Welcome to the September Network Newsletter!

Welcome to the September edition of the newsletter which as always brings together news, stories and events relevant to the Network. 

The Scottish Community Link Worker Network is the national network, developed and facilitated by Voluntary Health Scotland for primary care community link working in Scotland.

Please visit our webpage for the latest blogs, reports and information about the Network. You can follow us on Twitter @ScotCLWnetwork and don't forget to share your news and updates with us. Finally let Roisin know if you have new CLWs in post so that she can add them to the Network's updates.

Events, Workshops and Training

Scottish CLW Network Events

You can find details of all of our events on our events page.

Adult Disability Payment Review - 29 October 2024
The Independent Review Team will be holding an event with the Network to discuss the review of the Adult Disability Payment. 

Programme Leads Event - 31 October 2024
This event aims to bring together Programme Leads from Community Link Worker programmes across Scotland to enable you to share learning and good practice about your programmes with your peers. The event will be an open space for you to discuss with them how you manage delivery of your CLW programmes as well as current opportunities and challenges. 

Peer Support Event: Vicarious Trauma - 5 November 2024
This event will be led by Fiona Douglas from the health Promoting Health Service team at NHS Lanarkshire.  At this session, we will be looking at psychological trauma from a number of perspectives: the clients', our own, and that of our colleagues. Link workers have such a wide remit and holistic approach, psychological trauma is a common feature of the caseloads that are carried. We will have a focus on vicarious trauma and burnout. You can book your place here

Knowledge Exchange - 21 November 2024
Our 8th Knowledge Exchange event will take place on 21 November and will feature speakers from Paths 4 All, LGBT Health and Scottish Families against Drugs and Alcohol. Booking will open soon, but save the date for now.

Audit Scotland Review into General Practice and General Practice
CLWs and Programme Leads recently took part in 2 focus groups with Audit Scotland who are conducting an audit into general practice. They were keen to hear from CLWs about their experiences to date. You can read the key messages from the events and Audit Scotland's full report will be published next spring.

Other Events, Training and Resources

Social Security Scotland Stakeholder events: Carer Support and Pension Age Disability Payments
Social Security Scotland will be hosting a series of events for stakeholders on Carer Support Payment and Pension Age Disability Payment in September and October. For more information about the events and to book a place, please visit the Social Security Scotland Eventbrite page.

Versus Arthritis MSK Core Skills Workshop - 7 October 2024
Versus Arthritis is really excited to be bringing back their award winning MSK Core Skills workshop to Glasgow on 7 October.  Please note they do still have bursaries left to support remote, rural and island travel and accommodation.  To sign up, please complete the booking form here. 

Versus Arthritis Resources
Versus Arthritis Regional Officer, Michaela Brown, can also hold free private courses just for Link Workers or can hold private courses for 8 or more people. Topics covered are Sleep, Pain, Fatigue, Anxiety, Fibromyalgia, and Introduction to Arthritis. Community Link Workers are welcome to contact Michaela directly for more information.

National Care Service Forum - 7 October 2024
The National Care Service Forum will take place on 7 October at the Glasgow Science Centre (50 Pacific Quay, Glasgow G51 1EA) and online. Tickets for the Forum are now available for stakeholders and people with lived experience of community health and social care support to book on Eventbrite.

VHS Annual Conference - 23 October 2024 
The VHS annual conference, Scotland's Vital Health Sector, will take place on Wednesday 23 October at Dynamic Earth Edinburgh and you can book your place now!  CLWs benefit from a SCLWN discount (select this option). 

ACE Aware Scotland event - 23 October 2024
ACE Aware Scotland will now be hosting their The Strength of Community event on 23 October from 7-9pm which will look at how health communities help people to thrive. The event will feature Professor Sir Michael Marmot as its keynote speaker.

Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid (SMHFA) - 5 & 12 November 2024
This is an ideal course if you come into regular contact with members of the public, especially in a non-healthcare role.  If you are a frontline member of staff, a Health and Safety officer/First Aider in a workplace, or supporting volunteers, then this is a good course for you. More here.

Money Guiders' Scotland Network - 6 November 2024
To acknowledge Talk Money week, the Money Guiders' Network will be hosting its annual online conference on 6 November from 9.00-1.00pm. You can find out more information and register here.

Age Scotland Health and Wellbeing in Later Life Guide
The Health and Wellbeing Team from Age Scotland has been working closely with experts across Scotland to create a new version of their popular free Health and Wellbeing in Later Life Information Guide.

Royal Voluntary Service Virtual Village Hall
This is a free, online activity hub and community, designed by Royal Voluntary Service to help people stay mentally and physically active, socially connected and having fun. It supports people to better manage their health, including long-term health conditions. The VVH offers live activity sessions every weekday via Facebook, YouTube and the VVH website, with an extensive archive of more than 2,500 sessions to view on demand. The VVH is open to everyone. It’s free to join and take part, with no sign in or subscription required. Where activities require equipment, ingredients or materials, these are low-cost and easy to source.  Click here to find out more information.

Highlights from across the Network

Edinburgh CLW shines a light on CLWs' role in improving mental health
Rebecca Goodman (pictured above in centre), a community link worker based at Caring in Craigmillar in Edinburgh was a member of the panel  'Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing' at the recent  Health Inequalities in Scotland: The State of the Nation event. Rebecca highlighted that mental health is the biggest reason for referral to the Edinburgh CLWs and there is a need for more longer term funding and in particular, more mental health peer support services

Edinburgh CLW Network launches its annual review
Edinburgh CLW  Network held an event on 11 September to launch their annual review for 2023-24. The review which provides the usual wealth of statistics, highlights and analysis. The Network received 4,345 referrals, which represents an increase of 5% on the previous year. 

Glasgow CLWs and University of Glasgow - Wintering Well SAD Resources Partnership
Glasgow City’s Community Link Worker Programme has partnered with the University of Glasgow to offer 'Wintering Well' SAD resources to clients via Community Link Workers across the city.  The resources are designed to help people who are usually depressed, suffer low mood or identify as having 'Seasonal affective disorder' (SAD) symptoms in Autumn and Winter. The resources include a free online SAD course developed with Living Life to the Full and a short video showing people with lived experience talk about why the course was helpful to them. 

Other News

Improvement Service launches its evaluation on Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships
The Improvement Service held a launch event on 3 September to promote its evaluation of Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships.  The evaluation highlighted that 89% of people that used the service were accessing support for the first time and 45% of referrals were from CLWs.

New report outlines the scale of Scotland’s inequalities crisis
A major new report has outlined the significant inequalities facing Scotland's communities. Published by the newly-formed Scottish Health Equity Research Unit (SHERU), the report has found that outcomes related to inequalities and health are not improving significantly in Scotland, and that some are getting worse.

Scottish Government launches Winter Preparedness Plan
The Scottish Government has published its Health and Social Care Winter Preparedness Plan for 2024-25. As part of the plan, a record number of NHS 24 call handlers will support the public to access appropriate care with an increase to service capacity of at least 150,000 additional calls per year. Other key measures include: improving discharge planning for patients admitted to acute or community hospitals, maintaining established care at home packages, introducing a government-led delayed discharge response team to directly support health boards in need of assistance, and safeguarding planned care capacity with a continued focus on clearing long waits.

Animation demonstrates impact of Inclusion Health Action in GP project
The Lines Between evaluated the pilot programme of funding for GPs in deep end practices in Glasgow, which have patient populations with the worst health outcomes. The programme called Inclusion Health Action in General Practice (IHAGP) has been funded for another year. GPs could use the funding in different ways – some engaged with community link workers to develop or sustain peer support groups for patient populations. The Lines Between made a short animation about the project.

Neil Gray identifies racism as a public health challenge
Neil Gray has issued a statement identifying racism as a significant public health challenge and a key cause of health inequalities. The Cabinet Secretary’s statement outlines various measures such as asking health boards to develop and deliver their own anti-racism plans. Neil Gray said: “Racism already has a life-threatening effect on minority ethnic communities across the UK…The only way we can make a difference now is to actively work against racism.”

Scotland records 1,277 deaths to alcohol-specific causes in 2023
National Records of Scotland has published alcohol-specific deaths data for 2023 which finds that the number of alcohol-specific deaths in Scotland remains the highest since 2008.  1,277 deaths were attributed to alcohol-specific causes in 2023, an increase of one death from 2022. 

Year three results for Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund
The Scottish Government has published monitoring and reporting results for year three of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults, with an easy read version of the results also published. A strong theme across the fund was ‘social isolation and loneliness’, with 1,311 projects including a focus on this area. 

How place-based approaches can support improvements in health 
A joint statement from Public Health Scotland and the Scottish Directors of Public Health outlines the role place-based approaches can play in supporting improved health and wellbeing – and what needs to be done to ensure this work can effectively contribute to tackling Scotland’s health inequalities. 

Disabled people to receive specialist employment support by April 2025
The Scottish Government has published the No One Left Behind Employability Strategic Plan for 2024-27. The plan sets out strategic priorities to improve employability services, deliver for those facing structural barriers to employment and work on supporting people to access sustainable fair work. The government also announced the provision of specialist employment support for disabled people will be established across Scotland by April 2025.