Month: March 2023

Healthy Tip: Women’s Heart Health

Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip, written by the Health Promotion and Education Team at Heart Research UK

Healthy Tip: Women’s Heart Health

It’s International Women’s Day on 8th March and we want to take the opportunity to talk about women’s heart health. Heart disease is not just a man’s disease; 23,000 women die from coronary heart disease (CHD) every year in the UK, which is double the number of women who die from breast cancer.

This week’s healthy tip aims to inspire women to make positive lifestyle changes to support their heart health. 

Get tested 

Knowing your cholesterol and blood pressure levels is important for understanding your risk of CHD. 

Even if you feel completely healthy, it’s important to have these tested and then make healthy lifestyle changes to support your heart. If you’re aged between 40 and 74 years, you can request blood pressure and cholesterol tests as part of your free NHS health check. 

Prioritise yourself 

As women, we often take care of everyone else and fail to look after ourselves. If you have a responsibility for caring for others, you need to be healthy to do this and it’s important to prioritise your own health and wellbeing.

This might look like planning a balanced, nutritious meal for yourself rather than eating on-the-go or, if you’re a parent, filling up on the kids’ leftovers. It could look like taking some time out to do something that really relaxes you and reduces your stress levels. 

Menopause 

A woman’s risk of CHD increases as a result of the menopause. If you’re a woman of menopausal age, pay particular attention to consuming calcium rich foods, such as low-fat milk and yoghurt, fortified plant-based milks, cheese, kale and small fish (including the bones).

You can also support your cardiovascular system by consuming heart-healthy fats from unsalted nuts and seeds, olive oil, avocado and oily fish, such as salmon and sardines.

If you want to learn more about this subject, please have a look at our HER disease campaign. 

For more tips on how to stay healthy, sign up for our weekly healthy tips at www.heartresearch.org.uk/healthy-tips.

Our City: West African women artists exhibited at Gleneagles Townhouse for International Women’s Day

  • Edinburgh’s Gleneagles Townhouse partners with Aya Editions to celebrate IWD
    • New Exhibit Celebrating Scottish and West African female artist collective to open on International Women’s Day at the Townhouse

Throughout the month of March, West African female artists collective, Aya Editions, will be exhibiting ‘Our City’ at Gleneagles Townhouse’s Lobby 37 as its next exclusive cultural installation. The exhibition is available to view daily between 9am and 7pm for the public, and for members and hotel guests throughout their visit to Townhouse.

Aya Editions – a digital space that encourages and promotes West African female artists to showcase their work, combating inequalities in the creative industries – was co-founded by Carina Tenewaa Kanbi, an Edinburgh native of Scottish Ghanaian heritage, and Victoria Cooke in 2020.

Carina and Victoria recognised that women were underrepresented in West African visual arts so founded the collection to help female artists create, promote and sell their work. They believe women’s contribution to creating and safeguarding cultural heritage is so often obscured because of the social and institutional barriers they face to take part in creative industries. Carina and Victoria wanted to remove these barriers and encourage women to take part and continue to contribute to creative industries.

‘Our City’ captures the movements and moments of urban life across West African and Scottish cities and explores the real and imagined city through the lenses of seven young West African and Diasporan female photographers; Hady Barry, Keren Lasme, Clarissa Rötzel, ASK, Chantal Azari and Azumi. Final artist to be confirmed.

‘Our City’ follows each woman’s journey through their city and challenges the stories often told by men that came before them. In doing so, the images within the exhibit celebrate the female gaze, reminding us that among the chaos, there is calm. Through desperation, there is beauty; in mundanity, there is joy, play and patience. 

Whilst firmly rooted in these women’s experiences, ‘Our City’ moves beyond representation to explore the varied and divergent photographic practices that take us through fashion, landscape, photojournalism and street photography, reminding us that cities are neither static nor linear and that they are as much imagined as they are real.

Gleneagles Townhouse is celebrating the exhibition’s opening and International Women’s Day on the 8th of March with a special event exclusive to Townhouse Members. 

Aya Editions will host a panel discussion on the role of cultural and creative industries in promoting gender-inclusive cities and what we can do together to make a difference, as well as a DJ set from Emma Korantema to finish the evening.

Award-winning Long Covid support service extended

An innovative project to provide much-needed support to Long Covid patients has been extended to Midlothian.

Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland has worked with NHS Lothian, Pogo Digital Healthcare, patients and GPs to develop the individualised and easy-to-use Long Covid Pathway.

The pathway was piloted in Edinburgh in 2022, involving 36 GP practices and 173 patients, with plans to roll out across Edinburgh and the Lothians by the end of 2023.

GPs can refer patients directly into the pathway, which provides people with bespoke digital advice and also connects them to a CHSS nurse-led helpline and peer support.

The digital aspect of the service, the award-winning ‘MyTailoredTalks’, helps people manage their condition day-to-day while providing feedback to their GP to help with ongoing care.

Jane-Claire Judson, Chief Executive of Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland, commented: “In Scotland, 94,000 people have been living with Long Covid for over a year. We know that people living with the condition feel scared, abandoned and left behind.

“Our Long Covid Support Pathway allows us to better support people living with the condition in Edinburgh and Lothian. Its success means we hope to see it rolled out across the country, helping more people with Long Covid to live their lives to the full.”

Professor Tim Walsh, Director of Innovation for NHS Lothian, said: “It’s been really important for us to bring together expertise from a range of organisations to better improve the support available for people with Long Covid.

“We know living with this can be really challenging and patients with Long Covid need support that can be individualised and available on demand, and we’re proud to have worked with our partners to have developed such support in Lothian.”

The Midlothian Health & Social Care Partnership Long Covid Project Team has welcomed the roll-out.. A spokesperson commented: “During the pilot phase, this pathway empowered people to make a successful transition after diagnosis towards self-management of Long Covid through effective and targeted self-management resources.

“GP practitioners in Midlothian are looking forward to utilising the pathway, which will remove travel barriers while still providing person-centered support and reducing demand on services. The combination of written, video and telephone support will provide people in Midlothian access to the most appropriate support for them.

“Importantly, support and self-management resources provided by MyTailoredTalks and CHSS are fed back to the referring GP without them needing to seek out this information. The pathway will enable people in Midlothian living with Long Covid to self-manage their symptoms and access up-to-date and validated information relevant to their needs.”

None of this would have been possible without NHS Lothian Charity, which has invested £120,000 in the platform so far.

Jane Ferguson, Director of NHS Lothian Charity, said: “As the official charity of NHS Lothian, we have a key role to play in supporting NHS Lothian to take forward innovative projects that help improve the health and wellbeing of communities.

“Thanks to generous donations to our COVID-19 appeal, we were able to provide initial funding for ‘MyTailoredTalks’ and are delighted to see this now being extended to Midlothian.

“This has been a great example of partners coming together from across the sector to put in place innovative solutions that support our communities dealing with the effects of Long Covid.”

Pogo Studio designed MyTailoredTalks, which recently won the Technology Enabled Independent Living Award at the Digital Health and Care Awards 2023.

Jack Francis, Managing Director of Pogo Studio, said: “This has been a fantastic, collaborative partnership to bring our expertise in technology to, and we have learnt hugely from working with NHS Lothian, Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland and people living with Long Covid.

“Long Covid continues to be a huge issue across Scotland and so we’re delighted that our work so far is demonstrating that MyTailoredTalks can help to support people in their recovery.”

£500,000 to support humanitarian efforts in East Africa

£500,000 funding is to be shared amongst four charities to support projects affected by the extreme drought in South Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Christian Aid, Mercy Corps, SCIAF and Tearfund will each receive £125,000 from the Scottish Government’s Humanitarian Emergency Fund. The support is targeted at projects that will alleviate the most urgent concerns relating to the food crisis including:

  • distributing food packages
  • enhancing access to water supplies
  • training hygiene promoters
  • providing cash transfers to households

East Africa is facing one of its most severe episodes of drought in decades, with the driest conditions seen in 40 years. The fifth consecutive rainy season is lower than expected and the forecast for the March-May 2023 season indicates below-average precipitation, further exacerbating the situation.

International Development Minister Neil Gray said: “The drought affecting countries in East Africa is one of the worst in decades and the situation is becoming ever more desperate.

“This funding will support four essential projects in South Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya, ensuring people suffering from the drought receive necessary food supplies and enhanced access to clean water – a vital measure in preventing water borne diseases.

“The Scottish Government is committed to fulfilling its role as a responsible and compassionate global citizen and this aid from our Humanitarian Emergency Fund will provide essential help to those in desperate need.”

Christian Aid will target funding at communities in South Sudan to provide emergency food access and sanitation to over 4,000 people in Kodok, Upper Nile State. 681 households will receive cash transfers to meet their immediate food needs, in addition to sanitation facilities and hygiene promotion.

Mercy Corps will support vulnerable communities in north-eastern Kenya. 420 households will be supported with cash transfers for three months as part of a longer-term focused intervention.

The SCIAF project in Ethiopia will provide food supplies and access to safe water in Dasenech Woreda, South Omo Zone. 315 households will receive cash transfers for four months while the rehabilitation of shallow wells and water points, and the provision of water purification materials, will improve access to safe water for 7,000 households.

Tearfund’s proposed project in Ethiopia will deliver emergency food assistance in Moyale District, Oromia Region. Three packages of food supplies will be provided to 334 households over a three-month period. In addition, supplementary blended food will be distributed to 70 individuals.

The Humanitarian Emergency Fund Panel is made up of eight leading humanitarian aid organisations in Scotland who advise and access the fund: Mercy Corps; Oxfam; British Red Cross; Islamic Relief; SCIAF; Christian Aid; Tearfund; and Save the Children.

Work underway for new Controlled Parking Zones in Leith and Pilrig

Signs and road markings are set to be installed in some streets in Leith ahead of the introduction of parking controls to help alleviate parking pressures.

From tomorrow (Monday 6 March), work will begin on a street by street basis to implement the changes around Leith Walk, Pilrig and Leith/North Leith, where the first phase of new Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) is being established.

The city council has written to residents to let them know about the planned work and how it will affect them, and to advise that parking permits are not yet required. They will provide another update once installation is complete, expected in two-three months, about applying for a permit and when it will be needed.

Later this year, signs and road markings will be introduced in Abbeyhill, Shandon and Gorgie, which are also part of the first phase of new CPZs, and we’ll be writing to update residents in these areas nearer the time.

This is the first of up to four phases of implementation of parking controls around the city, developed as part of the Strategic Parking Review. This responded to concerns from communities across Edinburgh, who asked us to tackle parking problems. The review led to the identification of areas where parking controls may be required to resolve challenges facing residents, in particular from non-residential parking.

Councillor Scott Arthur, Transport and Environment Convener, said: “These new parking controls are designed to help residents park more easily near their homes, and aim to address issues like commuter parking, which people across the city have told us is a problem in their neighbourhoods.

“In developing these plans officers have spent a great deal of time speaking to residents and gathering information on each area. Once in place, they’ll also be monitoring the impact of the changes to make sure they work for everyone.

“Of course, the restrictions haven’t come into force yet and we’ll be keeping communities up to date with progress and advice on applying for permits.”

The council began the Strategic Parking Review in 2018 in response to comments from residents, community councils and ward councillors. The in-depth review identified parking pressures by street and helped inform a series of new parking controls approved in 2019, to be implemented in four phases.

The process to introduce parking controls for phase three (including Fettes and Prestonfield) and phase four (including Newhaven, Trinity and Portobello) is expected to begin soon, while phase two (including Easter Road, West Leith, Bonnington, Willowbrae and the A8 Corridor) remains on hold pending further monitoring and engagement. 

Progress information is available on the Council website.

Monitoring is being carried out before, during and after the implementation of parking controls to help us to understand the impact on surrounding areas.

Find out more about the Strategic Parking Review on the Council website.

Police Scotland: Vehicle Security

Despite modern locking systems on vehicles some criminals do manage to overcome them by using devices bought legally and relatively cheaply on the internet. All of which work by affecting the radio frequency imitated by the key fob / device, enabling vehicles to be stolen despite owners having possession of the key(s).

Please see below advice on how to try to prevent these:

🔐Consider using steering locks as a visible deterrent to thieves – someone who is so obviously conscious of security is less likely to leave valuables in a vehicle.

👝 Keep your key device in a Faraday pouch, which has a lining that prevents the items inside from receiving or transmitting radio frequency signals.

💡 Avoid parking in dark, secluded areas, choose locations that are well lit and over looked by houses, passers-by and covered by CCTV if possible.

🔑 Do not store keys near windows or doors.

More vehicle security information can be found on our website – https://www.scotland.police.uk/…/protecting-your-car/

A Parliament for All: Reforms to strengthen representation and participation at Holyrood unveiled

Over the last year, the Scottish Parliament has been carrying out an audit looking at barriers to equal representation and participation at Holyrood.

A cross-party board established in early 2022 to look at the representation and influence of women at Holyrood published its recommendations yesterday.

They include:

  • Rule changes to guarantee women’s representation on key bodies and groups such as committees, the Parliamentary Bureau and the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body.
  • A rule change to ensure there are no single sex parliamentary committees.
  • The establishment of a forum for women MSPs to discuss issues of mutual interest.
  • A review of the Parliament’s sitting time data to determine what changes need to be made to limit unpredictability of sitting times and maximise inclusion and wellbeing.
  • The permanent introduction of a proxy voting scheme covering parental leave, illness and caring/bereavement leave.
  • The establishment of an Advisory Group to oversee the implementation of the recommendations and make sure progress continues.

Read the report: ‘A Parliament for all’

The report acknowledges that the Parliament has made good progress since 1999 in a number of areas. But the audit showed that there have been fluctuations over time in the number of women in leadership and decision-making roles. This suggests that equal representation of women is not yet embedded within the Parliament, nor is it guaranteed going forward.

The audit found that women are less likely than men to intervene in debates and to participate in First Minister’s Question Time. Other findings suggest that women tend to be under-represented in some committees such as Finance, Audit and Standards and Procedures.

Launching the report, Presiding Officer, Alison Johnstone MSP, said: “We currently have the highest percentage of women elected to the Parliament since 1999, and women are well represented in some of our key positions. However, history shows us that progress cannot be taken for granted.

“The package of measures published today is designed to strengthen equal representation and participation at Holyrood.

“Having women in key roles and ensuring they are properly represented across the Parliament helps bring different voices and perspectives to decisions.

“This report is only the first step towards substantive reform. I believe that the recommendations will help drive institutional change over the short, medium and longer-term.

“I am very grateful to Dr Fiona McKay and the Board for all their work on the audit and report over this past year. I look forward to working closely with colleagues to make sure that these recommendations are implemented.”

Commenting on the report, Dr Meryl Kenny, a member of the board and the University of Edinburgh said; “The recommendations together promise an inclusive Scottish Parliament for the twenty first century; one that in its work, procedures, and institutional culture is representative and effective.”

Her colleague, Professor Sarah Childs, another board member added: “This report marks an important moment, with Scotland building on its record and joining a growing number of countries around the world committed to reforms that will gender sensitise its parliament.”

The report states that short, medium and long-term measures are needed to secure the lasting impact of cultural change and that further research, data collection, monitoring and adjustment of new rules and reforms, will be essential.

It also calls for an advisory body, made up of cross-party MSPs, to be appointed to oversee the effective delivery of the recommendations, drive forward the Parliament’s overall progress and ensure alignment with internationally recognised standards.

You can read the report with the full set of recommendations:

Gender-Sensitive-AuditDownload

Twinkl and Voices of Children partner up to support Ukrainian children’s mental health during the war

The war in Ukraine started over a year ago in February 2022, causing 17.4 million individuals to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. Twinkl Educational Publishing continues to help Ukrainian children and has now teamed up with the Ukraine-based charity fund Voices of Children to provide FREE mental health and art therapy resources for families affected by the war and for anyone in need.

As highlighted in an article published in the European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry journal in March 2022: The effects of war on refugee children are vast, encompassing everything from immediate stress responses to a higher likelihood of developing mental health issues like PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Additionally, being separated from parents and losing a sense of safety during war can have long-term negative impacts on a child’s development. These experiences stand in stark contrast to children’s fundamental needs and rights to grow up in a safe, secure, and predictable environment.

Psychologists from the Voices of Children Foundation explained how the preservation of mental health can be influenced by the people who surround us, showing that resilience is important, and it is resilience which enables an individual to maintain faith in their own strength to overcome difficulties.

Psychologists from the Voices of Children Foundation said: “One of the difficulties in the work of a psychologist or psychotherapist, which we now encounter quite often, is the misuse of the term “trauma”. The psyche of a person, in particular a small child, has a number of protective mechanisms that are activated in conditions of increased stress. The preservation of mental health is also influenced by the people who surround us, who support and care for us and help us cope with the most severe stress.”

To conclude they mentioned that studies linked to mass disasters showed that post-traumatic stress disorder is one of the most severe forms of stress reaction, and it develops in 25-30% of people who have been in emergency situations.

Twinkl’s partnership with Voices of Children wants to contribute to the delivery of trauma-informed care by providing a selection of mental health and art therapy resources that have been reviewed and recommended by the Foundation’s psychologists.

These mental health materials are now easily accessible for FREE and grouped in bundles to help parents, carers and mental health professionals support Toddlers and young learners, children aged 7-11, and Teenagers express and manage their emotions, develop coping strategies, and reduce anxiety.

Besides storytelling, art therapy activities such as the ones included in this pack are part of the methodology used by the Foundation’s psychologists in their Art Therapy Programme which focuses on understanding children’s emotions and supporting their wellbeing while also helping parents deal with child anxiety.

All resources are available from 24th  February 2023 onwards in both Ukrainian and English, to aid speakers of both languages in accessing them. Some materials curated in partnership with Voices of Children are also published in German, French and Polish, and all resource packs created from this collaboration can be found in the Voices of Children page at Twinkl’s platform.

Apart from the Dual Language materials, these resources are also available in Ukrainian only and can be accessed for FREE by Ukrainian families and educators anywhere in the world!

Find out more about the resources created in collaboration with Voices of Children by visiting Twinkl’s Blog.

Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980

National Galleries of Scotland announces Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980, an exploration of 80 years of art at the newly reopened Modern Two 

Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell

Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980 

29 April 2023   

Free   

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two)  

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) in Edinburgh will reopen on 29 April 2023 with a spectacular new exhibition, Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980.

This fascinating, free exhibition will take a journey through 80 years of art, from 1900 to the 1970s. Spanning a period of dramatic change, moving from the birth of the motorcar to the dawn of the space race, each work on display will be drawn from the Gallery’s world-class collection of modern art.  

Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980 will take visitors through a series of six chapters across six rooms at Modern Two. Each chapter speaks of a particular moment from across the twentieth century, when artists rebelled against the previous generation, creating works which came to characterise a period.  

Beginning with French artists who painted with electrifying colour, the first room includes work by Henri Matisse and André Derain. Their brightly coloured landscape paintings were so radically different that the artists were given the derogatory label ‘Fauves’ – meaning ‘wild beasts’. The term stuck and Fauvism had a major impact on British and particularly Scottish art. 

Two fabulous new acquisitions, by Scottish Colourists FCB Cadell and JD Fergusson, feature in this room. Leith-born JD Fergusson, who lived in Paris before the First World War, was one of the key Scottish artists of the twentieth century.

Painted in 1911, Flowers and Pink Box, is vigorous and confident in its brushwork, bright and clashing in colour. The Rose and the Lacquer Screen, by FCB Cadell, combines several of his favourite still-life props: a rose in a transparent vase, a black fan and its trailing ribbon and a detail of the lacquered screen that dominated the drawing room of his house in Edinburgh’s New Town. These new acquisitions have been generously donated by private owners. 

Moving into the 1930s, artists such as Piet Mondrian believed that art could change society. This room will feature work by Alexander Calder, Paule Vézelay and Ben Nicholson.  

Entering the 1940s, abstraction and idealism were replaced by grim realism. Featuring work by Francis Bacon, Joan Eardley and Bet Low, these paintings and sculptures, created both during and immediately after the Second World War, speak of a new reality.  

The 1950s saw a battle between Abstraction and Realism. This is illustrated in Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980 by two mural projects created for the great Festival of Britain exhibition of 1951, which will be shown together here for the first time. Josef Hermann’s project shows a row of miners – builders of a new socialist order; Victor Pasmore’s mural project is instead a daring essay glimpse of spiralling abstract forms. Exceptional creations by Alan Davie, Louise Nevelson, Fernand Léger, Eduardo Paolozzi and Elisabeth Frink will also be on display, making up the 1950s presentation. 

Art became celebratory, playful and experimental in the 1960s. Sculptors abandoned traditional materials such as bronze and marble for ‘soft sculpture’, exemplified in the work of Jann Haworth, Yayoi Kusama and Duane Hanson’s iconic Tourists.  

Throughout the 1970s, artists took Abstraction and Minimalism to extremes. Fred Sandback’s Untitled, 1971 – two coloured cords which cut across the corner of the room – questions the very notion of art as something with three-dimensional form or narrative meaning.  

The Keiller Library will focus on the motif of the hand in Surrealist art and writing. Drawing on works by artists like Man Ray, Edith Rimmington and Salvador Dali, from the national collection’s world-class holding of Surrealist books and archive material. 

Radical, questioning and experimental, this selection of one hundred works from the national collection shows ways in which artists have continually pushed the boundaries and created art which defines its time. These pieces still have the power to shock and make us think about our world today.  

Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, Sir John Leighton, said: ‘National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to reopen Modern Two with an exhibition that celebrates the strength of the national collection.

“Featuring a fascinating range of works by many of Scotland and the world’s greatest artists, Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980 encourages visitors to think about how art can both reflect and change the way we see the world around us.

“We welcome you to join us on a voyage of discovery through 80 years of bold artistic achievement.’