Kirklees Together

It’s National Inclusion Week where diversity in the community is championed.  Here’s how our Social Prescribing team helped one resident feel more inclusive in her community.

Ms H is a 58 year old lady who has been deaf since birth and communicates using British Sign Language and lip reading. She wanted to improve her health by losing weight and wanted to connect to local groups to feel less isolated.

Lunch and Learn

She reached out to Social Prescribing team and Link Worker Ann quickly introduced her to a local lunch club. She was seated at the head of the table so she could understand what everyone was saying by lip reading.

Eyes on the prize

With her mind set on losing weight Ms H wanted to be part of a group to be more sociable as well. Link Worker Ann set out to find a group that provided a BSL interpreter so Ms H could have the best experience possible.  Ann contacted the Kirklees Wellness Service who agreed to provide a BSL interpreter as part of their healthy weight support group.

Over the moon

Delighted with the service provided, Ms H agreed to come along to the Personalised Care Social Prescribing peer support meeting as a guest speaker. She taught basic BSL signs and talked about her disability.

After meeting the Kirklees Wellness Service, Ms H is now on the waiting list and looking forward to her first group session.  She feels happy and proud to have been a speaker at the group and enjoyed answering questions. She appreciated the opportunity to share her story and make others aware of her disability.

Access support

Social Prescribing Link Workers will discuss what matters that are important to you. They can help you to identify issues and challenges and help connect you to services and local community activities that can support you. Find out more on how Social Prescribing can support you and how to access their services.