Cloughfin Community Association and The Medical Hall, Sixmilecross

Taking control of health and wellbeing

Cloughfin Community Association (CCA) is a voluntary group founded in May 1987 to address isolation in the area following the closure of Cloughfin Primary School in 1977. Their motto is ‘Live the Life you Love’ and their work includes projects relating to health, sickness and relief of poverty.

CCA partnered with the local pharmacist Paul Tallon of Sixmilecross for their Level 2 BCPP project. Guided by the findings of Level 1 they decided to work with mainly over 50s and focus on the mind, positivity, confidence building and memory.

The project has now established links with many different organisations which they collaborated with for some of their sessions. A councillor from Cruse, a bereavement care organisation, visited the project members to give advice on positive ways to cope with living after bereavement, especially during times of celebration, for example, Christmas,birthdays, anniversaries. The members then made beautiful memory posters.

The project also ran food and nutrition sessions which were invaluable as the group learned about healthy nutritional choices and were involved in preparing and cooking dishes from start to finish. Paul Tallon, Pharmacist, also discovered his enthusiasm for cooking healthy meals and will be putting it into practice at home!

The participants formed a bond with each other and the pharmacist. They now have a betterunderstanding of how to obtain help through the pharmacy, for example, blood pressure check, review of medication and advice on minor ailments as well as advice on how to stop smoking. The project also organised walks, sessions on fall prevention, first aid, Christmas celebrations and talks on sleeping well. Participants commented that they felt the programme was very welcoming,they enjoyed meeting new people and said it was great craic! Some participants even commented that they wished it never had to end.

“We wanted to enable participants to take control of their health and general wellbeing through promotion of exercise and good diet but also to have a greater awareness of wellbeing issues and of the links available to our community where help/advice can be attained when needed.”

Rosemary McMullan, Cloughfin Community Association