available.

I feel more tired if there is dull light. Is there a reason for this?

I have had fibromyalgia and other health problems for at least 13 years, maybe longer. How can I improve the overwhelming of feeling tired all the time without reducing medication?

Is St John's Wort effective at treating fatigue?

In view of my lifestyle, why is my state of health as it is? (this question was raised by a man who gave details of his medical history)

Does the panel not think that given the current economic crisis, with subsequent cut backs and uncertainties there is inevitably going to be an increase in tiredness and fatigue at all levels? What measures, therefore, can the team suggest that the general public adopt?

I am particularly interested in any herbal remedies. Which I can take to help my fatigue?

40 year old patient had total hysterectomy -  5 years later  found low iron count (anaemia) suggested that the fatigue, joint aches and pains, breathlessness, loss of concentration, memory lapses, inability to do normal exercise programme etc. She thought was due to menopause and stress could be due to something more specific . How do we know when we should be seeking medical advice especially when symptoms could be explained as part of going through the menopause? 

The Expert Patients Programme supports living well and managing long term conditions including symptoms such as tiredness and fatigue. Do you agree that such programme are valuable?

I have tried to upload a video but it is just not happening. Please take my word for it that it was a fantastic event  and make sure you don't miss the next one. We are planning for it to be in early 2011 and the topic will be back pain. Keep popping into the cafe; ask Ruth to be on her 'contact me' list or keep logging on to the blog. 

Cafe Life

It has been a really busy week in the cafe. We have so many exciting things going on it is hard to let everybody know about everything without sounding like a stuck record. Ruth (our health facilitator) has just gone into town armed with a handful of bright orange Health Question Time posters. We have about 10 spaces left if anyone is still interested.

The community gardening group have been busy as usual. I always feel relieved when they sit down for a cup of coffee at the end as they do so much for us and I am hugely grateful for all their hard work. They are now planning to build a compost heap for the garden. They have it all in hand.

Helen Kearney who has given over some of her valuable time to get involved is also planning a series of courses on various aspects of gardening. It is fabulous that people come on board and work so hard in the name of the project and the community we are a part of and expect nothing in return. They are just all round good people.

I saw the video that was filmed here the week before last and shown at the launch of the New College of Medicine at the House of Commons. It was excellent. I can't download it as I don't have permission from the college but everyone was very impressed and it created a new buzz around what we are doing here. Hopefully it will end up in the public domain soon.

Ruth and I are beavering away on the new structure for the Health Facilitator program. We are inviting key community figures to come and get involved in what we are doing and be community links for us and us for them. I will keep you posted as to how it is progressing but we seemed to have designed a sustainable model which we have interest in from other areas of the country - fingers crossed we can make it work :)

The cafe kitchen have been busy as always. It is definitely soup weather Monday's cream of mushroom was fabulous. French onion today with a splash of something alcoholic to warm those cockles!

Health Question Time

INVITATION

First public Health Question Time

at pioneering health centre in South West

 

Culm Valley Integrated Centre for Health in Cullompton is known across the country for its innovations in health care. On Monday the 8^th November at 6pm it is hosting its first Health Question Time: a panel of doctors and other health experts will take questions on the subject of fatigue and chronic tiredness.

The Centre leads a multi-centre Department of Health project to explore ways to improve self care in many everyday conditions. This event heralds NHS Self Care week and marks 2 years of exciting developments at the centre, including our Café Sustain as in-practice community hub and ‘intelligent waiting room’, new approaches to prescribing community activities, the emerging role of a Health Facilitator in self care, and the production of friendly guidance to managing many common conditions at home.

For more information please contact Joey Lee at 07950 961 751 or at joey.lee@sustaincare.net

Details

The first Health Question Time panel will consist of Dr Michael Dixon (Chair), Dr Clare Matthews (GP), Fraser Pearson (pharmacist), Simon Mills (complementary practitioner). The theme is chronic tiredness and fatigue and questions will be taken from patients at the Centre.

Tiredness is one of the most common reasons to go to a GP yet is most often not appropriately treated by prescriptions. Across the UK 57 million GP consultations per year (about 20%of the total) are for conditions that can best be treated at home.

Health Question time is being hosted as part the DH project Integrated Self Care in Family Practice which is based at Culm Valley and also involves Bromley by Bow Centre in Tower Hamlets, the University of Westminster, and the Peninsula Medical School. NHS Self Week runs from the 15^th November.

Feldenkrais Workshop - Force of Habit Part 1

Tomorrow (Wednesday 20th October) Klaas Overzee is running the first of four new Feldenkrais sessions. He is kindly subsidising these so they are only £4 a session. Feldenkrais is an amazing technique. During the last session that Klaas ran at the cafe we had people getting up from a chair without support, something they hadn't done for years and something many of us take for granted many times every day. Whatever your level of mobility, Feldenkrais will teach you something new and beneficial.

Klaas Overzee showing Andi a new technique

Feldenkrais Workshop - Force of Habit Part 1 with Klaas Overzee. In part 1 we will be looking at how we tend to hold ourselves back through our habits. Once a movement becomes habitual we hardly ever spend time perfecting how we perform such an action. This can often lead to discomfort or even chronic pain. £4 per session.

Phone 01884 831300 and ask for the cafe.

Please contact us if you are interested in joining us for this workshop.

My Mum (in the white trousers) learning to stand from a seated position

Fancy being on Question Time? Now's your chance...

We don't like to make things easy for ourselves. Sitting down with a cup of tea and our feet up just isn't our style at cafe sustain - that's the customers' prerogative. As we are part of an exciting project on self care, we thought we would do something a bit 'outside the box' giving patients the chance to quiz their healthcare professionals on a particular topic - hence HEALTH QUESTION TIME. The first topic will be tiredness and fatigue and this is how it will work:

1. Patients/community/cafe customers turn up at 6pm on Monday 8th November - free tickets available from Cafe Sustain (ring 01884 831300 and ask for cafe).

2. We have organised a panel of health professionals: Dr Dixon (GP), Dr Matthews (GP), Fraser Pearman (pharmacist) and  Simon Mills (Self Care project lead).

3. We ask you to submit questions on TIREDNESS AND FATIGUE for the panel to answer.

4. The session will run like Question Time on the television or Gardeners' Question Time on the radio.

5. We have invited the press to make it a bit more exciting and the Department of Health are very supportive of our idea which means we could well be recorded.

6. It will be an opportunity to hear, from a variety of perspectives, ways to manage tiredness and fatigue.

7. If this is the success I feel it will be, then we will go on to plan future Question Times on other health conditions. So please support us. It will be a brilliant event. Tickets are limited so please get yours from the cafe soon.

Jamie at Home

Thank you to everyone who supported our 'Jamie at Home' party on Wednesday night. We had a lovely time and the cupcakes we great :) Our share of the profits have gone into buying some fabulous Jamie Oliver storage jars. These will be on sale in our shop at £6 each. It means all profits go back into our community :)