PICS supports the Heart to Heart support group that is provided for people registered to GP practices within Nottingham West Clinical Commissioning Groups.
Heart 2 Heart is a support group run by two heart patients, one carer and one specialist heart failure nurse and has been running since November 2017. We provide peer to peer support for people who have heart conditions and support for those caring or who have lost someone to a heart condition.
When someone suffers a cardiac arrest/heart failure event, the NHS is amazing when treating the patient, this is followed up by support from your GP, but this can be limited due to appointment times. Our experience has shown there can be a huge void when helping people cope with the recovery aspect of such a traumatic event. We aim to help bridge that gap and help ease the frustrations experienced by patients and their carers when knowing which services need to be accessed and getting detailed information when you need it the most.
We have specialist speakers at our meetings covering: Medication, heart devices (Medtronic’s), benefits (Metropolitan Connect), CPR and first aid training, Occupational Therapists, Insurance advice, Heart Failure & Atrial Fibrillation specialist nurses, health/lifestyle & dietitian specialists, Pharmacists & Cardiology Consultants who are then available for one to one discussion.
We provide a safe environment for people to open up about their experiences, showing people they are not alone, there is support available and just somewhere to talk to others going through the same experiences as themselves.
Recently, we were awarded a grant from the National Lottery Community fund.
The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will enable us to promote our group throughout the local NHS services as well as local GP surgeries, Pharmacists and many more relevant services that treat heart patients.
At the same time, we are now able to press on with plans to introduce information packs for all heart patients treated in the local hospital, provide basic health checks at public events and to help raise awareness of the risk factors which can lead to heart conditions. These will help us to build relationships with others experiencing the same challenges and hopefully enable them to develop their own support network.