Living Well Hub welcomes its 5,000th visitor

The pioneering Living Well Hub is celebrating a successful first six months in Warrington town centre after welcoming its 5,000th visitor through the doors.

It is a major milestone for the multi-million pound health and wellbeing facility, believed to be the first of its kind in the country.

The welcoming and accessible Town Deal-funded building is now home to more than 30 healthcare providers, voluntary and charitable organisations and wellbeing services, led by a joint partnership between Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WHH), Warrington Borough Council, Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.

Designed to connect residents to the best possible advice, support and guidance to meet their individual health and wellbeing needs – with the ultimate aim of preventing ill health, reducing health inequalities and supporting town centre regeneration – there’s a packed monthly timetable in place, with more developments on the way.

One service recently introduced at the hub has been blood testing (phlebotomy), which has been so well received that the team are now exploring the possibility of expanding the provision to create additional capacity for more than 250 tests during the week.

New additions to the timetable in recent months have also included Directions for Men mental health support, Bumps to Babies sessions for new parents, an infant feeding group, perinatal support group, diabetes clinic, carers’ craft session, and employment support. 
General manager Emma Whaley is proud of what has been achieved so far. 

“It has been an incredibly rewarding first six months for the team here,” she said. “As the project is unique and unlike any other model that we’re aware of elsewhere, we weren’t sure what would and wouldn’t work at first. So it has been a case of learning and testing out new things along the way, as all the different services have started to work together and get to know each other more.

“We have worked hard to make the building as warm and welcoming as possible for those who visit us, and watching it come to life, especially during our children and families focus days, has been wonderful. Seeing the reactions on people’s faces when they access the support they need is very humbling and we know it is making a real difference.

“Having the opportunity to connect with lots of amazing people from a range of services means that if you are a Warrington resident and require support with your health and wellbeing needs, there will be someone at the hub who will be able to advise you.”

Visitors to the Living Well Hub are able to access a range of services in one place. For example, someone attending a standard maternity appointment could also see a health visitor if they had another child who was of an age that needed that support. They could then spend time with their children in the hub’s play and stay sessions, giving them the opportunity to meet other parents and youngsters.

As well as focusing on tackling health inequalities, Warrington also has a significant ageing population, with the number of people over the age of 65 in the town expected to double over the next 20 years.

Lucy Gardner, Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officer at Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals, said: “It’s really important that we provide easy access to the services people in this area of town need to help improve their health outcomes, including helping them to stay healthy as they start to move into older age. 

“What is brilliant about the number of people who have come through the doors so far is the fact that more than 50 per cent have just dropped in and not had an appointment, and that’s something that was really missing from the town before.

“We also know that at least 25 per cent of people who visit the hub access a second service which wasn’t the one they had been originally intending to access, so that has been really encouraging to know that people are getting the correct help, even when they might not have known it was available to them prior to coming here.”

The Living Well Hub would not have been possible without a team effort from partner organisations across the town. 

Bridgewater Community Healthcare, one of its four main partners, runs several community services from the building including advice and support around children's oral health and infant feeding.

Lynne Carter, Acting Chief Executive, said: “We’re really proud of what we’ve been able to achieve as part of this partnership. It’s incredibly important to us that we work together with our partners to help prevent ill health in our communities. 

“The Living Well Hub is such a successful example of this – we know that many of our patients and their families may need support from a number of different services. Because we’re able to collaborate with so many other organisations on site, our patients are able to quickly access the healthcare they need, when and where they need it. It’s perfect joint working, with our patients at the heart of what we do.”

The Living Well Hub is part of the borough-wide Living Well programme, which aims to connect people, communities and services to enable residents to live healthy, fulfilling lives and take greater control over their own health, wellbeing and resilience.

Cllr Maureen McLaughlin, cabinet member for health, wellbeing and social care at Warrington Borough Council, said: “The Living Well Hub has enabled us to adopt a bold, new approach in Warrington and I am convinced other places should look at how this partnership model is helping to support people’s general health and wellbeing. The range of support and advice on offer is fantastic, and having all of this support wrapped up in one place puts our residents at the heart of the services being delivered.

“The hub being based where it is makes it more accessible for residents and communities who live in our inner wards. We know these residents may be faced with health inequalities compared to other parts of the borough, so having the Living Well Hub effectively on their doorstep is a game-changer. 

“Five thousand visits is incredibly encouraging, but we’re not stopping there. We know there are more people that would benefit from advice and support at the hub. We will keep working together to make sure even more people benefit from what the hub has to offer.”

For more information about the Living Well Hub go to the Living Well Hub website.

Living Well Hub weekly timetable for October:

Monday’s focus: Healthy lifestyles and women’s health 

• Department for Work and Pensions, work, training and benefits support: 9am to 12pm
• Directions for Men, mental health peer support: 9am to 12.30pm
• Domestic abuse, confidential support for victims: 1pm to 3.30pm
• Livewire healthy lifestyles, health checks and fitness advice: 9am to 12.30pm
• Livewire stop smoking support: 9am to 1pm
• Livewire weight management, support for those with a BMI over 30: 9.30am to 11.30am and 2pm to 6pm
• Macmillan Cancer support and information: 10am to 4pm
• Talking Therapies, mental health services information (2nd and 4th Monday of the month): 11.45am to 12.15pm
• Substance misuse, support for reducing alcohol and drug use: 9am to 12.30pm
• Talking Point connecting you to local community services: 1pm to 4pm
• Torus Foundation, support for Torus housing residents: 9am to 12.30pm
• Strong Girls Club, supporting women through miscarriage, stillbirth and the fertility journey. Self-refer via: stronggirlsclunnorthwest@gmail.com: 6.30pm to 8pm, 28 October 

Tuesday’s focus: Aging well and dementia 

• Age UK Mid Mersey, helping people 50-plus to live as well and independently as possible: 1.30pm to 4pm
• Dementia and delirium support, provided by dementia nurse specialists from Warrington Hospital: 1pm to 3pm
• Dementia – still me support for those affected by dementia: 1.30pm to 3pm and Dementia – still me group, games and chat: 2pm to 3pm (1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month)
• Department for work and pensions, support for anyone over 50: 9am to 12.30pm
• Drive ability, safe driving support for medical conditions (1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month): 9am to 12.30pm
• Later life memory advice, memory loss support by Mersey Care: 1pm to 5pm
• Livewire healthy lifestyles, active aging and dementia-friendly exercise: 9.30am to 12pm
• Warrington Carers Hub, one-to-one support for unpaid carers: 9am to 16.30pm
• Warrington Carers Hub drop in, chat with other unpaid carers (2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month): 1.30pm to 14:30pm
• Warrington Voluntary Action – good neighbours, dementia support: 1pm to 5pm (1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month)

Wednesday’s focus: Families and children

• Department for Work and Pensions, work, training and benefits support: 9am to 12.30pm
• Early help link worker, support for family needs: 9am to 12.30pm or 1pm to 4.30pm
• Early Years Childcare Team, free childcare funding advice: 9am to 12pm
• Home Start, support for parents with children 0-5 years: 9am to 12.30pm
• Health visitor baby weighing, wellbeing and weight checks by Warrington Hospital: 9.30am to 11.30am
• Livewire library service, library information and activities (4th Wednesday of the month, next session 30 October): 1pm to 4pm
• Maternity Action, legal advice on work and benefits for pregnant women and new parents: 9am to 12pm
• Talking Therapies, mental health services advice for ages 16-plus: 12pm to 12.30pm
• Oral health for children, support from Bridgewater NHS FT (3rd Wednesday of the month, next session 16 October): 10am to 12pm
• Parenting and positive relationships, support for co-parents experiencing conflict: 9.30am to 12pm
• Stay and play, sing, play and have fun with your child: 10am to 11:30am
• Warrington Voluntary Action, help to reduce loneliness and connect people (1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month): 9am to 12.30pm
• Your Housing, tenant support: 1pm to 4.30pm, 9 October

Thursday’s focus: Aging well and falls

• Warrington Disability Partnership, support for disabled and those living with long-term conditions: 9am to 12.30pm
• Macmillan Cancer, support and information for those affected by cancer: 9am to 12.30pm
• Livewire healthy lifestyles, health checks and fitness advice; falls group: 10am to 12pm
• Parkinson's drop in, support for anyone affected by Parkinson's, 9am to 12.30pm
• Warrington Voluntary Action, help to reduce loneliness and connect people (2nd and 4th Thursday of the month): 9am to 12.30pm
• Talking Point, World Mental Health Day, 9am to 12.30pm 10 October

Friday’s focus: Families and children

• Department for work and pensions, work and training support for youths: 9am to 12.30pm
• Early help link worker, support for professionals referring families on to support services (last Friday of the month): 9.30am to 12pm
• Health visitor baby weighing, wellbeing and weight checks by Warrington Hospital: 9.30am to 11.30am
• Home Start, support for parents with children aged 0 to five years, 9am to 12.30pm
• Infant feeding support group, support from Bridgewater NHS Foundation Trust: 10am to 12pm
• Maternity clinic, flexible maternity support by Warrington Hospital: 1.30pm to 4pm
• Stay and play, sing, play and have fun with your child: 10am to 11:30am
• Talking Therapies, support services and advice for ages 16-plus: 9.15am to 9.45am
• Talking Point, connecting you to community services for the best outcomes: 9am to 12.30pm