Health working group

in

 
It could be said that the Transition Towns is all about health in its broadest sense.. health of the planet, health of people, health of plants etc. The Transition Malvern Hills Health Group will need to identify those aspects of health that are not already addressed by other groups within the initiative. Preliminary conversations would suggest that ‘Health provision’ for the community is a good place to start. This would include asking all health providers to assess:
 

  •  their carbon footprint
  • how to reduce it  
  • how reducing it would affect their practice 
  • how climate change will affect local community health

 
It will be important to include in the assessment the hidden carbon use e.g. packaging, food miles (hospitals & nursing homes), oil based drugs, oil based dressings, medicine miles, oil based printing ink for information leaflets etc.
 
The group will also need to look at how to foster community knowledge of, and confidence in, looking after their own health using low-tech means so that hi-tech solutions are reserved for emergencies.
 
It is always useful a to look at Health groups in other Transition initiatives.
 
 
 
 
 

Comments

Fun Yoga session for 350 climate action day

Submitted by Philippa Lee on Fri, 16/10/2009 @ 14:22.

This event has been organised by local Yoga teachers in support of 350 Climate Change Day of Action

Saturday October 24

A fun, open-to-all, Yoga session in Guarlford Village Hall, followed by a short walk to a nearby field where we will create a “human 350 sculpture” as our contribution to the International Day of Climate Action.

Please let us know a.s.a.p. if you intend to join us: Annette Brown 01684 566652 or Hilly Kemp 0782 8032643

Please bring umbrellas if wet.

Donations are welcome to cover Hall costs; any surplus will go to Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Please look at www.350.org

10 a.m. till 1.30 p.m. to find out what this is really about.

There is no parking at the village hall – only around thevillage …….. Yet another good reason to walk, cycle or car-share. Thank you.

See you there!

I was there!

Submitted by Nate on Sat, 24/10/2009 @ 22:37.


Report on Health Group meeting on July 28th

Submitted by Philippa Lee on Wed, 07/10/2009 @ 12:22.

 Meeting September 29th

Remembered Remedies

The value of collecting local remedies from those who still remember how to collect, make and use them, and the possibility of becoming involved with Ethnomedica (www.kew.org/ethnomedica) was discussed.  The group could become a collecting point for the community.

Questionaire

We discussed the possibility of designing a further questionaire for pactitioners to encourage their involvement in Transition by bringing into focus the effect of transition on their practices.  This would be followed up by an open meeting where individuals solutions and further questions can be aired.

Also:

There was very interesting input from Caryn who is involved with the NHS which has strong sustainability guidelines, it was good to hear that the film 'Age of Stupid' is available to NHS organisations locally.

 

 

 

 Report on meeting on July 28th:
 
We were joined by Alan and Julie Edwards who told us about the Care Farm and Animal Assisted Therapy centre they run on Castlemorton. We explored ways in which in which we might help each other, eg on the one hand re-skilling or space for locally grown medicinal herbs and on the other hand the impact of low-carbon-use at the Farm.
 
Packaging:
We had previously discussed the need to find non- or low-carbon packaging for medicines - eg: plastic bottles, blister packs, cellophane wrapping. Shirley’s investigations had led to the information that cornstarch packaging had had leaching problems for liquids though as far as we know its use for medicinal packaging has not been looked at. further investigation is needed to discover the nature of the leaching and whether any packaging firms are actively looking at alternative medical packaging.
 
Talks:
The Awareness Group had asked if we would host a talk by a local therapist and this was agreed. Date to be arranged. 
 
Alan’s brother runs one or two day courses on medicinal use of local herbs and it was suggested that if he ran a course locally he might be approached to give an introductory talk to Malvern Transition on the previous evening.  
 
It was suggested that we construct a talk addressing the impact of post-carbon health provision and climate change for local Therapy and Health centres.
 
Next meeting will be on Tuesday September 29th at the Royal Malvern Hotel.
All welcome