Good health is priceless

Over the past two months, Better Health 4 Middleton (BH4M), previously known as Middleton Community Voice, has been working to tackle suicides, mental health and other health services in Middleton.

The group held a meeting at Middleton Police Station in May to discuss suicides and mental health, which was intended to find out whether the situation has grown worse or improved since the groups last meeting in 2017.

A representative for Better Health 4 Middleton said: “The meeting was well attended and there were lots of questions asked but by the end of the meeting, I don’t think we were any the wiser.

“The police hold one set of figures and the coroners hold a different set of figures. Whose figures are correct?”

On Tuesday 5 June a meeting at the Lighthouse Project discussed the topics of suicide and mental health in young people.

Rochdale Mind attended the meeting and provided information about the services are on offer to help teenagers.

The representative for BH4M continued: “The problems young people face today are generally different to those we faced some years ago, thanks to the internet and the introduction of technologies.

“One comment was the lack of resilience the young people have today in comparison with years ago.

"At a recent Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale clinical commissioning group (CCG) meeting, we brought a problem to their attention where Middleton doesn’t have a system for diabetics to safely dispose of their used needles.

“It appears this was overlooked and so if you are a diabetic, you have nowhere to safely dispose of your needles. We are waiting to hear from the CCG about what they are going to do about it.

“For all of the borough, we also asked why we don’t have admiral nurses? These are not available across all of Rochdale and Bury but why? Admiral nurses help people with dementia. The CCG tell us they will look at supplying this service. On both the needles and nurses, the questions are when, where and how will these services be provided?

“We may be a tiny group of volunteers, but we are starting to have some effect on the services in Middleton and Rochdale. We want to inform the residents of Middleton that there is lots of help out there. It’s not all doom and gloom.”

Better Health 4 Middleton is a small group of volunteers who meet once a month and invite a variety of services to sit around the table to discuss how health and wellbeing services can be improved to all residents across Middleton.

The group is open to the public and all interested groups and parties who want to see better health, wellbeing, sport and housing services for Middleton are welcome.

Better Health 4 Middleton: https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/sites/better-health-4-middleton