Lake Health and Wellbeing in collaboration with the Department for Gender Affairs in St Kitts are aiming to provide support to men in St Kitts with chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure and lung disease. This support will be delivered through a free 6-week self-management course, starting on 2^nd October, that will provide men with the information, skills and knowledge to live well with their health condition.

Our project will focus on men, to ensure that men in St Kitts who suffer from a chronic disease receive the support that they need as research suggests that men are less likely to access health services.

The course being utilised for this project is the Stanford University Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP). This is an evidence-based prevention and health promotion program that addresses common issues faced by people with chronic conditions. The program will provide patients with information on appropriate exercise, diet, managing symptoms, medication usage, dealing with side effects and improving communication with healthcare providers, friends and family. Classes will be held at the National ICT Centre on the Bay Road and will be facilitated by trainers certified by the Stanford University Chronic Disease Self-Management Program.

The program has been implemented in 19 countries around the globe showing a number of benefits including:

• Improved wellbeing
• Improved health of patient
• Fewer hospitalisations
• Fewer days spent in hospital

If you or anyone you know is living with a chronic disease or caring for someone with a chronic disease then this course may be of interest to you.

For more information and to register, please visit Eventbrite,  email events@lakehealthandwellbeing.com or call 668 1518.

Want to be kept up-to-date on events like this? Then please subscribe to our newsletter here.

Back in March the Healthy Caribbean Coalition launched their Childhood Obesity Prevention Petition as part of their Civil Society Action Plan for 2017-2019.

The aim of the petition is to raise awareness of childhood obesity in the Caribbean and influence the region’s leaders to champion and implement critical policies that will improve the health of our children, reduce childhood obesity and prevent the associated non-communicable diseases.

Lake Health and Wellbeing fully supports this campaign and as a member of the HCC are assisting in promoting this campaign here in St Kitts. As part of this work we are working with volunteers from the St Kitts Department of Youth Empowerment’s Volunteer Corp to raise awareness of childhood obesity, encourage discussion on what our community can to do tackle this issue and gain support for the HCC’s petition.

Volunteers Come On Board

Briefing session with volunteers from the Volunteer Corp

On 4^th June we were delighted to host a briefing session for our enthusiastic volunteers where we provided some background information on this topic and the HCC’s campaign as well as explored ways of reaching the community with the key messages of the campaign.

Over the next four weeks our volunteers will be out in the community targeting corporate organisations, schools, parents, young people and more to promote the childhood obesity prevention petition, raise awareness of the causes of childhood obesity and discuss the solutions with all stakeholders.

We’re aiming to use creative ways to engage the public on this issue and our volunteers have been hard at work on a podcast series on childhood obesity and we’re delighted to announce that their first episode has been published and you can listen to this here.  In this episode our volunteers introduce listeners to their new podcast series giving everyone a flavour of what is to come. You can support these wonderful young people by listening, sharing, commenting and sending in questions. You can send your comments and questions to info@lakehealthandwellbeing.com  or leave them in the comments section below the show notes of the podcast episode.

We’re very much looking forward to working with our volunteers, they’ve started really well and we’re sure they’ll make a significant difference in their community over the next few weeks.

We’re so happy to announce that our June Fibroids Twitter Chat will be with Angèle  Mbarga on 21^st June 2018 at 6:30pm CEST (that’s 5:30pm GMT, or 12:30pm AST).

Angèle  Mbarga is the Founder of Fibrome Info France which she established in 2011 to provide a place of healing dedicated to women suffering from fibroids. Angèle’s personal experience with fibroids motivated her to start Fibrome Info France to fill the gaps in support that she noticed when she was first diagnosed.

Through their support groups, Fibrome Info France, supports over 1500 women every year, they assess women’s personal circumstances and then match them with a relevant support plan. In addition to providing support to women, they raise awareness, provide information on the complications of fibroids and are working towards improving the care that women receive.

They released an awareness video in 2012, in 2013 they published an information leaflet in collaboration with the Ministry of Women’s Rights and the Regional Council of Ile-de-France and in 2014 they worked with doctors to create an information and supportive guide for patients.

Fibrome Info France is making a significant difference in France and you can learn more about their work in our upcoming #FibroidsChat. To take part in the conversation find us on Twitter on 21st June at  6:30pm (French time) and use the hashtag #FibroidsChat.

You can find out more about Fibrome Info France here: http://fibrome-info-france.org/

Our new Zazzle online shop is now live (yay!) and we’d be so grateful if you’d check it out.

Our new Shop For Good aims to promote a healthy lifestyle by selling products that remind us all to live healthily. Our shop also helps us to continue to do good in our community with all money raised going towards our public health projects. In our shop you can pick up badges, key rings, t-shirts, mugs and tote bags; more products will be added regularly and we’ll keep you updated on any new products. You can visit our shop here and below are a few of our products:

Our store is international, so our products are available to purchase from many countries as shown below.  Please click on the image below to find out more.

Thank you for your support. It is much appreciated.

We are absolutely delighted to have teamed up with Tola Okogwu, of My Long Hair Journey, to see what we can do to begin to address the issue of harmful chemicals in black hair products.

This issue has persisted for too long and we have to take a stand and do something about it. Before we do that, we’d like to hear from you and would be very grateful if you could complete the survey below, which should take about 5 minutes.

If you have problems with the survey below, you can complete it on Survey Monkey’s website here

Create your own user feedback survey

We’re delighted to let you know that OH Services will be launching their first set of live online courses. Their first course will be on fibroids and will explore the emotional impact of fibroids. The course will be led by counsellor Olivia Haltman and will run over several weeks. This new course will allow attendees to:

• Look deeper into how fibroids can affect a woman’s emotions
• Explore how they can effectively change their wellbeing
• Focus on themselves and their healing
• Take their emotional awareness to another level

This course is open to women affected by fibroids, friends or family members of fibroids sufferers and health professionals who would like to better understand this issue so they can support their patients.

You can register your interest in taking this online course here  and if you have any questions about the course, please  email OH Services , call them on 00 44 577 565 218 or follow them on Twitter (@OHServices2018)

To find out more about OH Services, you can read our blog post here or visit their website.  You can also listen to our interview with Olivia Haltman about the emotional impact of fibroids by clicking on the link below.

Episode 7: We talk to counsellor Olivia Haltman about the emotional impact of fibroids

We are so delighted to announce that we will be launching our fibroids self-care webinar series in the autumn. The aim of this series is to empower women affected by fibroids with information, knowledge and practical tips to take action to improve their health and wellbeing.

The series will include four webinars led by experts in the field of gynaecology, nutrition, exercise and mental health with a fifth session being an Our Stories session. In this final session attendees will hear from women who have conquered fibroids and will have the opportunity, if they wish, to share their own experiences. We will also explore challenges, useful tips and discuss solutions. Lake Health and Wellbeing will use this session to listen, understand the current experience of women with fibroids and work with attendees to explore how we can best support women with fibroids.

If you have fibroids, this webinar series will be perfect for you. It will give you the opportunity to meet other women with fibroids and provide you with access to experts in the field, all from the comfort of your home. This is not to be missed.

The webinars will be held every two months and there will be a small charge.

For more information and to register your interest, please contact us on events@lakehealthandwellbeing.com  or you can sign up to our fibroids mailing list here

More details will follow very soon.

Disclosure: this post contains an affiliate link. Find out more here

We’re inviting women in St Kitts who have been affected by fibroids to get involved in our new survey which aims to understand their experience to determine if there is a need to provide information and support.

Fibroids are common with an estimated 50-70% of women being affected and 30% of women with fibroids will have symptoms that affect their quality of life. Despite fibroids being common, from the work that we have conducted in the UK, we know that this condition receives very little attention, we want to change this so that women who need help have the support that they need.

Now that we are based in St Kitts we are keen to reach out to women who have been affected by fibroids and speak to them about their experience to determine whether help is needed.

If you live in St Kitts and have had, or currently have fibroids, we’d love to hear from you. We’d be very grateful if you would complete our survey which should take 15 to 20 minutes. You can complete the survey over the phone, meet us in person  or we can email you a copy of the survey to complete at your convenience. Your identity will be protected with your answers remaining anonymous in our final report.

For more information and to take part in this survey, please email info@lakehealthandwellbeing.com or call 668 1518.

We were delighted to e-attend the Healthy Caribbean Coalition’s Civil Society Action Team’s inaugural meeting on 20th April .  The main objective of the action team is to ensure that the Caribbean public becomes aware of the challenges of childhood obesity and supports the call for policy changes and other educational approaches that will create a supportive environment for the reduction of this growing problem which places children at risk of developing diabetes and hypertension as well as  cancer and heart disease in their adult life

During this inaugural meeting of the action team, the HCC shared its communication plan for their childhood obesity prevention petition and discussed ways in which organisations could play a part in their local area. This included liaising with the media and encouraging  members, corporate partners and other social and parenting groups to sign the petition at www.toomuchjunk.org.

This was a really interesting meeting and we were delighted to meet representatives from a number of Caribbean organisations and we look forward to implementing the ideas discussed in the meeting in our local area here in St Kitts.

We’re delighted to announce that our May Fibroids Twitter Chat is with Olivia Haltman on 30th May 2018 at 7pm, GMT (that’s 11am PST, 2pm EST and 2pm AST).

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).

Olivia set up OH Services in 2010 to support people who want to develop their lives on a personal level and reach their best potential. She is passionate about self-development and helping others take positive steps on their life journey. ​

She has worked in the Mental Health Sector for over 10 years, supporting people from all backgrounds, genders and lifestyles.  She believes everyone is different, with unique needs and aspirations so she uses an integrative approach to apply and integrate the most suitable solutions for her clients.

​She also applies (where necessary) a holistic approach to help clients enjoy the essential benefits of wellbeing and healing processes.

We’ll be discussing the emotional impact of fibroids and how women with fibroids can improve their emotional wellbeing.

Join us for a very important and useful exploration of how fibroids impacts a women’s mental health. To take part in this conversation find us on Twitter on 30th May and use the hashtag #FibroidsChat

You can find out more about Olivia and the services she offers here: www.ohcounsellingservices.com