New lifestyle project has right recipe to help boost health and wellbeing

A new project where people can learn about how to improve their health and wellbeing by making changes to their lifestyle has launched.

The Llwchwr Lifestyle Project provides local support for people who would like to make improvements to their health and wellbeing.

It is available to anyone aged 18 and over who is registered with GP practices within the Llwchwr Local Cluster Collaborative (LCC), which covers the Gorseinon, Gowerton, Penclawdd and Pontarddulais areas of Swansea.

Pictured: Llwchwr LCC lead Dr Sowndarya Shivaraj and Llwchwr lifestyle coaches for SCVS Emma Crocker and Arron Ring.

The project, which is funded by the LCC and run by Swansea Council for Voluntary Service (SCVS), will offer three courses – a cooking and nutrition course, health and wellbeing course and Community Food and Nutrition Level 1 course.

The cooking and nutrition course will run for six weeks and will provide nutritional information and practical cookery skills to help improve health and wellbeing.

The second course, health and wellbeing, will cover nutrition, physical activity guidelines and looking after your mental health.

People opting for the Community and Food Nutrition Level 1 will complete an accredited course where they will learn more about eating well.

Patients registered with a GP practice within the LCC can either be referred to the project by practice staff and other primary care services or they can refer themselves.

Amy Meredith-Davies, health and wellbeing partnerships manager at SCVS, said: “This project will see us offer lifestyle sessions for individuals who want to make healthy lifestyle choices, and we will support them through that process.

“The project is mostly group-based but we can also offer one-to-one sessions for people who may prefer that.

“Our health and wellbeing course will focus on getting more active, eating more healthily, looking after your mental health and improving general wellbeing.

“Then there’s an optional session for people who may want to stop smoking or reduce their alcohol.

“Community and Food Nutrition Level 1 is an accredited course and is specifically designed to help people develop knowledge and skills around food by learning more about how to eat well.

“The cooking and nutrition course gives people nutritional knowledge and practical cooking skills.”

Each person can do any or all of the three courses available as part of the wellbeing project, with sessions taking place within the Llwchwr community.

Arron Ring and Emma Crocker, Llwchwr lifestyle coaches for SCVS, will be delivering the sessions.

They have worked alongside Swansea Bay University Health Board staff, such as the dietetics and Help Me Quit services to gather information for the courses.

“The nutritional information we will be providing is based on the Eatwell Guide developed by the NHS,” Arron said.

“We are going to try and make the cooking skills as bespoke as possible and designed around the needs of the people taking part.”

Emma added: “We will look at foods that are high in fat, salt and sugars and discuss potential swaps that people could make, for example.

“We will also look at food label readings, so we will give people that information so they will be able to make healthier choices for themselves.

“There will be an element of goal setting too. When people come to the group sessions, we will talk about the reasons behind why they signed up to the project and what they are hoping to gain and improve in their lifestyles.

“Then we can hopefully track and monitor that during the course of the programme they signed up for.”

Each course will run over six weeks, although, the health and wellbeing course is made up of five sessions with an optional sixth for alcohol reduction and smoking cessation.

Amy said: “The support available can be adapted based on the needs of the individuals who take part.

“It is about empowering people to improve their health and wellbeing by taking more of a preventative approach.”

Dr Sowndarya Shivaraj, Llwchwr LCC lead, said: “Llwchwr LCC has launched this innovative project designed to help individuals adopt new lifestyle changes that enhance their health and wellbeing.

“We encourage healthcare professionals such as GPs, dentists, pharmacists, social prescribers, nurses, dieticians and optometrists, to identify patients who could benefit from lifestyle changes and make referrals to ensure the service is utilised to its fullest potential.

“People also have the option to self-refer so we would encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity to take charge of their health and wellbeing.”

You can sign up for any of the three courses by emailing lifestylellwchwr@scvs.org.uk or follow this link to the SCVS website to access the referral form.