The Maidenhead Wellbeing Festival and The PHS Hub - Press Release
Maidenhead is to get a healthy dose of Wellbeing… starting with The Maidenhead Wellbeing Festival on the High Street, Sept 22nd.
Maidenhead is to have its first Wellbeing Festival on Sunday 22nd September 11am-5pm. The festival will take place along the High Street, with educational and inspiring talks and exercise and yoga classes and activities being held inside the Nicholsons Centre.
The event is managed by The Preventative Healthcare Service (The PHS), a community company founded by local business woman and author, Michelle Carvill together with a committed team of directors, made up of a blend of people from both a corporate background and wellbeing practitioners. The sole purpose of The PHS is to help people to ‘Take care of themselves’ – empowering everyone in the community to learn simple and basic ways they can improve their mental and physical wellbeing - shining a light on the preventative healthcare services available to the community, and providing education, advice and a range of new services via their practical 6 week PHS ‘Stress Management Programs’ via GP surgeries and corporations.
Their vision is a big one – to shake-up healthcare and make preventative healthcare services and advice available and readily accessible to everyone. Fully supportive and respective of the great work done by the NHS, the focus is on ‘prevention is better than cure’ – with a view that by helping people to better manage stress, nutrition and diet, learn about ways they can make simple changes to sleep, diet and exercise, it can have a dramatic impact on mental and physical health.
The PHS 6 Week Stress Management Program
The PHS is currently in pilot phase. There is a signature 6 Week Program which is to be trialled in two GP surgeries - Rosemead in Maidenhead and The Bell Clinic in Henley, starting in October. With more GP programs set to roll once insights around impact from the initial pilots are gleaned.
The 6 Week Program is modelled on a similar one that founder Michelle Carvill was offered by the NHS some 27 years ago when suffering from severe anxiety, panic attacks and agoraphobia – the education she learnt all those years ago has kept her well and balanced for the past 27 years. And now her mission is to make these simple yet potentially life-changing educational programs freely available to GP practices to offer to their patients.
The PHS Hub – Nicholson Centre Pilot
Another mission of the PHS is to make preventative healthcare solutions and education available to everyone in the community. Their vision is that PHS Hubs – places that provide ongoing advice and service around preventative healthcare to the community are as commonplace to drop into as a pharmacy or GP surgery.
The first PHS Hub will pilot in the Nicholsons Centre during late September for a period of 6 weeks. This initial pilot PHS Hub will have a focus on learning from the community about what they want from such a service, what their challenges are about preventative healthcare and wellbeing– designing a solution by the community for the community.
If you’re interested in learning more about the work The PHS is doing – visit www.preventativehealthcareservice.co.uk . You’ll find out more by coming along to the Maidenhead Wellbeing Festival on 22nd September – where in The PHS Hub you can meet the PHS team and get involved in sharing your voice as to how you’d like to help design the services the Hub offers.
The PHS 6 Week Stress Management Program is designed for GPs and also commercial organisations – and if you’re interested in a Program for your team or surgery, you can speak to The PHS – and of course, if you’re a local business keen to help support your community by way of funding, as a CIC, The PHS team would love to hear from you.
WHERE THE PHS IDEA CAME FROM – BACK STORY
Michelle Carvill, The Back Story – 6 Week Wellbeing Program Over Prozac
Stepping back 27 years ago, I was a regularly broke account exec in an advertising agency, living the life of a 23 year old in the golden paved streets of London, burning the candle at both ends, responsible for aging and ill parents situated ‘up North’ - 350 miles away and silently getting stressed and stretched with just about everything.
The inevitable happened. Burn out. Panic attacks. Relentless anxiety. Mental shut down. Agoraphobia.
The body gives you clues, but when you ignore the clues, it will give you the whopper. For some that’s a heart attack, stroke or other serious illness – for me, it was personality changing, debilitating panic attacks and the fear of going outside my front door. I’m blessed my ‘clues’ and recalibration came in my early twenties.
My wellbeing solution was introduced to me by the NHS. At a visit to my doctor (when I could eventually get out of the house), I was offered the option to trial a six-week pilot stress management course. I chose the ‘alternative’ pilot scheme over the prescribed Prozac.
In those short six weeks I was taught life changing coping mechanisms. Pretty basic stuff like learning how to breath – and what the breath does. Learning basic nutrition and what stress feeds on. Simple meditation – just sitting with yourself, quietly, tuning in – and the importance of moving the body, stretching and releasing tension and stress, as well as sleep and the role that plays and better tactics for a calmer life overall without the need for medication.
Following the 6 week program, I felt more empowered than ever to take care of myself. Those basic tactics have stayed with me for life – and so far, anxiety and panic have remained a total stranger. My story could have been very different – and that’s why learning to take care of yourself is a gift – and it’s something that we at The PHS believe everyone should be supported with – ongoing.
FROM THE WEBSITE
ABOUT THE PHS
The Preventative Healthcare Service educates people how to take responsibility and care of their own wellbeing. The focus is to equip people with basic wellbeing tools and support so that they can confidently combat the stresses of day to day life, taking control of their wellbeing back into their own hands.
Working with GPs and other relevant parties, the intention is that preventative care via The PHS and The PHS Hubs - becomes as commonplace for first line 'health care' as doctors’ surgeries and pharmacies.
The community at large, people and indeed employees will benefit by having access to education and participating in hands-on programs that teach them how to learn to continuously better manage their own wellbeing.
The Preventative Healthcare Service (The PHS) focuses on helping people to cope, day to day by putting wellbeing back into the hands of the community. Making it totally accessible, readily available to the everyman and stigma free.
Contact details:
Michelle Carvill
michelle@carvillcreative.co.uk
Tel: 07946 001388
www.preventativehealthcareservice.co.uk
For stalls at the Wellbeing Festival please email hello@preventativehealthcareservice.co.uk