Riverside College hosts the ‘Halton People’s Health Forum’

Centre Stage Theatre at Riverside College was host to the latest ‘Halton People’s Health Forum’ on the 21st April.

The event, organised by the Halton Clinical Commissioning Group takes place regularly in the borough and allows the public to find out more about the CCG’s work on Mental Health and also provides them with information about how the CCG spend their finances on Health services for Halton residents.

Different sectors of the NHS in Halton and local people were joined by Riverside College and Cronton Sixth Form students from across a variety of relevant courses to take part in different interactive sessions during the day. Sport, Health and Social Care, Nursing Cadets and Uniform Services students were all invited to take part in the event, offering the Halton CCG a youth perspective on health in the borough and providing students with insight and involvement into their future careers.

Second year Nursing Cadet students, Beth Nightingale and Jade Griffiths opened the event with a presentation about the Clinical Commissioning Groups. They were helped by the rest of their class who created a video presentation to discuss how the CCG works.

After all of the delegates took part in a series of interactive games, created by Health and Social Care students to discuss how the NHS money should be spent, Level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma student, Emma Blackall took to the stage to talk about mental health, focusing on PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Emma and her family have recently made a video on the subject and were subsequently invited down to Harrow College to meet the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge who are patrons on PTSD. In her personal and very touching presentation, Emma talked about her life experiences and the ups and downs her family have had with her dad, who has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after being run over by criminals while working as a security guard.

Jan Snoddon, Chief Nurse at NHS Halton CCG said, “Engaging with local people is one of our priorities and the Halton People’s Health Forum is just one of the ways we do this. These public events are held quarterly and are organised by a steering group of local people. The steering group choose the health topics they would like to know more about and work together to ensure the information delivered is understandable for everyone.”

Janet Dale, Head of Health and Social Care and Childcare at the College said, “It was a hugely successful day and provided the students with a great insight into how the CCG works and how the NHS budget is distributed across the area.”