Live Well - Elmwood Family Doctors

Child Immunisation

One of the most important things that a parent can do for their child is to make sure that they have all their routine childhood vaccinations. It’s the most effective way of keeping them protected against infectious diseases.

Ideally, kids should have their jabs at the right age to protect them as early as possible and minimise the risk of infection.

Vaccination Checklist

Here’s a checklist of the vaccines that are routinely offered to everyone in the UK for free on the NHS, and the age at which you should ideally have them.

2 months:

Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib, a bacterial infection that can cause severe pneumonia or meningitis in young children) given as a 5-in-1 single jab known as DTaP/IPV/Hib
Pneumococcal infection
Meningitis B
Rotavirus

3 months:

5-in-1, second dose (DTaP/IPV/Hib)
Meningitis C
Rotavirus

4 months:

5-in-1, third dose (DTaP/IPV/Hib)
Pneumococcal infection, second dose
Meningitis B, second dose

Between 12 and 13 months:

Meningitis B, third dose
Hib, fourth dose (Hib/MenC given as a single jab)
MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), given as a single jab
Pneumococcal infection, third dose

3 years and 4 months, or soon after:

MMR second jab
Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio (DtaP/IPV), given as a 4-in-1 pre-school booster

Around 12-13 years girls only:

Cervical cancer (HPV) vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer: three jabs given within six months

Around 14 years:

Diphtheria, tetanus and polio booster (Td/IPV), given as a single jab
MenACWY

Vaccines For Risk Groups

People who fall into certain risk groups may be offered extra vaccines. These include vaccinations against diseases such as hepatitis B, tuberculosis (TB), seasonal flu and chickenpox. See the NHS Choices pages on vaccines for adults to find out whether you should have one.

Stop Smoking

Want to quit?

Talk to Kirklees Wellness Service,

or call the NHS Smoking Helpline on 0800 328 8534.

About 40% of smokers will die from a smoking-related condition, so stopping is one change that will make a big difference to your life.

Patients will see health benefits within days, such as improved taste and smell, while important benefits, such as lower risks of heart attack, stroke, lung cancer and improvements in breathing will happen in the first year or two.

Your GP will probably have been chasing you to stop smoking if you have high blood pressure, diabetes, circulation problems or history of stroke, heart attack, angina, asthma or chronic lung disorders.

There are excellent local NHS stop-smoking services. These NHS services are very good at tailoring treatment to your lifestyle habits. With medication and the support of these services, you’re four times more likely to give up successfully.

Get Fit For Free

The secret to getting fit for free is to use every opportunity to be active.

Armed with a bit of get-up-and-go and good planning, you can be fitter than ever without spending a penny.

NHS.uk have enlisted the help of top fitness experts to help you explore new ways and places to exercise for free. Click on the following to find out more:

Visit NHS Better Health for more advice and guidance on how to get active and become healthier.

Birth To Five

Your NHS guide to parenting in the early years

Whether your child is a newborn, a toddler or a pre-schooler, this Birth to five guide is for you. It has 150 pages of NHS-accredited information, videos and interactive tools to help you through the parenting process.

They answer all your questions, from how to soothe a crying baby to how to prepare your child for school. Learn how to spot the signs of serious illness, how to cope if an accident happens, and how to check your child’s development.

And they haven’t forgotten about you: as a parent or carer, your wellbeing is crucial too. The guide covers all you need to know about your health after having a baby, as well as your rights, benefits and NHS services.

Baby Essentials

Health and Development

You and Your Life

Healthy early years

Mental Health

One in four affected

It’s easy to think that mental health issues don’t concern us, but in fact a quarter of us will have problems with our mental wellbeing at some time in our lives.

Mental health problems are equally common in men and women, but the types of problems differ. Women are one-and-a-half times more likely to be affected by anxiety and depression, while men suffer more from substance abuse (one in eight men is dependent on alcohol) and anti-social personality disorders. Men are also more prone to suicide: British men are three times more likely than British women to die as a result of suicide.

Serious mental health problems are also more common than you might think. One person in 100 has a severe mental health condition such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

All these figures are based on people who have sought help for their mental health problems. Many more could be living with undiagnosed mental health issues, according to mental health charity MIND.

If you’re worried about your mental health, or if someone in your life is affected, there are plenty of ways to get help. Find out more about mental health support.

You can also contact mental health charities such as Sane and the Mental Health Foundation.

Contraception

Contraception is free for most people in the UK. With 15 methods to choose from, you’ll find one that suits you.

Contraceptive methods allow you to choose when and if you want to have a baby, but they don’t protect you from sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Condoms help to protect against STIs and pregnancy, so whatever other method of contraception you’re using to prevent pregnancy, use condoms as well to protect your and your partner’s health.

Where to get it

Contraceptive services are free and confidential, including to people under 16 as long as they are mature enough to understand the information and decisions involved. There are strict guidelines to for care professionals who work with people under 16.

You can get contraception free from:

most GP surgeries (talk to your GP or practice nurse),
community contraceptive clinics,
some genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics,
sexual health clinics (these offer contraceptive and STI testing services), and
some young people’s services (call 0800 567123).

Find sexual health services.

Many of these places also offer information, testing and treatment for STIs. If you’ve been exposed to the risk of pregnancy, you’re also at risk of catching an STI.

Before you make an appointment, make sure you’re as informed as possible about the contraceptive options available. People’s choice of contraception may vary over time, depending on their lifestyle and circumstances.

Contraception and menopause

Women who have sex with men and don’t want to get pregnant need to keep on using contraception until they haven’t had a period for more than 12 months (menopause).

This is because periods can become irregular before they stop entirely, and pregnancy can still occur during this time. Find out more about menopause.

The methods of contraception

There are lots of methods to choose from, so don’t be put off if the first thing you use isn’t quite right for you; you can try another. You can read about each of the different methods of contraception by visiting these pages:

There are two permanent methods of contraception:

You can find out more about each type of contraception by contacting:

CASH on 0300 303 8565.
Brook Advisory Service (for under-21s) on 0800 988 2209.

In addition to your chosen method of contraception, you need to use condoms to prevent STIs. Always buy condoms that have the CE mark on the packet. This means that they’ve been tested to the high European safety standards. Condoms that don’t have the CE mark won’t meet these standards, so don’t use them.

Winter Health – Beat The Blues

Winter depression (seasonal affective disorder or SAD) is thought to affect up to one in 15 Brits every year between September and April. Many more of us (about 17%) get a milder form of the condition, known as the winter blues.

Key symptoms

depression
sleep problems
lethargy
overeating
irritability
feeling down and unsociable

According to Sue Pavlovich of the Seasonal Affective Disorder Association (SADA), these 10 tips could help. “Everyone’s affected differently by SAD so what works for one person won’t for another. But there’s usually something that will help, so don’t give up if the first remedy you try doesn’t work. Just keep trying,” she says.

1. Keep active

Research has shown that a daily one-hour walk, in the middle of the day, could be as helpful as light treatment for coping with the winter blues.

2. Get outside

Go outdoors in natural daylight as much as possible, especially at midday and on bright days. Inside your home, choose pale colours that reflect light from outside, and sit near windows whenever you can.

3. Keep warm

Being cold makes you more depressed. It’s also been shown that staying warm can reduce the winter blues by half. Keep warm with hot drinks and hot food. Wear warm clothes and shoes and aim to keep your home between 18C and 21C (or 64F and 70F degrees). For further information on what you can do, including applying for grants to keep your home warm, read our article on keeping warm and well.

4. Eat healthily

A healthy diet will boost your mood, give you more energy and stop you putting on weight ove r winter. Balance your craving for carbohydrates, such as pasta and potatoes, with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.

“Some people tell us that taking extra vitamin D helps,” adds Pavlovich. Good food sources of vita min D include oily fish and eggs.

Summer Health

Sun Safety

It’s important to protect your and your children’s skin in the sun to avoid sunburn and heat exhaustion.

Click here for NHS Questions and Answers

Hay Fever – Allergy UK helpline: 01322 619898

Hay fever affects around 20% of people in the UK. Lindsey McManus of Allergy UK offers some tips on avoiding the causes and reducing your symptoms.

“The main triggers of hay fever are tree and grass pollen,” says Lindsey. “The pollen count is always higher when it’s a nice, bright, sunny day.”

Top Tips:

If grass makes you sneeze, get someone else to mow your lawn. If you react to grass and you spend time on the lawn, you’ll get symptoms.
Create a barrier by smearing Vaseline inside your nostrils.
Don’t sit outside between 4pm and 7pm or in the early morning, as the pollen count is highest at these times.
Don’t sleep or drive with the windows open, as this will allow pollen to come in.
Damp dust regularly.
Wash your hair. Pollen is sticky and may be in your hair.
Vacuum. Pollen can live in carpet for up to three months.
Talk to your GP or pharmacist about any treatment you’re taking for hay fever as it might be worth trying a new treatment. The same antihistamine [anti-allergy treatment] doesn’t always work for someone year after year. Try something different, such as a nasal spray or a new antihistamine.

Stings

Knowing how to treat an insect sting and how to recognise when it needs medical attention will help you do the right thing if you or your child are stung.

Insects such as wasps and bees sting as a defence mechanism (when they feel in danger) by injecting poisonous venom into the skin. For most people, stings are painful but harmless. But some people can have an immediate allergic reaction to being stung, which can be very dangerous.

Click here to read more about stings

More Summer Health at NHS.uk

Barbecue Food Safety

It’s important to cook food thoroughly at a barbecue to avoid food poisoning. Food poisoning is usually mild, and most people get better within a week. But sometimes it can be more severe, even deadly, so it’s important to take the risks seriously. Children, older people and those with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to food poisoning.

The two main risk factors to cooking on the barbecue are:

undercooked meat
spreading germs from raw meat onto food that’s ready to eat

This is because raw or undercooked meat can contain germs that cause food poisoning, such as salmonella, E.coli and campylobacter. However, it’s easy to kill these germs by cooking meat until it is piping hot throughout.

When you’re cooking any kind of meat on a barbecue, such as poultry (chicken or turkey), pork, steak, burgers or sausages, make sure:

The coals are glowing red with a powdery grey surface before you start cooking, as this means that they’re hot enough.
Frozen meat is properly thawed before you cook it.
You turn the meat regularly and move it around the barbecue to cook it evenly.

Remember that meat is safe to eat only when:

It is piping hot in the centre.
There is no pink meat visible.
Any juices are clear.

Travel Vaccines

Almost one in four UK holidaymakers don’t get any vaccinations despite travelling to areas that have life-threatening infectious disease.

It’s not worth skipping travel vaccinations. Infectious diseases can make you very sick, spoil your holiday and even kill or cripple you.

Find out which travel jabs you need for your destination.

Vaccinations protect you against many travel-related infections, such as yellow fever, typhoid and hepatitis A. Use the information on these pages to learn about travel vaccines, which ones you need for your destination, and when and where to get them.

What’s available on the NHS?

Some travel vaccinations are freely available on the NHS. Others are only available privately.

Our nursing team can administer the following vaccinations for travel, and these are free of charge;

Diphtheria
Typhoid
MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella)
Hepatitis A
Cholera

These should be given at least 2 weeks before the date of travel in order to gain full immunity from them.

Patients should complete a self-assessment via the NaTHNaC travel website, and check the foreign travel advice available on GOV.uk before travel. If on your self-assessment, it recommends other travel vaccinations not listed above, these are available at a private travel clinic (google ‘travel clinics near me’).

For more advice on travel vaccinations visit NHS.uk

Carers

Looking after someone?

Caring for someone can be very difficult and many people find that they need extra help with the care they provide.

We work closely with Carers Count, which is a service for any adult in Kirklees who gives, or has given time and energy to look after a family member or friend who cannot manage on their own. Read more about the support they can offer here. You can also call them on 0300 012 0231 or fill in their online form.

Please let us know if you act as the carer for somebody else or if you have a named carer.