The Orpington Wellbeing Café aims to connect Orpington residents to each other and to the local health services by sharing more about what their services do to support the community. It’s run by the Orpington Primary Care Network (PCN) with the support of Bromley Healthcare. The café opened on Thursday 21 July and runs every other Thursday from 11am-1pm at the Orpington Methodist Church just across the road from Orpington High Street. There are refreshments and games and an informal health talk – usually with a Q&A after!
Participation is growing, with around 70 attending each week. People have said that they are enjoying getting out the house and having somewhere safe to come, that they have enjoyed the informative sessions and they like the health input and medical interventions.
“I think it’s got real potential as people like us, who have taken early retirement due to health issues and family issues – we are a bit lost. We’ve both come from employment where were were dealing with lots of people every day, to dealing with nobody – apart from the dog. It’s quite difficult, so we recognise that in ourselves and we’re looking for something else so this might well be something that could help us.” – Karen, Orpington Resident
Each week, local health services come along to have an informal talk, shedding light on the services they provide. Its a great opportunity for you to get to know the clinicians running the services you or your loved ones are known to. The teams explain:
- The purpose of their service
- Who can be referred
- How people can be referred
- What they do in their day-to-day roles
- How many people are in their team
- What resources are available for local people
- Any goals or upcoming plans for the service
- And more!
So far, we have had the Bladder and Bowel service, the Community Matron team, Rapid Response and the Respiratory team attend and the feedback we received has been amazing.
“I’m really just to try and be a bit more social. You know, not feel so isolated. That’s really why I came, I thought I’ll give it a whirl and if I don’t like it then I don’t have to come back but it’s so friendly, it’s so nice. That it is what it says – welcoming.” – Jean, Orpington Resident
“I have an elderly relative, I phoned up the doctor as I was a bit worried about him, and he said to bring him here. I asked the Matrons after their talk and they helped me, but I wouldn’t have known about the service. To me it’s reassuring to know there is something in the background, that if you need it, even if it’s just reassurance, that it’s there. It’s very important.” – Bridget, Orpington Resident
“People who might be living alone and don’t have much of a social network, can be linked to here to come and meet different people, have a chat and just improve their social wellbeing” – Kassum, Social Prescriber
At request from some of the attendees, the Wellbeing Café also had Slimming World come last week along with a Podiatrist from the PCN who both went round to tables individually to provide support.
Everyone is welcome at the Wellbeing Café so if you want to join in, just turn up.
The cafe takes place every other week, with the next cafes scheduled for 13 and 27 April 2023.
If you have any suggestions for what you would like to see if any future cafe’s or if you have a query, you can contact a member of the team at 01689 329 027.