MINUTES OF HEALTHY LIVING & WELLBEING GROUP AGM (ZOOM)

 

12^th JANUARY 2021

Apologies:  Carlie Karakusevic, Alison Prestt, Ann Meyrick, Fran Edwards, Serena Edwards & Kate Benham. 

Present:  Elaine Cawthraw, Keith Lambert, Eddy Stephenson, Mary Hampson, Jenny Charlton. Finella Whitehorn, Roos Allsop, Barbara Long & Lis Durham.

Minutes: The minutes of the previous AGM held on January 14^th 2020 were accepted as a true record. Proposed by E. Cawthraw and seconded by Roos Allsop. There were no matters arising from these other than those already on the agenda for this meeting.

Financial Report for year ending 30^th November 2020:

TREASURERS REPORT 30 NOVEMBER 2019 to 30 November 2020

The Healthy Living Group has had a quiet year. There have been a few donations and a grant, which has given us a surplus of Income on Expenditure of £97.00 These accounts to be Audited by Martin Pester, before forwarding onto the Charity Commission. Martyn Pester currently has business commitments – a time has yet to be arranged for Auditing the Accounts

Co-operative Bank   Community Directplus Account	£
Income	365
Expenditure	-267
B/Fwd from Year End 202019	2825
Total	2922

Jenny Charlton
Treasurer HLG

All present agreed the figures were a true record, subject to audit.

Appointment of Honorary Auditor: Mr M Pester was approved by all present as auditor of HLG accounts. However, should he feel unable to continue, there are other possible auditors within the village who would be willing to step in.

Bishopsteignton Healthy Living Group. Chairman’s Report for 2021 AGM

In previous AGM reports I have been able to ‘cut & paste’ some of the content as year has followed year with updated actions by the elements of HLG. For 2020 very little has followed the pattern! From March to October BERT became the focal point of Village Actions and the support organisation throughout the Emergency period of the pandemic. BERT reports are available on the Parish Council website for anyone wishing to access them. As the local definition of emergency subsided Carewatch has been reinvented to take on some of the roles that were worked by BERT volunteers. Lis, with the back-up support of Barbara took over the role of Carewatch Co-ordinator in the autumn and I am incredibly grateful for the work and positivity she has shown in reinventing that part of HLG. Elaine spent much of her spare time during the emergency telephoning the vulnerable and lonely that confirmed and in many cases accentuated the problems of Social Isolation in Bishopsteignton. How we move forward is something for a future HLG meeting not the AGM. Our thanks go to Jacqueline Pester for her service running Carewatch over the last few years. Progress on becoming a Dementia Friendly Village has obviously been interrupted by Covid but I am sure Finella will have plans for restarting when it becomes safe to do so. The Defibrillators around the village are checked regularly and report submitted to SWAST. The unit at The Elizabethan is now back on an external wall with new pads fitted. The Village Hall unit has been fitted with a new battery and pads. The cabinet has some faults but the defib. unit is fine and accessible. The donated unit I hold may be installed at The Lawns although I have concerns over potential vandalism. A possible donation for another unit to be installed in the Radway area is being assessed for power access. Mary will update you on the Memory Cafe alongside her secretarial report. Thanks to Jenny the measured walks around the village were published in The Chronicle. I know they were useful as a couple of phone calls told me the distances were incorrect! I am aware that the Table Tennis Table at The Lawns has been used during the summer and a promotion around Easter time might be useful to highlight it. Due to the pandemic restriction the Seated Yoga/Gentle Exercise classes, so successful in 2019, could not continue despite having obtained funding to cover costs. I am in contact with Kim who is keen to restart when circumstances permit. Publicity and recognition continue to be problem areas. Lis & Serena are working on a Facebook page but we need to promote our activities to a much higher degree. Suggestions and a volunteer to work with Serena would be welcome. In many respects it has been a year ‘on-hold’ for much of HLG, however with a belief that we will emerge from these times during 2021, we must plan ahead with positivity. With no apologies for repetition I will conclude by saying that this group holds no hidden agendas and exists for the benefit of the residents of Bishopsteignton, it must remain so. My personal thanks and appreciation to everyone who has worked with and supported me in leading its aims in 2021. Exceptionally, this year, I would single out Elaine who has chaired BERT and been a tower of strength across our village.

Secretary’s report:  12^th January 2021.  Memory cafe (Mary Hampson)

This has been a very difficult year for Memory Cafe as you can imagine. We began 2020 by having to move out of Cockhaven Arms while refurbishment work was taking place. During January, February & March we met at the Methodist Church. While the premises were excellent the access to it was difficult for some of our members, even with hiring a minibus, and this meant our numbers were somewhat depleted.

Then of course Covid arrived and we haven’t been able to meet together since that time. The majority of our clients, and some of our volunteers, are on the vulnerable list and had to shield for much of the time. Even when restrictions were lifted in the summer we did not judge it safe to recommence especially since Cockhaven was extremely busy at that time and this would have been a risk to our clients. We planned to start up again in November with a series of small, socially distanced coffee mornings but were thwarted by the reintroduction of a lockdown. These plans were resurrected to hold coffee mornings at Cockhaven in January but once again we are in lockdown!

We have tried to keep in touch with our clients by means of phone calls to check everything is OK and, for some of them, to provide some kind of human contact with the outside world. Volunteers have delivered birthday cards & Christmas cards to all clients. The Devon Memory Cafe Consortium has issued newsletters with ideas for supporting clients but we have not made full use of these since there is an assumption that clients have access to and are familiar with digital technology which we know is not the case with many of our clients.

Teignbridge Community & Voluntary Services also provide support and have a grant to help memory cafes start up again as they realise this may well involve extra expenses in order to conform with government guidelines on social distancing and group sizes.

The expectation now is that we will not be able to start again with face to face meetings until Easter at the earliest. Until then we will continue with the phoning around.

Thanks to all the volunteers who have helped with the phoning and the delivery of cards and messages.

Carewatch: Lis Durham reported that Carewatch is going well and has in fact become busier just recently with lockdown. She anticipates this trend will continue and will probably increase post lockdown. Calls often appear to be straightforward requests but turn out to be covering much more complicated problems that sometimes require referral to other agencies. The current situation is revealing a growing awareness of the social isolation that exists within the village. It may well be necessary to increase help in manning the phone line to cope with this developing issue.

Trustees: Trustees were all contacted prior to the AGM and all have said they are willing to continue in post. By the end of this year 2 trustees will have reached the end of their tenure but will be able to stand for re-election should they so wish.

AOB:  Carlie Karakusevic sent the following details of the situation concerning Covid vaccinations

“We (Channel View Surgery) have started Covid vaccinations in our locality. At present these are running from Dawlish Community Hospital whilst we only have the Pfizer vaccine with all the complications of cold storage you will be aware of. This may change when the Oxford vaccine is more widely available but I cannot provide timings on this yet. Your GP practice will contact you by phone or text when we are issued with supplies. Practices are aware of individual clinical priorities already so there is no need to contact us about this. We have to follow a national protocol for the order of patient invitations. We do appreciate it is frustrating while waiting for a vaccine appointment to be offered. I would encourage everyone to take up the offer of a vaccine.”

The meeting closed at 8.00 pm

Next HLG meeting Tuesday 16^th February on Zoom at 7.30 pm

Next year’s AGM Tuesday 18^th January 2022.