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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Damien Edgar

Belfast services run event to help people with health and cost-of-living

Around 600 people have taken part in an event bring together health, financial and job services to try and help people with the cost-of-living and waiting list crises.

On Tuesday, 2 Royal Avenue played host to the "All of You Wellbeing" event with over 20 organisations laying out how they could help people.

Liz Mullen is an employability mentor with the Shankill Job Assist Centre and said the idea had been to use funding to try and address people's concerns post-Covid.

Read more: South Belfast parents stage protest amid concern sex offenders being housed in area

"When the pandemic started to wind down and things started going back to the normal that we have now, some people were still afraid to come out," she said.

"They weren't going to their GP or going out the door and we would ahve seen that with the communities that we work with.

"So the idea of this was to promote people coming out and getting those wee wellness checks and welfare advice.

"A lot of people don't realise what they could be getting help-wise."

The centre is part of the Belfast Works which encompasses the Upper Springfield Development Trust, the Ashton Community Trust, East Belfast Mission and GEMS NI.

Liz told Belfast Live that they had about 600 people through the doors in the vibrant setting at 2 Royal Avenue and that they had come from "all walks of life".

"We've had a lot of clients come through the doors that are afraid of going to work because they're afraid they'll lose their benefit, they'll have no help and we turn that around but working with the person," she added.

"People have a stigma with the JBO (Jobs and Benefits Office), maybe they don't want to go out to work or they're afraid to tell them something.

"But the JBO have been really good and prominent in coming down here and it's not about tripping anyone up, it's to get them help with their wellbeing, so it's great to see all these communities coming together."

Rosaleen McAtamney from the Jobs and Benefits office on the Shankill Road was also there to try and help people understand what help was available to them.

"People have come today who haven't been on the right benefits too, so they've been helped with that and they've also got advice on how their benefits would be affected if they got a job, so they wouldn't end up in a bad spot financially," she said.

"We had a man that came into the event and he had been diagnosed very recently with a health condition.

"I brought him over to our coaches and whenever he was leaving, he was very emotional because he couldn't believe he was on the wrong benefits.

"We actually worked out that he was entitled to £700 more a month and he's going to apply to get that on the short term, until he gets himself healthy again."

One woman at the event said she had been pleased with the chance to get out and chat with like-minded people.

"You're meeting people and speaking to them and so that word of mouth is going on to others, which is important," she said.

"I met a woman who's just moved to Belfast there so she's delighted to hear that there's so many things going on to help people.

"I'm in women's groups ad that lady that's just come here, I've told her to Google the women's groups in her area and she can get support and friendship there."

Health was also a key focus of the event, with therapeutic massages being offered to those attending, as well as several stands relating to physical and mental health.

Doreen Regan from Cancer Focus was there to help people understand the importance of looking after their skin and to offer advice and guidance to those wanting to stop smoking.

She was operating a skin scanner, which uses UV light to penetrate through the top five layers of skin to see if there are darker patches underneath, which is an indication that there is some sun damage.

"We've had a very good mix of people here today, quite a few with our lovely pale Northern Irish skin and once they go under that UV light they can see those darker spots of skin," she said.

"I've also been talking to a few people today about sunbed use and some of them have got a bit of a scare, looking at themselves underneath the UV light.

"Skin cancer is our most common cancer here in Northern Ireland but it's also very, very preventable in most cases, so if people take care and use a good SPF, UV filter with four or five stars, then they will minimise the chances of that happening later down the line."

She also said that stopping smoking was being emphasised at their stand from a health and financial perspective.

"March 1 is the first day of no-smoking month too so we've a very big push on in terms of raising awareness about that," she added.

"You're four times more likely to quit smoking if you get help through your pharmacy, your GP or through a stop smoking service like those we run in Belfast and the South Eastern Trust areas.

"Think about the money too in this cost-of-living crisis we have, someone who smokes 20 a day over a year is going to spend roughly £3,500 if not slightly more so that's a lot of money you could put against something else."

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