Moray's health heroes in running for top awards
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STAR health workers in Moray have won through to this year's final of the prestigious Scottish Health Awards.
The region boasts three finalists, in the categories of innovation, midwife and healthier lifestyle.
The awards recognise talent and dedication of individuals and teams on the healthcare front line, both in the NHS and its partners.
People were invited nationwide to nominate healthcare workers who had genuinely made a difference and delivered outstanding health and social care.
Moray Health and Social Care Partnership is in the running for the Innovation Award for its #YOUCHOOSE3 Collaborative project. The award recognises forward-thinking individuals or teams who have taken a creative approach to improve quality, delivery, safety or productivity within health and social care.
#YOUCHOOSE is a Participatory Budgeting scheme which invites community groups to apply for small grants of between £200 to £2000 for wellbeing initiatives.
Elidh Brown, from tsiMORAY, said the Participatory Budgeting process produced "win/win results, rather than winners and losers". She said a distinctive feature was that stakeholders voted to distribute funds more fairly, so while the projects that received most votes were given the full amount requested up to the first 50% of the funding pot, the remainder was then split between all applicants.
Groups which progressed through #YOUCHOOSE3 this year included Moray Arts Development Engagement, which went on to secure a further £15,000 due to the credibility it built as a voluntary group and now registered SCIO. Another was REAP, which took forward the Moray Grow Smart project, working with eight schools across Moray to create school gardens, even where the only spaces available were concrete. A third was Moray Food Plus, which received funding for two projects with Moray Rape Crisis and Sacro, providing opportunities for people to overcome life challenges.
The #YOUCHOOSE4 launch has attracted 54 applications – more than double the number received in #YOUCHOOSE3. Some further funding has been sourced for #YOUCHOOSE4, pushing up the initial £32,000 available to £40,000.
Elidh added: "We are really delighted that this year we have received many more applications from community groups across Moray who have never applied before, including community groups from Buckie and Cullen and from Speyside."
Dr Gray's Hospital Ward Three dynamo Kirsteen Carmichael is among three finalists for the Midwife Award for providing high-quality and compassionate care for women and babies.
Kirsteen is midwife with the award-winning Baby Steps Moray, a health and wellbeing programme for pregnant women with a BMI above 30. The programme includes walking and hands-on cooking sessions.
This year Kirsteen received the inspiring NMAHP (Scottish Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions) award.
And up for the Healthier Lifestyle Award is the Community Wellbeing Development Team and NHS Public Health Team Moray, Moray Council and NHS Grampian. The award is for an individual or team involved in supporting and motivating people to lead active, healthy and fulfilling lifestyles.
The Community Wellbeing Development Team supports over-60s throughout Moray by encouraging social inclusion and enabling them to stay active. The team runs the regular Boogie in the Bar sessions at Joanna's nightclub in Elgin, encouraging people to stay fit and healthy by having fun on the dancefloor.
Carmen Gillies, development officer for health and social care, said: "The boogie sessions offer an alternative way for people to look after their own health."
Boogie in the Bar runs every four months, with the next meet-up this Thursday, November 7, from 2-4pm, which will have a Halloween theme.
The Scottish Health Awards ceremony will be held at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh, on Thursday, November 14.
