A FIRST-of-its-kind health event held in Wigtownshire last week attracted colleagues from across Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The first ever mPower Learning Event took place in North West Castle Hotel in Stranraer on Tuesday, focused on the new €8.7 million project supported by European Funding which will create a cross-border service improving the wellbeing of people aged 65 and over within Dumfries and Galloway and across the two other nations.
Newly-appointed mPower Implementation Lead Susan McKie said: “It was with great pleasure that Dumfries and Galloway Health and Social Care Partnership’s Wigtownshire Locality welcomed colleagues from sites across Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland to the very first mPower learning event.
“We had people who had travelled from as far as the Western Isles and Ireland, as well as local Health and Social Care providers from all sectors plus planning and strategic leads from NHS Dumfries and Galloway Council and Dumfries and Galloway Council.”
Susan added: “Presenters at the event shared their knowledge, experience and ideas of how services can work in new ways to promote active and healthier lifestyles regardless of growing older or being diagnosed with a long-term condition.”
mPower is an EU Interreg funded project that will deliver 45,000 electronic-based ‘eHealth’ interventions and 25,000 wellbeing plans to improve the wellbeing of people aged 65 and over across the three nations.
Susan McKie has been recruited as mPower Implementation Lead and Stacey Halley as mPower Community Navigator, serving as the Wigtownshire staff.
And they will now form part of the Wigtownshire Health and Wellbeing team.
Over the next four years they will be instrumental in supporting and working within health and social services and local communities to develop and deliver the wellbeing plans and the eHealth interventions.
Susan said: “Wigtownshire has the opportunity to embrace the investment that the mPower project brings and to work in partnership to develop and implement new, innovative ways of enabling people to improve their wellbeing through the use of technology.
“It will also help people to the vast variety of activities and support that is available within their own communities.”
