Page 10 - link magazine

10 HEALTH MATTERS
Slip, slop and slap like the Aussies
L fJh tn&14g
TIM Health Visitor Alison Nay/or advises us to take
an,f-5uaJe a downunder approach to the sun
CROUTER Many of us look forward to soaking • always using sunscreen, apply-
ber[ces up the sun, striving for the 'healthy' ing it fiequently and paying par-
deep golden tan. But in the light of ticular attention to sensitive areas -
Are you going on BRASS a 50% increase in the incidence of lips, ears, eyelids
holiday soon? INSTRUMENTAL malignant carcinoma (one form of • covering up with light clothing if
skin cancer) in the last decade in the prone to sunburn
Wouldn't you like to know a bit TEACHER AND U.K., is it really healthy? • keep babies and children out of
of the focal lingo, or just brush up Over-exposure to the ultra-violet strong sunlight, use sunscreen with
on your languages? TUBA SOLOIST rays in sunlight is at the root of the a protective factor greater than 10.
Phone us on 879976 problem, so thankfully, we can help One severe bout of sunburn in child-
ourselves by: hood doubles the risk of malignant
or 814354 Telephone: • tanning gradually, neverstayout melanoma in adulthood.
One-to-one, famifr and small group 0 (0793) 692740 in the sun when skin becomes red So, let's take heed of the Austral-
tuition in most languages avoiding times when the sun is par- ians and 'Slip on a top, slop on a
ticularly intense, e.g. late morning sunscreen, slap on a hat' and enjoy
and in the afternoon the summer!
UPHOLSTERY

• Repairs from £25 chair, £35 settee Mental Health - an issue many
• Recovering in your own fabric
or supplied by us of us will face
• Antiques restored June Pycroft talked to members of the West Swindon Mental
For Health Team based at the Health Centre
• Large range of fabric
J available One in four people will suffer from in Rodbourne, Wootton Bassett,
estimates,
phone Swindon
some kind of mental health problem Purton, Lyneham and Cricklade,
539913 or 871808 eve.
brings its own particular problems.
at some time in their lives.
or call in to
Gilberts, 2 Marlborough Road,
You could save £.CC by having Yet, throughout history, society has "Years ago we only saw patients
reacted to illnesses of the mind with suffering fmm'classic' ilnesses,such
your upholstery repaired/restored septicism, prejudice, fear and even as schizophrenia. Now wedeal more
witch-hunts. Some sufferers still with victims of life's traumas and
C) find mental illness carries a certain dramas," he explains.
stigma. Employers maybe unsym-
pathetic oreven antagonistic. Fami- In West Swindon, young mothers
lies and friends, ignorant of the na- often suffer depression after being
uprooted and moving to an area
tureof mental illness, may label them where there is no family support
CC—RA)"ART, as weak-spirited, unable to cope, or and where they have not yet made
simply as odd.
friends.
Members of the WestSwindon Men-
tal Health Team - a group of com- Recently, the team has noticed an
Lucena House, Shaw Village Centre munity psychiatric nurses, social increase in one particular type of
workers and a consultant psychia- patient - the houseowner, who has
trist - know that nothing could be had his/her home repossessed.
Even if he/she believes the decision
further from the truth. The team,
to hand back the keys is the right
based at the West Swindon Health
Yuiwl W ti7&VJ/4/ Centre, sees patients from every so- one, the period following reposses-
cial class, profession and age group. sion can bring overwhelming feel-
ings of guilt and loss, which may
There is no typical sufferer of men- lead to illness.
tal illness. A patient may have an
ftower(sl acute, or one-off, mental illness or Bereavement, redundancy and
may have chroniccondition which money worries can all trigger off
requires years of support. mental health problems, too. In
short, the strains and stresses of
ut whether chronic or acute, the twentieth century life can leave lit-
Buy one bunch, patient is treated in the community erally anyone is need of professional
whereve- possible. The team's phi-
losophy is that each patient should help.
be helped to reach the highest level The team is under constant pressure
Get one FREE of functioning he possibly can within because of the number of referrals,
his home environment.
says the spokesman. There is no
Drawing on the wide range of skills such thing as an average day for a
available to it, the team establishes a community psychiatric nurse, but it
two-way working relationship with is not unusual to visit fourteen pa-
PLUS the patient as soon as he or she is tients in one day.
referred by the OP. Every member "It's never dull, though," he says.
Bedding Plants: 75p per strip of the team believes all patients have "There's certainly plenty of job sat-
the right to be responsible for them- isfaction in seeing someone getting
selves and should be involved in better"
Tel: (0793)887080 treatment decisions. Which, given the number of patients
A spokesman for the team says the the teamhelps, is a lot of job satisfac-
WestSwindon area,which alsotakes tion indeed.