COVENTRY’S unsung community heroes and public health leaders have been honoured at the 2022 Health and Wellbeing awards held at St Mary’s Guildhall.
A total of 20 accolades were given out on the night.
The Coventry Health Visiting Service and Coventry Infant Feeding Team were among the recipients of the Director of Public Health’s Award for Outstanding Contribution.
The visiting service and infant feeding team achieved the Unicef Baby Friendly status earlier this year.
The baby-friendly award is an internationally recognised mark of quality care, with staff and mothers needing to take part in assessments and interviews to achieve this status.
Staff worked to ensure every mother was able to ensure their child could make the best start in life.
Other winners of the award were Rashbinder Sidhu and Fiona Bryce, who both work for Change Grow Live (CGL).
Fiona is a nurse and has been working with drug and alcohol users for over 15 years, while Rashbinder is an alcohol recovery worker.
Fiona has recently qualified as a nurse prescriber and has been described by her colleagues as ‘warm, caring and understanding.’
During the pandemic, Rashbinder took face-to-face appointments, home visits and phone calls to make sure her service users were safe.
Healthcare assistant Jill Renwick won the award after being nominated by managers, who describe her as a ‘beacon of light everyday’.
Jill is a member of the Integrated Sexual Health service and supported colleagues and clients through the pandemic.
Alaine Holland is a complex needs midwife at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire and has helped to build a new pathway for pregnant women as well as running a weekly pre and antenatal clinic at CGL.
She has supported 27 pregnant clients in the last eight months alongside the CGL.
Nadia Inglis won her award for leading much of the local response to the Covid pandemic.
She was also the health protection lead for public health teams across the region, working on causes including improving air quality and tackling sexual health.
The innovator of the year award went to Positive Choices for their project developing and evaluating Eco-Therapy for youngsters.
Eco-therapy is a mix of outdoor nature-based experiences and talking therapy.
There is currently no published research on its effectiveness for young people, so Positive Choices developed an allotment and use nature activities to improve their mental health.
HLS Coventry won digital innovation of the year for its development of ‘Best You’, with judges impressed by its attempt to personalise self-care support.
HLS also won the partnership award for its work with UHCW to help smokers quit by taking part in the new Lung Health Check.
Vaccinating Coventry Partnership also won the partnership award for their work promoting the Coronavirus vaccination programme in ways that minimised inequalities in the uptake.
Its work included pop-up clinics in low uptake neighbourhoods, targeted door-to-door engagement and free transport.
The social value contribution award went to Coventry Haven for its domestic abuse champion network which was launched last March and trains staff as domestic abuse champions.
CGL asset-based community development worker Gemma Morrison won the participation award for establishing a forum for service users to set up and run new schemes including a music production group and a musical instruments class.
The Covid recovery award was won by HLS Coventry and Positive Choices for developing hybrid approaches to work with clients.
Panahghar also won the award for developing their online and virtual support during the pandemic while also investing in new technology enabling staff to operate two helplines while working from home.
Five people were awarded the health heroes awards, including Mark Campbell who has been volunteering for the Entry Into Service team for the past nine months.
Stephen McGuire is helping to set up a music production group at CGL, while Donna Warren has started her own art group and led the development of banners that are displayed at the Herbert Art Gallery.
Nigel Bailey won his hero award for leading the allotment project while also creating a pond there and Tracy Holland has volunteered for CGL over the last few years, with her activities including supporting the women’s and walking groups.
Coventry City Councils’ portfolio holder for public health and sport, Coun Kamran Caan said: “I want to personally thank everyone across our health and wellbeing community for their hard work and commitment to the people of Coventry, especially following the uncertainty over the last few years.
“Tackling health inequalities in Coventry is at the top of our agenda, which is why this work continues to be so important.”
