Music, dancing, poetry, food …sounds good doesn’t it! Join PCHP and partners as we celebrate #burnsnight community style !!!
You’ll be treated to a delicious meal and the music will be provided by the amazing Tinderbox Collective – what’s not to like!
Tickets will be on sale from Monday the 16th of January at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre reception desk and also from the Granton Garden Bakery window on Saturday the 21st of January so don’t miss your chance to have braw wee night out.
If you’d like to perform or volunteer at the event then please get in touch with; tom@grantoncommunitygardeners.org to arrange
Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip, written by the Health Promotion and Education Team at Heart Research UK
Healthy Heart Tip: Setting Effective Goals for Your Health
January marks the start of a new year and it is a good time to evaluate the current state of your health.
Many of us use the new year to set health related goals, which often include stopping a bad habit or introducing a new healthy one.
However, a goal without a plan is just a dream and it is worth spending some time to set effective goals if you want to make positive strides towards better health in 2023. Here we outline some tips to set effective goals.
Make them SMART
SMART goals are:
SPECIFIC: ‘Eat healthier’ sounds like a good idea, but what does that look like for you specifically? It could be eating five portions of fruits and vegetables a day or increasing the amount of water you drink to two litres. Whatever it is, make it as specific as possible.
MEASURABLE: Set goals that are trackable and allow you to measure your success. For example, a goal to reduce your alcohol consumption is hard to quantify, but a goal to limit your alcohol consumption to three drinks a week is measurable.
ATTAINABLE: It can be tempting to set huge goals when we are feeling really inspired, however, it is important to think realistically and set goals that you can actually achieve. For someone who has never run before and doesn’t have a good level of fitness, setting a goal to run a marathon may be a bit of a stretch.
RELEVANT: Make the goal align with your values and longer-term health goals. Why is this goal important to you and what impact will it have on your health if it isn’t achieved?
TIME-BOUND: An effective goal has an end date, when will you achieve this goal by? Planning to stop smoking by 1st August 2023 is a time-bound goal. It enables you to plan what steps you need to take to achieve it by the end date.
Track your progress
It’s a good idea to write your goals down on paper or in a journal and keep track of your progress. You could break down the year by quarters and plan what you want to have achieved in relation to each goal by the end of every quarter.
For example, by the end of quarter one (January through March) you will have achieved consistently drinking one litre of water a day and by the end of quarter two (April through June) you will have achieved consistently drinking two litres a day.
The results of the largest opinion poll of its kind in the Arab world have been released by The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS)with almost 33 thousand respondents across 14 Arab countries and more than 900 researchers taking part.
The poll touched upon the issues facing Arabs living within the region as well as their opinions on global events. Given the contentious nature of the region’s democratization efforts and political culture, Israeli-Arab relations, Russia’s war on Ukraine and more, the findings of this year’s poll highlight significant trends in Arab public opinion. The following are some of the report’s key findings.
The full report is attached.
DEMOCRACY AND STATE INSTITUTIONS
There is overwhelming support for democracy in the Arab World, with 72% of respondents supporting a democratic system. This support for democracy has been a constant in every Arab Index survey since its launch in 2011, demonstrating an established belief in democracy.
Citizens’ confidence in state institutions varies. Parliaments and legislative councils received the least amount of confidence among Arab citizens, at a rate of 47%.
Arab public opinion is almost unanimous that financial and administrative corruption is widespread in their countries to varying degrees, at a rate of 87%.
Just over a third of respondents (34%) said that their countries apply the law equally among citizens, while 39% think that they do not enjoy full equality, with their countries favoring some groups over others. Almost a quarter of respondents (24%) think that their countries do not apply the law equally at all.
ARAB-ISRAELI RELATIONS
84% of citizens oppose their home countries’ recognition of Israel, citing political reasons as opposed to religious or cultural ones. This opposition remains overwhelmingly high despite recent normalization agreements with Israel by UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
The majority of Saudi respondents who answered this question rejected recognition of Israel (38%), despite a high rate of nonresponse to this question (57%).
A vast majority of respondents consider the policies of Israel (84%) and the United States (78%) a threat to the security and stability of the Arab region, while 57% of respondents consider Iranian and Russian policies a threat to the region.
RUSSIA’S WAR ON UKRAINE
More than a third of respondents (44%) agreed that Russia’s declaration of war on Ukraine was unjustified, compared to 19% who said it was justified, and over a third (37%) said they do not know or declined to answer. Those who said it is unjustified deemed Russia’s declaration of war as an act of aggression, interference with the sovereignty of another state, and occupation of land.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Almost all (98%) internet users in the Arab World have accounts on social media platforms. More respondents had Facebook accounts than any other social media platform, except in the Gulf, where more (77%), had Twitter accounts.
A majority of Arab Citizens (75%) use social media to obtain news and political information. More than half of the users (51%) express their views on political events.
57% of social media users said that they do not trust information and news circulated on social media, a notable increase from the last AOI survey.
Interaction and participation with political issues among Arab social media users is divided: while 48% interact with or participate in political issues, 48% do not.
The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) is an independent research institute for the study of the social sciences and humanities, with particular emphasis on the applied social sciences. It seeks to examine the key issues afflicting the Arab world, governments, and communities; to analyze social, economic, and cultural policies; and to provide rational political analysis on the region.
Edinburgh’s school libraries have been awarded funding for a progressive anti-racism project, as part of the 2022/23 School Library Improvement Fund (SLIF).
Administered by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), on behalf of the Scottish Government, the Fund supports creative and innovative projects within the school library sector in Scotland.
Available to all state-run nurseries, primary schools and secondary schools with a library, this year’s funding priority was given to applications which focused on supporting anti-racism and racial equality.
The £200,000 2022/23 SLIF has been allocated to a total of 18 initiatives across Scotland, including the ‘The Library is Anti-Racist’ project in Edinburgh.
The funding will support the creation of an anti-racism toolkit and collection of travelling resources for Edinburgh’s school libraries to ensure the service is diverse, inclusive and reflective of the school and its wider community.
This brings the total investment from the Scottish Government to £1.5m over the lifetime of SLIF, playing an important role in helping school library services achieve the key aims of ‘Vibrant Libraries, Thriving Schools: A National Strategy for School Libraries in Scotland 2018-2023’ – the strategic document for the development of school libraries in Scotland.
Congratulating the successful applicants, Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “School libraries play a key role for young people by providing access to educational resources, supporting learning and helping to close the poverty-related attainment gap.
“The School Library Improvement Fund continues to support creative and innovative projects in school libraries.
“The anti-racism focus of the projects will allow school libraries to engage with pupils on the importance of belonging, inclusion and social justice.”
Schools can apply via individual or collaborative applications with SLIC accepting up to two individual approaches per local authority and an unlimited number of collaborative applications to ensure equal opportunities across Scotland.
Pamela Tulloch, Chief Executive of SLIC, said: “School libraries play a valuable role in education and learning, and ensuring every young person has the chance to fulfil their full potential.
“Projects funded through programmes like SLIF help to improve and expand the services school libraries can provide, so it’s great to see such strong applications coming in from schools eager to further develop these resources.
“We’re particularly proud to award support to those advocating for anti-racism and anti-discrimination through this year’s Fund and we can’t wait to see these initiatives come to fruition.”
For more information on The School Library Improvement Fund, visit:
Clinical leaders, health experts and ministers will convene in Downing Street for an NHS Recovery Forum today.Scotland’s First Minister hosted a meeting of the Scottish Government’s Resilience Committee yesterday to discuss ongoing pressures on Scotand’s struggling health service.
In addition to his regular meetings on the health service, the Prime Minister will host the Forum to bring together experts from across the health and care sector to identify opportunities to go further and faster on improving performance and outcomes.
The Forum will major on four crucial issues: social care and delayed discharge; urgent and emergency care; elective care; and primary care.
Some of the best health and care minds in the country will use the session to share best practice and to understand whether any innovations developed at a local level could be applied to other regional areas or on a national basis.
As the Prime Minister set out in his speech earlier this week, innovation is at the heart of the UK government’s approach and will be a vital aspect of the solution, and so Forum attendees will include representatives from both the public and independent sector to ensure we’re harnessing a wide spread of expertise and talent.
The Forum is the next step in the significant action that the government has taken to improve outcomes and relieve the immediate pressures on the NHS and in social care caused by the pandemic, with further pressures due to the recent rise in covid and flu cases.
On improving capacity in the NHS, the government has provided an extra £500 million to speed up hospital discharge this winter and we’re also increasing bed capacity by the equivalent of 7,000 more beds.
The NHS is rolling out virtual wards across England, with an ambition to establish 40-50 virtual ward beds per 100k population, by December 2023. Virtual wards are where people, for example, who have acute respiratory infections can actually be treated at home with telemedicine or pulse oximeters and there is also a new fall service which can save about 55,000 ambulance call outs a year by treating people with falls at home.
In total, the government will invest up to £14.1 billion additional funding over the next two years to improve urgent and emergency care and tackle the backlog – the highest spend on health and care in any government’s history. £7.5 billion of this support is for adult social care and discharge over the next two years, which will also help deal with immediate pressures.
91 Community Diagnostic Centres have been opened so far and they have delivered over 2.7 million tests, checks and scans to help diagnose patients earlier.
The government is also continuing to grow the NHS workforce, with around 42,000 more staff than a year ago, including over 10,500 more nurses and almost 4,700 more doctors.
The government is investing at least £1.5 billion to create an extra 50 million general practice appointments by 2024, while the NHS is accelerating the rollout of new state-of-the-art telephone systems to make it easier for patients get through to their GP surgeries.
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister set out one of his key promises that NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly. He also pledged to make sure the NHS is built around patients.
The Forum will run for the majority of Saturday and attendees will include chief executives and clinical leaders from NHS organisations, local areas and councils from across the country, clinical experts from Royal Colleges and independent sector organisations working with health and social care services to deliver services for patients.
The Health and Social Care Secretary, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NHS England will attend the Forum.
A Downing Street Spokesperson said: “As the Prime Minister made clear this week, easing the immediate pressures whilst also focussing on the long-term improvement of the NHS is one of his key promises.
“That’s why we’re bringing together the best minds from the health and care sectors to help share knowledge and practical solutions so that we can tackle the most crucial challenges such as delayed discharge and emergency care.
“We want to correct the unwarranted variation in NHS performance between local areas, because no matter where you live you should be able to access quality healthcare.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has chaired a meeting of the Scottish Government resilience committee (SGoRR) to discuss the response to ongoing winter pressures on the health and social care system.
In addition to the FM, yesterday’s meeting was attended by Deputy First Minister John Swinney, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf, other Cabinet ministers, and key partners from across the system including senior representatives from NHS Boards, COSLA, Integration Joint Boards and the Scottish Ambulance Service.
The latest situation with flu and COVID-19 infections was covered, along with the increased demands on acute sites and social care which have been experienced over the Christmas and New Year period.
A number of measures are being taken to alleviate pressures on the system, improve patient flow and ensure people receive the right care in the right setting. These include the use of Flow Navigation Centres as part of the redesign of urgent care, Hospital at Home and ambulance service staff providing treatment, where appropriate, to help avoid hospital admission.
The Health Secretary will update parliament at the earliest opportunity on ongoing work to support the system, and further resilience meetings will be held to monitor the situation in the coming days and weeks as required.
The First Minister said: “It is clear that health and social care is currently experiencing a period of intense and indeed unprecedented pressure. Staff are working exceptionally hard and have been doing so throughout the Christmas and New Year period.
“This comes after nearly three years of pandemic-related demands on the system, and we are all incredibly grateful to them for their efforts.
“I am clear that the Scottish Government must and will do everything it can to support our health and care service throughout the next few weeks. We remain in daily contact with Health Boards and there is already a huge amount of work being done, but we will leave no stone unturned to explore and implement any additional measures that could be taken to help alleviate pressures.
“With that in mind we will continue to work with all partners to implement actions that can help ensure the workforce is supported to deliver the high standards of care that we want everyone to receive.
“This will include actions to reduce unnecessary attendances at A&E – ensuring people get care in more appropriate settings, and those who need hospital care get it quickly, and also on effective discharge arrangements to reduce pressure on hospital occupancy. My thanks go to all those working incredibly hard across the whole health and care system during this period of exceptional pressure.”
