Every year, on 14^th November, the world comes together to recognise World Diabetes Day.  Created by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organisation in 1991 to address the escalating threat that diabetes poses, this is a day that aims to raise awareness by reaching a global audience. This year’s theme is: ‘Women and Diabetes – Our Right to a Healthy Future.’  ‘Why the focus on women?’  You may ask. The stats say it all.

Women and Diabetes

Currently there are over 199 million women living with diabetes throughout the world and research suggests that this could rise to a staggering 313 million women by 2040. Diabetes is the ninth leading cause of death in women with 2.1 million deaths per year being due to this condition.  Forty per cent of women with diabetes, around 60 million women, are of reproductive age. The complication here is that women with diabetes are more likely to have fertility problems and without access to pre-conception planning there is a higher risk of death and illness for both mother and child during pregnancy.

Additionally, one in seven pregnant women develop gestational diabetes. This is a type of diabetes that only develops during pregnancy. If it is not managed properly it can negatively affect both the expectant mother‘s and baby’s health.  In most cases, after pregnancy, gestational diabetes resolves on its own, but the mother is then at a higher risk of developing type two diabetes.

Finally, women with type 2 diabetes are ten times more likely to have coronary heart disease than  women who don’t have diabetes.

Due to these facts and figures there is a need to focus on women, raise awareness and ensure that health services are equipped to address the specific needs of women with regards to diabetes.

Black Women and Diabetes

Black women are at a significantly higher risk of developing diabetes than their white counterparts. In the US, diabetes affects 25% of black women in the 55 and over age group and it is the fourth leading cause of death in black American women of all ages.

Black women in the UK are also at increased risk of developing diabetes  and diabetes rates in the Caribbean and Africa are also high.

It is thought that the increased risk in black women is due to multiple factors including genetics and black women being more likely to have high blood pressure,  to be obese and be physically inactive.

What Can We Do?

Diabetes can be prevented by adopting a healthy lifestyle. We should endeavour to:

• Maintain a healthy weight
• Eat a healthy diet
• Get active: it doesn’t have to be structured exercise, just anything that increases your heart rate such as gardening, brisk walking, dancing, cycling, playing with the kids

Let’s all spread the word about the prevention of diabetes so that we can stop more women, especially black women, from developing this condition.

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References

International Diabetes Federation

American Diabetes Association. Diabetes in African American Communities Advocacy Fact Sheet.

With 1 in 4 people in the UK suffering from a mental health issue, there is a need to find experienced counsellors who provide an effective and high quality service, OH Services does just that.

Founded in 2010 by counsellor Olivia Haltman, OH Services aims to support people through the difficult periods of their life. They are committed to providing a safe, confidential and non-judgemental environment where people can open up and get the support they need.

They provide one-to-one counselling, EMDR therapy, group therapy, workshops and seminars for adults and young people from all walks of life. They understand that people have different needs and deal with traumatic experiences in different ways, and therefore provide a tailored programme of support that ensures the right approach for each individual.

Founder, Olivia Haltman, is an accredited Integrative Humanistic Counsellor and an Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapist.  She is also a member of British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), EMDR UK & Ireland and BAATN (Black and Asian Therapist Network). Ms Haltman has over 10 years experience working in the mental health sector having worked for organisations like Mind and established her organisation to support people who want to develop their lives on a personal level and reach their best potential. Of her approach to tackling mental health issues she says:

“I believe everyone is different, with unique needs and aspirations so I use an integrative approach to apply and integrate the most suitable solutions for my clients. Within my practice, I also apply (where necessary) a holistic approach to help clients enjoy the essential benefits of wellbeing and healing processes.”

OH Services works with a range of clients and issues, and if you’re experiencing some form of anxiety or trauma, or just need someone to talk you through an issue then please contact OH services. You can find their contact details here and for more information visit their website.

We recently came across this really interesting video on TED and thought we’d share it with you.  In this video you’ll hear from Dr Elizabeth Wayne, a biomedical engineer, who discusses the work her lab is undertaking to explore a more effective method to treat cancer. They researching  how they can develop “a mean killing machine on wheels” by using cells in our immune system to target cancer cells.

Climate change has been a controversial topic since Al Gore’s 2006 documentary, an Inconvenient Truth, with people passionately defending both sides of the debate – climate change deniers and climate change believers.  Over the past year climate change has become very topical due to the United States pulling out of the Paris Agreement. This is an agreement that aims to facilitate a global response to climate change by “keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.” Countries throughout the world have committed to working towards this aim and will report regularly on their emissions.

Why are we so concerned about climate change? Researchers have been able to demonstrate that climate change will have a significant impact on the weather, agriculture and a range of other areas. This week, The Lancet Countdown report has demonstrated the impact of climate change on our health.

What is the Lancet Countdown?

The Lancet Countdown is an international research collaboration consisting of 26 institutions tracking the world’s response to climate change and in so doing have been able to reveal the impact that climate change has on the public’s health.

Some of the research findings

In this week’s report, researchers stated that climate change is “already a significant public health issue and a looming global health emergency.”

Some of their key findings were:

• Between 2000 and 2016, the number of vulnerable people exposed to heatwave events had increased by around 125 million.
• Annual weather-related disasters increased by 46% from 2000 to 2013.
• Vectorial capacity for the transmission of dengue increased by 9.4% (Aedes aegypti) and 11.1% (Aedes albopictus) due to climate trends since the 1950s.
• The number of undernourished people in 30 countries vulnerable to climate change and highly dependent on regional food production has increased from 398 million in 1990 to 422 million in 2016.
• Over 803,000 premature and avoidable deaths in 2015 as a result of air pollution across 21 Asian countries, attributable to just one type of air pollution from coal power, transport and use of fossil fuels in the home.

The report highlights the progress that has been made to tackle climate change and this includes:

• Many countries now have a climate change risk assessment in place
• Over a third of countries in the study have developed plans to increase the climate resilience of their health infrastructure
• The total primary energy supply of coal peaked in 2013 and has been rapidly declining, showing a movement towards cleaner energy supplies

Prof. Anthony Costello, Co-Chair of the Lancet Countdown and a Director at the World Health Organization concluded that:

 “Climate change is happening and it’s a health issue today for millions worldwide. The outlook is challenging, but we still have an opportunity to turn a looming medical emergency into the most significant advance for public health this century.”

The Lancet Countdown will continue to report on climate change annually with the aim of ensuring that governments continue to pursue efforts to prevent climate change.

Our Thoughts

The Lake Foundation was happy to see this report published which provided an update on the progress being made to tackle climate change and clearly explained the impact on our health. It was sad to read that climate change is disproportionately affecting communities least responsible for climate change and those most vulnerable in society. We need to understand how we can encourage those that are most responsible for climate change to take responsibility and act now.  There is work to be done to discuss climate change with those who believe it doesn’t exist, many people with this view are very influential and there needs to be some form of compromise so that progress can be made.  The take home message should be that regardless of your view, we need to respect and take care of the planet.  Reducing pollution and preserving our wildlife is the right thing to do, you can’t really argue with that.

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For more information on the Lancet Countdown report please visit their website here

A couple of weeks ago government representatives from across  the world met in Montevideo, Uruguay for the World Health Organisation’s Global Conference on NCDs (Non-communicable diseases, e.g: cancer, diabetes,  cardiovascular disease etc).  The objectives of the conference were: to guide countries on how to reach sustainable development goal target 3.4 by 2030; to launch a new set of global initiatives to help countries accelerate progress in tackling NCDs; to share and exchange experiences; and to discuss how the health sector can be a key example of the benefit of enhancing policy coherence to achieve the sustainable development goals.

Making A Commitment to Tackle NCDs

At this conference governments endorsed the Montevideo Roadmap 2018-2030 on NCDs as a Sustainable Development Priority. By endorsing this roadmap they have made a commitment to take significant steps towards reducing the premature deaths due to NCDs by a third. They recognised that NCDs are one of the major challenges of the 21^st century and that progress to tackle them has been uneven and insufficient. The roadmap states that 15 million 30 to 69 year olds per year die from a NCD and 80% of these premature deaths occur in developing countries.  There are a number of challenges associated with tackling NCDs and with this is mind they committed to the following actions:

• Reinvigorate political action
• Enable health systems to respond more effectively to NCDs
• Increase significantly the financing of national NCD responses and international cooperation
• Increase efforts to engage sectors beyond health
• Reinforce the role of non-State actors
• Seeks measures to address the negative impact of products and environmental factors harmful for health and strengthen the contribution and accountability of the private sector and other non-State actors
• Continue relying on WHO’s leadership and key role in the global response to NCDs
• Act in unity

Our Thoughts

We were delighted to see world leaders come together and make this commitment and look forward to seeing these actions being taken forward.

We’re particularly happy to see that efforts will be made to engage with a variety of stakeholders. As a small organisation that is passionate about improving the health and well-being of our community we do get frustrated at the lack of engagement with grassroots organisations. We have many times reached out to local and national governments with our enthusiasm and ideas, ready to play a role but have received lukewarm responses or no responses at all. We hope that governments will see the value of working with small organisations and we have been grateful for the funding provided by Croydon Council, Sports England, Macmillan and Eli Lilly for some of the work we’ve conducted on NCDs. We look forward to continuing to work in this area and making our own small contribution.

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You can read the complete Montevideo Roadmap below.

Today is World Stroke Day giving us the perfect opportunity to put the spotlight on this condition.  The organisers of World Stroke Day, the World Stroke Organisation, as part of this year’s campaign are asking the question: what’s your reason for preventing stroke? Our reason is because strokes are more common in the black community and we would like to prevent this condition from affecting so many people in our community. This is achievable as 90% of strokes are linked to avoidable risks.

Stroke is the second leading cause of death in the world with 6.2 million deaths per year being due to stroke. It is also the leading cause of disability with 5 million people being permanently disabled every year after suffering a stroke.

What is a Stroke?

A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off resulting in damage to or death of brain cells. You can think of a stroke as a similar to a heart attack, but it takes place in the brain, people sometimes refer to it as a brain attack.

There are two types of stroke:

Ischaemic strokes – this is where something blocks an artery to the brain. The blockage can be caused by a blood clot, air bubble or fat globule.

Haemorrhagic strokes – these occur when a blood vessel bursts and bleeds into the brain.

It is estimated that members of the black community are twice as likely to suffer from a stroke as the white population. This is thought to be related to the fact that stroke is a complication of diabetes, high blood pressure and sickle cell; these are all common conditions in the black community.

You can watch the video below to find out more about what a stroke is.

Warning Signs of a Stroke

When someone has a stroke it is very important that they get medical care quickly to ensure that any damage to the brain is kept to a minimum. Strokes happen suddenly so the person who has the stroke or those around him/her may not recognise what is happening until it is too late.  There may be warning signs just before  a stroke occurs so it is very important that everyone is aware of what these are so that you can get help immediately from the emergency services.

The warning signs of a stroke are:

• Numbness or weakness in your face, arm, or leg, especially on one side
• Confusion or trouble understanding other people
• Trouble speaking
• Trouble seeing with one or both eyes
• Trouble walking or staying balanced or coordinated
• Dizziness
• Severe headache that comes on for no known reason

Who is at risk of having a stroke?

• Older people – most strokes occur in people over the age of 65 but younger people have strokes too with 25% of strokes being in younger people
• People with a family history–if a close family member has had a stroke your risk of having a stroke is higher
• Particular ethnic groups – South Asians, Africans and Caribbeans are more likely to have a stroke
• People with a medical history – if you’ve already had a stroke, heart attack or a mini-stroke you are more likely to have a stroke. Also if you have diabetes, high blood pressure and sickle cell.
• Smokers – smoking doubles your risk of having a stroke
• Drinkers – alcohol can increase your risk of having a stroke

Prevention of Strokes

You can reduce your risk of having a stroke by:

• Eating a healthy diet – a low fat, high fibre diet is recommended including plenty of fruits and vegetables
• Regular exercise – this will make your heart and blood circulation more efficient
• Not smoking
• Reducing your alcohol intake

Think FAST

If you or someone you know are ever worried that you may be having a stroke it is important to think FAST:

Face: weakness of the face. Can you or the person smile? Has your face fallen on one side?

Arms: weakness in the arms. Can you or the person lift their arms?

Speech: has your speech been affected. Are you experiencing slurred speech?

Time: if any of the above are experienced then call 999/911 immediately

 More information

This World Stroke Day let’s all make a commitment to work towards preventing stroke by changing our lifestyle and being aware of the symptoms. This is so important for the black community as we are twice as likely to develop stroke.

For more information on stroke you can visit the following websites:

• World Stroke Day
• Stroke Association
• Centres for Disease Prevention

Last week Monday was World Food Day. This day is recognised every year on 16^th October and aims to highlight the on-going issue of hunger and food scarcity globally. It gives us the opportunity to reflect on the world’s efforts to ensure food security and that everyone has access to healthy food.

This year’s theme was “Change the future of migration. Invest in food security and rural development.” The idea behind this theme was to raise awareness of the fact that addressing the reasons why people migrate will enable us to tackle hunger and food scarcity.

People migrate for many reasons such as political instability or conflict in a country, but many more people migrate due to hunger, poverty and extreme weather conditions. A lot of migration occurs in developing countries where people move within their country, for example from the countryside to the city. This puts a huge strain on already meagre resources and further exacerbates the problem of hunger and food scarcity in these countries.

Research has shown that 763 million people migrate within their borders which, contrary to popular beliefs, means there is more internal migration then external migration in the world.  When we look at the people who migrate internally a third of them are young adults aged 15-34 and almost half of them are women. The question is: what is going on? Why are young adults and women migrating in such large numbers? As previously stated people migrate for many reasons, and hunger and poverty is one of them.

What World Food Day is encouraging people to understand is why people are hungry and poor in the first place. Can we tackle those reasons? If we can get to the root of the problem and address these reasons, it will prevent hunger and poverty. This will stop people from migrating in such large numbers and then putting a strain on food resources in the cities they migrate to.

When we look at people that migrate internally, the majority come from rural areas where people depend on a limited number of sectors to survive. There tends to be a lack of job opportunities, a lack of opportunity for further education and no access to healthcare; pairing this with other issues like a natural disaster leads to migration. Therefore, this World Food Day, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations encouraged governments to focus on rural development.

Through rural development business, job and educational opportunities can be developed making communities stronger financially. Whilst providing access to good healthcare can improve their health and wellbeing. This means rural communities can become stronger so that when disaster strikes they are better equipped to overcome any natural or man-made disaster.  They can stand strong without the need for mass migration.

The key to rural development is balance.  We know that aspects of rural life are better for our health and well-being – people are more physically active, consume less processed foods, are less dependent on technology and have better social interactions. Therefore there is a need to preserve what is good about rural living and turn away from just converting rural areas into urban cities. We need a creative approach to rural development that delivers the development that is needed to strengthen communities, but doesn’t create the problems associated with urban living.  This can only be achieved by a totally understanding the communities, their interests and what they would want from urban development.

We hope that the message from World Food Day resonated with people throughout the world so that we can eradicate hunger and poverty. There is certainly enough food and resources in the world to feed everyone so let us spread that around by strengthening all communities.

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References

Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations

Last week was World Obesity Day and to mark the occasion researchers released global estimates of childhood and adolescent obesity levels. The publication of this data aimed to give a flavour of where we are with the health of children throughout the world and initiate action on tackling childhood obesity. The study pulled together data from 2,416 sources and this covered information on the height and weight of 128.9 million people aged 5 and over from 1975 to 2016.

Overall the data showed that globally the number of obese children increased by a factor of 10 from 1975 to 2016. If we put that into numbers the number of obese girls (aged 5 to 19) rose from 5 million in 1975 to 50 million in 2016, whilst the number of obese boys increased from 6 million to 74 million.

Interestingly, when we look at specific regions across the world, we see that Polynesia and Micronesia have the highest childhood obesity levels and the lowest levels are seen in south Asia and east Africa.

It was also noted that whilst there are high levels of obesity amongst children worldwide a significant number of children are moderately or severely underweight – 75 million girls and 117 million boys. The majority of these children are in South Asia, specifically India.

What’s happening in the Caribbean?

The Caribbean is also included in this study with 18 countries explored. This included Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Barbados, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia,  St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname.

When all the data for the Caribbean was pooled together, the data was somewhat promising in 5-9 year olds with the average BMI (Body Mass Index) for Caribbean boys and girls being on the lower end when compared to other countries. For example, the average BMI for girls aged 5-9 in the Caribbean was found to be about 16kg/m². This was the 6^th lowest out of 21 countries. The highest being about 20 kg/m² in Polynesia and Micronesia, the lowest being 14.5kg/m² in East Africa and South Asia.

When looking at the older age group of 10-19 year olds, the data is not so promising with Caribbean children being on the higher end of the scale. For example, the average BMI for Caribbean boys aged 10-19 was about 21.5 kg/m², the 6^th highest out of 21 countries. The highest being almost 24 kg/m² in Polynesia and Micronesia, the lowest being 18 kg/m2 in South Asia

As well as looking at the average BMI, the researchers explored the prevalence of obesity in different countries and again some countries in the Caribbean are ranked amongst the highest with countries like Bermuda and Puerto Rico having an obesity prevalence in girls of over 20%.

Conclusion

This work confirms what is widely known in the Caribbean and other countries, childhood obesity is a problem and needs to be tackled with some urgency. On paper the solution is easy: get children active and improve their diet, but in reality due to a number of factors such as culture, income, motivation and opportunity the solution is difficult and complex.

We all need to work together to determine how best we can address this problem by encouraging the Caribbean to see the benefits of their traditional way of life before Western culture and food were embraced. We have to make physical activity a part of life and turn back to home-grown, unrefined, home-made food.

The Lake Foundation aims to improve the health and well-being of the black community and to achieve this general aim a core part of our work is to get the black community more active.

Exercise can be very intimidating for many people and thus we sought to explore various options on how we could get people active in a way that could be incorporated into everyday life and would ultimately be fun.

Cycling is an interesting option as it is very practical and can be introduced into a person’s life as a method of transport (commuting to work), as a leisure activity (exploring the local area) and as a form of structured exercise.

We began our work by teaming up with the Cycling Instructor in 2014 to run a short-term initiative of bike-ability sessions aimed at the black community to teach basic cycling techniques and improve confidence. We worked with the Cycling Instructor for two summers and this proved very popular with us having to extend the sessions beyond their initial four-week period. With this in mind, we decided to build on the popularity of these sessions and we ran a cycling club, with funding from Sport England, from February 2016 to April 2017.

The need for our project

5.3% of the UK’s black population has type two diabetes (versus 1.7% of the white population), 33% suffer from high blood pressure, (compared to 16% of white adults), black African women have been found to have the highest prevalence of obesity, the black community is twice as likely to suffer from a stroke, is twice as likely to develop prostate cancer, is 2-3 times more likely to develop fibroids and as a result of their increased risk of diabetes are at increased risk of developing heart disease. One of the key lifestyle factors that tie these conditions together is physical activity.

Research has shown that the risk of developing these conditions can be reduced significantly by being more physically active, but unfortunately, studies have shown that over half of people from black and minority ethnic  (BME) groups do not take part in sports nor do they do any physical activity.

By increasing the number of BME people taking part in a sporting activity we can begin to address some of the health challenges that plague the black community, but we need to create better opportunities for the black community to take part in sports. To successfully achieve this we need to present the community with fun, engaging, practical and easily accessible sporting activities; cycling can do this.

According to TFL “BME groups, women, people from more deprived neighbourhoods, those with disabilities and older people are typically under-represented in cycling” and “the typical London cyclist is white, under 40 and male with a medium to high household income”. This means that there is a huge inequality in cycling but this creates a huge opportunity to introduce BME communities to cycling.

Through the bike-ability courses, we were able to show that if cycling is presented to members of the BME community without any barriers (bikes and helmets provided) they will happily take up this activity and easily meet the government’s recommended amount of physical activity.

To ensure that our BME community kept cycling beyond the short bike-ability sessions we needed a sustainable long-term opportunity for them to cycle and our cycling club provided this.

Overview of the Cycling Club Project

Aims and Objectives

The aims of our cycling club project were to:

• Increase the number of people from a BME background who cycle regularly
• Improve attendees’ confidence in cycling
• Provide opportunities for members to develop in cycling
• Introduce the BME community to a fun and easy way to achieve the recommended amount of physical activity

We achieved the above by:

• Running two-hour cycling sessions every 2^nd and 4^th Saturday of the month
• Providing direction from experienced instructors and encouraging  members to take part in national and local cycling events
• Making each session engaging and encouraging members to develop good friendships within the group. Each cycling session involved fun routes that allowed members to discover the beauty of their local area but also challenged members. We had socials to encourage relationships to be built that centred around cycling
• Ensuring that each session was definitely two hours so that members participated in a significant amount of physical activity.

Outcomes

Our project progressed well, the targeted number of participants for our project was 18 and we had 23 participants join our club over the 14-month period.

Outcome 1: Improved confidence in cycling

We hired trained experienced instructors from the organisation Cycling Instructor to lead sessions and provide participants with training on cycling techniques. This included cycling in traffic, hand signals, making sure bikes are road-worthy, cycling off-road and on-road and cycling uphill. This meant that members were given a good foundation when it comes to proper cycling technique and this has helped improve their confidence.  Members completed feedback forms and before joining the club 10% felt not confident at all, 30% felt a little confident, 20% felt confident and 20% felt very confident with cycling. A year after joining our club only 9% of members felt a little confident whilst 45% of members felt confident and 36% felt very confident,  with one member saying:

“I’m not a regular cyclist but it [the club] gives me confidence, particularly, on the roads”

Outcome 2: Provided opportunities for members to develop in cycling

Having sessions with experienced instructors helped develop the cycling skills of our club members and we also challenged members through extended 4-hour rides to Chislehurst Caves and the Olympic Stadium, and also several uphill routes. Additionally, we encouraged members to take part in local and national cycling events such as the Croydon Interfaith Cycle Ride, the Crystal Palace Road to Rio Ride and others. One member of our group took part in the London to Brighton ride, which was the first time she had participated in such an event, she said:

“I barely could cycle very far but after a few months of cycling with the club I was able to cycle 20-23 miles” – Sam, Cycling Club Member

We asked members how much they feel their cycling technique has improved since joining the club and 45% said their technique had improved a lot, 36% said their technique improved somewhat, 9% said it improved a little and 9% said they didn’t know.

Outcome 3:  Introduced the BME community to cycling

The majority of people that attended our cycling club were from a BME background – 20 out of 23 were from a BME background, some of whom didn’t cycle regularly before joining our group. Before joining the group 18% had never cycled, 18% cycled once or twice a year, 27% cycled monthly, 27% cycled weekly and 9% cycled more than 5 days in a week. Through our club we have introduced cycling to some (18%) and the club ensured that the others engaged more regularly in cycling.

Some keys to success

Our project worked well due to the excellent freelance cycling instructors we hired who were very experienced and made each session very enjoyable. They found interesting routes each time, and the sessions were informative with members learning about cycling techniques, so it was a good balance of fun, exercise and instruction.

Additionally, we recruited a cycling coordinator who was very warm, friendly and encouraging this provided a really good atmosphere at each session. She ensured everything ran smoothly, being the point of contact for members and instructors and she worked well with the instructors to plan each route. She also organised socials for members which were well-attended and this gave members the opportunity to get to know each other. Importantly our coordinator was a member of the BME community and a keen cyclist.

Conclusion

Similar to the short bike-ability courses we have been able to show that if cycling is presented to members of the BME community without any barriers (bikes and helmets provided) they will happily take up this activity and easily meet the government’s recommended amount of physical activity.

One important point to note is that the social aspect of the club was very important. We found that many club members didn’t cycle in-between sessions nor did they cycle when sessions were cancelled. When we probed further we found that members liked cycling as a group activity and valued the time spent with others. It would appear that our group of BME cyclists looked at cycling as more of a leisure activity rather than a method of transport or structured exercise. This suggests that to encourage more people from a BME background to cycle, projects that promote cycling for leisure rather than for commuting and exercise are more likely to appeal to the BME community; and these projects would need to be group activities that promote social interaction.

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We are very grateful to Sport England for funding this project and Cycling Instructor for their advice and support.

In this week’s blog, our guest blogger, Stacey Mensah explores the health of our finances and gives us all a few  points to consider if we’re aiming to improve our financial health

Welcome back to The Lake Foundation! On this platform you can expect a plethora of articles relating to your physical health and mental health. This week we’re going to do things a bit differently and look at financial health but more specifically, habits concerning your finances. Now for those of you that are still not sold as to why your financial habits are important let me tell you this: according to the Mental Health Foundation being in debt can trigger anxiety or depression, which can open the door to a whole host of other mental and physical illnesses.

In my own experience crafting healthy habits when it comes to finances is about more than having the right systems in place – you need to have will power! And that was not something I had much of. I remember a time when I had saved enough money to clear a credit card. After speaking to my mother, who had managed to clear all her debts off early on in life, I knew that I had to cancel this card. So I called my bank ready to cancel this card, ready to break free, but of course after a 45-minute phone call instead of cancelling the card as my mother instructed, I ended up upgrading the credit account and in a few days I received a shiny new piece of plastic. Suffice to say that some people find it easier to break free from debt but I’m certainly not one of them.

For those of you that are certain that you’re above such behaviour here are a few habits from Sarah Coles, a personal finance analyst, that might have become so ingrained in the way that you handle your finances that you can’t even see past them.

Casually dipping into debt

The odd few times of dipping into your overdraft doesn’t seem bad at first but it does make it easier for you to keep on going back. Sarah notes that the key to this habit is drawing up a household budget and identifying the regular costs that you can cut. This may mean being far more selective when it comes to shopping for groceries, expensive media packages and gym memberships. And for all of the students out there just know that when you’re done with your degree that ‘student’ over draft will be even harder to get rid of because employers unfortunately, won’t be lining up to pay you a six figure salary!

Only paying the minimum amount back on your borrowing

Surviving by just paying the minimum amount each month is how so many of us are lulled into a false sense of security. By paying off the debt at such a slow pace we are indeed just racking up more interest. If you have a significant balance it may be worth switching in in order to cut interest rated for the time being. However, if you choose to do this it’s important that you realise that the switch was simply a mechanism for debt repayment.

 Forgetting about your savings

Forgetting about your savings is an expensive habit to form as rates on such accounts are likely to become less competitive. The best way to avoid such a mistake is to regularly check what you are earning on your savings and if the rate is no longer competitive then it’s times for you to make a switch.

 Putting plans off

 When dealing with your finances it’s so easy to think that your debts are a problem for the future and not for the present. The ugly truth is that soon enough the future you had once envisioned will one day soon become your present, and as you never put a physical plan in place for paying off your debts, they will continue to follow you around like an unsightly rash.

Do you have healthy financial habits? Or, do you think you need help in that area?

Comment down below, we would love to hear from you!

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Stacey Mensah is not a financial advisor nor does she claim to be. Before changing the way, you handle your finances it’s important to seek the help of a professional.