Barbara’s Story
Barbara was referred to our Waiting Well pre-op support service. After a Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) hospital admission, weight loss was a priority for Barbara.
Our team supported Barbara through a twelve week one to one programme to help her lose weight.
Barbara, and Joe, one of our Health Improvement Practitioners, met weekly in a cafe close to her home. They discussed Barbara’s weight loss and exercise goals, and worked on portion control and weekly food diaries together. Joe shared useful nutrition and healthy lifestyle resources to support Barbara in making good lifestyle choices and to help her stay on track.
An appropriate local exercise class was also identified to help Barbara increase her physical activity levels. Barbara was given a fitbit to use as part of the programme, which enabled her to monitor her daily step totals.
Barbara was also struggling to get in and out of her home due to large front and back steps and ongoing mobility issues. To address this our Practitioner made a Minor Adaption Service (MARs) referral via Newcastle Community Health and Social Care and this led to a full Occupational Therapy assessment and to adaptive work at the property including fitting a stair lift, to enable Barbara to live safely and independently.
When following up 6 months after the intervention, Barbara had lost 23kg and her BMI dropped by 10 points. Barbara continued to access additional community based exercise programmes and has built in healthy eating and nutrition learning from the programme in her daily life.
“Thank you to Joe and Healthworks for the one to one healthy eating support you gave me, which has helped me get to where I am today and I will continue to thrive on my journey”.
