Day: May 18, 2020

Scottish Book Trust launch online celebrations for Bookbug Week

Scottish Book Trust, the national charity changing lives through reading and writing, will host online celebrations this year for Bookbug Week​, which runs from Monday 18 May – Sunday 24 May.

As the Bookbug programme has been running since 2010, the charity will mark the ten year milestone with #HappyBirthdayBookbug, encouraging families across Scotland to send Bookbug their birthday wishes.

Bookbug Week is an annual celebration of Scotland’s national book-gifting programme and Song and Rhyme Sessions. There will be many ways for families to join in the fun at home, such as a daily drawalong with Bookbug’s creator Debi Gliori, to learn how to draw Bookbug and friends.

There will also be a special film with Debi, which explains how she created Bookbug ten years ago.

The popular live Bookbug Session on Facebook will run on Friday 22 May at 10am, for everyone to join in and sing happy birthday to Bookbug.

The first live Bookbug Session was a great success with over 20,000 views. For those that cannot join the live session, there will be an option to watch later, or the option of acelebratory Bookbug Session for families to try at home themselves.

Scottish Book Trust’s home activities hub will be packed with more themed ideas to try at home, from making a party hat to colouring in sheets of Bookbug. 

All through the week, there will also be competitions on the charity’s website and social media. Scottish Book Trust will also be asking for families’ memories of their child’s Bookbug Bags and Bookbug Sessions with their little ones.

As always, families can access Bookbug’s Song and Rhyme library, via Scottish Book Trust’s website, or on the free Bookbug app.

Building on the increasing demand for modern nursery rhymes, Scottish Book Trust commissioned Sprog Rock to develop a brand new birthday song, which will launch on Wednesday 20 May.

The new song was created through interactive nursery workshops earlier this year with Bucklyvie Nursery in Glasgow. The song centres around the theme of being ten years old, with nursery children contributing their imaginative thoughts about what that age means to them.

Minister for Children and Young People, Maree Todd said: “I am delighted that we are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Bookbug programme in Scotland.

“To date, Bookbug has provided well over 6 million books to children and helped families across Scotland to take part in Bookbug activities and enjoy precious moments of reading, story-telling and singing together.

“We know these are challenging times for families so it is heartening to see that the Bookbug online sessions are proving to be such a success. I am also pleased to see that this year’s celebrations will be packed with themed activity ideas for families to try at home.

“I would like to thank Scottish Book Trust and everyone involved in delivering this wonderful programme and I hope that many families can join in the exciting virtual events and resources during the Bookbug week.” 

Marc Lambert, CEO of Scottish Book Trust, said: “Scottish Book Trust is looking forward to celebrating Bookbug’s tenth birthday with families across Scotland through our website, social media channels and Bookbug app.

“We are extremely proud of the impact that the Bookbug programme has made in the last decade: from delivering free bags of books, to bringing communities together through Bookbug Sessions, to working with families at home who need our support to get started sharing stories and songs together.

“We’d like to thank all our colleagues from libraries, health, education, social care and the third sector for building Bookbug with us – it truly is a national partnership that shows how much we value books, and value children. We look forward to receiving everyone’s birthday messages for Bookbug and hope that families can join us to celebrate.”

Funded by the Scottish Government and Creative Scotland, Bookbug is Scottish Book Trust’s Early Years Programme.

The Bookbug programme encourages mums, dads and carers to sing and share stories with their children from birth. It gives every child in Scotland four free bags of books in their first 5 years, gifting over 885,000 books every year.

Bookbug also runs regular free story, song and rhyme events in libraries, shopping centres and other community venues which attracted audiences of over 720,000 parents and children in 2018-19.

Happy Birthday, Bookbug!

Mental Health Awareness Week: A Time for Kindness

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week (18-24 May 2020) and this year the topic is kindness.

  • Almost three-quarters of UK adults (72 per cent) say it is important we learn from the coronavirus pandemic to be more kind as a society.
  • Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of UK adults say that when people are kind to them, it has a positive impact on their mental health.
  • Almost two-thirds of UK adults (63 per cent) say that being kind to others has a positive impact on their mental health.
  • Charity recommends targeted “kindness tests”, including equality, dignity and respect to be applied in creating and reviewing public policy.

Almost three-quarters of UK adults say it is important that we learn from the coronavirus pandemic to be more kind as a society, according to a new survey.

The survey was published by the Mental Health Foundation to mark the start of Mental Health Awareness Week, which this year has the theme of Kindness.

Two-thirds of people say that when others are kind to them, it has a positive impact on their mental health, according to the survey of 4,256 UK adults aged 18 and above.

Two-thirds of UK adults also say that being kind to others has a positive impact on their mental health.

The charity has launched a report showing the evidence base for the impact of kindness on mental health and a policy paper making recommendations on how kindness can be turned into action.

Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation Mark Rowland said: “The evidence for the positive impact of kindness on protecting and improving mental health has always been clear. Our own survey has shown there is powerful support from the UK public for a kinder approach.

“At one level, kindness can be as simple as phoning a friend who is lonely or thanking a colleague for something they have done. However, to have a major impact on improving our mental health, we need to take kindness seriously as a society. In particular, we need to make kindness an important part of public policy.

“The pandemic is an opportunity to do that. Kindness can play an essential role in reducing the social, economic and mental health consequences of the crisis, that could last for years to come.”

The survey also found that almost half of UK adults (48 per cent) said being kind “to myself” had a positive impact on their mental health.

The charity is making a series of recommendations on kindness. They include recommending that all Government departments apply a measurable, values-based kindness test to current and new policies. This is to ensure they are informed by kindness, equality, dignity and respect.

Mr Rowland added: “We need to challenge the idea that kindness has no relevance to government and public policy. Instead, we want to start taking kindness seriously in how we shape political decision-making at all levels.

“Kindness has a role to play in how we run our welfare services, our justice system and our health system. To achieve this, we need to include a fundamental test for all existing and new policies – are they kind?

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to re-imagine a kinder society – one that protects all our mental health and especially that of the most vulnerable.”

The Mental Health Foundation organises and hosts Mental Health Awareness Week every year. The week runs from 18th to 24th May and is now in its 20th year.

Mental Health Awareness Week is marked in different ways by organisations and individuals.

This year, the Foundation is asking people to share their stories of kindness during the Week on social media and also their ideas for how we can build a kinder society, using #KindnessMatters and #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek.

Visit mentalhealth.org.uk/mhaw for more information.

MHAW20-Supporter-Pack_Final

 

 

Jeane Freeman: ‘We are getting a bit closer to the day when we can relax some more of these restrictions’

Statement given by the Health Secretary Jeane Freeman at a media briefing in St Andrew’s House yesterday (Sunday 17 May).

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for today’s briefing. I want to start – as I always do – by updating you on some of the key statistics in relation to COVID-19 in Scotland.

As at 9 o’clock this morning, there have been 14,537 positive cases confirmed – an increase of 90 from yesterday.

A total of 1,308 patients are in hospital with the virus – 1,007 who have been confirmed as having Covid, and 301 who are suspected of having Covid. That represents a total decline of 108 from yesterday, including a decrease of 4 in the number of confirmed cases.

A total of 59 people last night were in intensive care with confirmed or suspected COVID-19. That is the same number as reported yesterday.

I am also able to confirm today that since 5 March, a total of 3,354 patients who had tested positive for the virus have been able to leave hospital. I wish all of them well.

Regrettably, I also have to report that in the last 24 hours, 9 deaths have been registered of patients who have been confirmed through a test as having COVID-19 – that takes the total number of deaths in Scotland, under that measurement, to 2,103.

It is worth bearing in mind that fewer deaths tend to be registered at the weekend than on other days of the week – that is almost certainly part of the reason why today’s figure is significantly lower than yesterday’s.

As always, I want to stress that these numbers are much more than statistics. They represent individuals whose loss is a source of grief to many. I want to send my deepest condolences to everyone who has lost a loved one to this virus.

As Health Secretary, I also want to once again thank those working in our health and care sector.  That thanks is due to every single person – doctors and nurses; paramedics; care home staff; healthcare assistants; porters, cooks, and cleaners and many, many more.

Everything you do is essential to the health and well being of our country. And all of us owe you a great debt of gratitude.

I have three areas which I want to update you on today.

The first relates to care homes. All care workers demonstrate everyday commitment and compassion in their work and in incredibly difficult circumstances. We will continue to do everything we can to support you, while you provide care and support for those who most need it.

On Friday we published detailed clinical and practice guidance for care homes. Today we have published details of arrangements that take effect from tomorrow to ensure enhanced professional clinical and care oversight.

The publication today sets out a very clear role for the NHS, in partnership with the relevant Local Authority and Local Health & Social Care Partnership to actively and proactively ensure that every care home has the additional support and if necessary intervention, to make sure that clinical care, infection prevention and control, PPE and testing arrangements are what we need them to be.

Accountability for this sits at the most senior levels of our Health Boards and of course through them, to me as Health Secretary.

These additional arrangements build on current support and ensure that care homes benefit from the vital contribution of Nurse Directors, Chief Social Work Officers and Chief Officers of Health and Social Care Partnerships.

The Scottish Government has also added new measures to the Coronavirus Bill, which will receive Stage 2 consideration in Parliament next week.

These make it clear that – if a provider is unable to continue to deliver care, or if there is a significant risk to residents – Scottish Ministers can ensure continuity of care and support.

These powers would only be exercised as a last resort. There is a range of guidance available for care providers on how to manage the current situation, which we expect to be followed.

Of course there are many positive examples across Scotland of highly effective management of care homes.

But there have also been instances where care standards during this pandemic have fallen short. We are already taking action to address these, with the support of the Care Inspectorate.

If passed, the new measures we are proposing will provide additional assurance – to staff; to people who live in care homes, to their residents and to their families – that further action will be taken to address any failings that arise and will be taken quickly.

The Coronavirus Bill provisions – together with the guidance we have published – reinforce our determination to ensure that care in every residential setting is as safe as possible.

The second issue I want to talk about is a further development of our growing capacity to test, trace, isolate and support.

That process – which involves identifying cases of COVID-19, finding the people they have been in close contact with, and then asking those close-contacts to self-isolate for 14 days is crucial as we start to emerge from the lock down. It will help us to quickly break the chains of transmission, and therefore stop any new outbreaks of Covid from growing.

Currently Health Boards across Scotland do some contact tracing, based on risk assessments. And as part of our build-up of contact-tracing staff, an open recruitment process is underway to supplement the increase in contract tracing teams Boards are currently working on. We now have 600 additional staff across our NHS boards who are ready to start and more are being trained as contact tracers.

From tomorrow, NHS Fife, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Highland will test the contact tracing technology that health boards will use. This builds on existing tried and tested technology, and is designed to support staff to collect and record information, and to trace more contacts more quickly.

Together with the growing number of contact tracers the technology allows us to carry out contact tracing on the much larger scale that will be needed.

The software which is being tested next week, will be used in all health boards by the end of May and will continue to be refined and improved during June. It will play a valuable role in improving the speed and effectiveness of our work to test, trace, isolate and support.

The final issue I want to talk to you about is the appointment of an additional deputy Chief Medical Officer.  The First Minister has appointed Professor Marion Bain to that role on an interim basis.

Professor Bain is the Scottish Government’s former Senior Medical Advisor for Public Health Reform. Most recently, she has been working as the Director of Infection Prevention and Control in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.  She is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh, and has a particular research expertise in the use of routine health information for public health and clinical research.

Professor Bain will work alongside our other interim Deputy CMO, Dr Nicola Steedman.  And she will support our Chief Medical Officer, Dr Gregor Smith,

Her appointment will provide additional capacity in that key role and further ensure that we benefit from the very best public health expertise available.

I’m now going to pass you on to Fiona McQueen, our Chief Nursing Officer but before I do, however, I’d like to emphasise once again our key public health guidance.

Please stay at home except for essential purposes- such as daily exercise, or to buy essential items.

You can now exercise more than once a day – but when you do leave the house, stay local, stay more than 2 metres apart from other people. And do not meet up with people from households other than your own.

You should wear a face covering if you are in a shop or on public transport and physical distancing is difficult to achieve. And wash your hands thoroughly and regularly.

Finally, if you or someone else in your household has symptoms of COVID-19, then you should stay at home completely.

I do know how difficult these restrictions are. And I also know they get harder as time passes. But they are necessary – and they are making a difference.

By staying at home, we, you, are slowing the spread of the virus, protecting the NHS and saving lives.

And we are getting a bit closer to the day, when we can relax some more of these restrictions.

So thank you once again to all of you, for doing the right thing, and sticking to the guidance.