Our Services

Here at Salford Sidekicks we have Health Mentors offering help to people with long term medical conditions.
The following gives an overview of what we can offer you

Perhaps you are keen to join a self care group but are a little nervous about going alone. Maybe you have recently been diagnosed with a long term medical condition and are feeling a little isolated as you have had to give up work or a particular activity you enjoyed.

A Health Mentor can support you by meeting you in a mutually agreed location with the aim of giving you both social and emotional support, helping to reduce anxiety, improve morale and increase confidence.

They can support you in a range of ways including:

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  • Helping you to access self care or rehabilitation services
  • Joining you for a cuppa or a spot of retail therapy (food labels as well as clothes labels..)
  • Supporting you to take light exercise - and even coming with you to exercise sessions until you settle yourself in
  • Talking, listening and sharing experiences

We also understand that people with a long term illness want to go to appointments and sessions that can help them get back to leading as normal a life as possible, such as a self care or rehabilitation service.  Sometimes just getting there can be difficult because of feeling isolated, lacking the confidence to take part in a class or having to go to a new, unfamiliar place for the first time.

Some of our Health Mentors can provide you with the support and encouragement for you to eventually be able to make your own way to the appointments and sessions for a range of self care or rehabilitation services such as:

• Cardiac Rehabilitation
• Pulmonary Rehabilitation
• Salford Heart Care drop-in support meetings
• Self Care for You
• Exercise Classes
• Breathe Easy

 
We know that people might be very happy and interested in going to these appointments/sessions but transport is a problem and using normal public transport to get there is not easy.  Salford Ring & Ride can often help people who have a long term medical problem but they don't live on or near main public transport routes.  We work in partnership with Salford Ring & Ride and are happy to help clients get registered to use the Ring & Ride services.  Please contact us on 0161 873 8874 for more details of this service.

Perhaps you are keen to develop a healthier lifestyle but don't know where to start. Our health mentors can support you to learn how to make better health choices such as:

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  • Weight management
  • Getting regular exercise
  • General healthy living

Health Mentors provide information, advice and support in an informal setting to help you sustain behavioural changes. They will help you make plans for a healthy, active lifestyl and monitor your progress.

Interested?

If you feel you would benefit from one or more of these services, please ask a healthcare professional who knows you well to make a referral to our services.  This is usually somebody such as

• Your GP or Practice Nurse
• Active Lifestyles instructors
• Cardiac Rehabilitation team
• Pulmonary Rehabilitation team
• Specialist nurse or social work teams such as Cardiology, Respiratory, Diabetes or Stroke
• a Health Trainer

We need you to be referred by a professional who knows you well because we need to make sure that the help & support our volunteers can give you will not cause you any harm. 

For more general information about Salford Sidekicks, our services and whether we can assist you,  please complete the registration details form or call us on 0161 873 8874