Hemyock

The development of a Healthy Living Centre for Hemyock came a little closer yesterday when the Mid Devon District Council planning committee agreed a Change of Use for the garages of the former St Ivel factory from light industrial to social care premises.   The Healthy Living Centre is a new and innovative way of helping the community take better care of itself.   The Centre will strive to maintain the health and wellbeing of the frail, vulnerable and disabled in the scattered and often isolated rural community enabling them to stay at home.

The Centre will partner with the Blackdown Practice, Primary Care Trusts and Devon and Somerset Social Services. It will provide, a Day Care for the elderly, a Dementia Café providing respite care, Health promotion Workshops and support groups and Expert Patients groups for, arthritis, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and sufferers from other chronic illnesses.   The support groups will concentrate on helping patients understand their illness and find ways for optimising their health and quality of life.   Rooms will be provided for the use of the Community Nurses and health care workers and for chiropractic, osteopathy, homeopathy, counselling and other complementary therapies.

Whilst, initially, this project is predominately aimed at the elderly, vunerable and those with disabilities, healthcare promotion will be aimed at all age groups, to cover topics such as Smoking Cessation, Parenting and Obesity etc. A very exciting area of preventative medicine is the development of a care pathway with the Blackdown Practice and the Peninsular Medical School to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes in patients with Pre diabetes.