Since February, a number of Dimensions Nutrition Volunteers have created and presented useful webinars to Dimensions Group colleagues.
To date, 200 colleagues have attended the webinars to enhance their understanding around health conditions commonly experienced by the people we support. Support teams have been finding these webinars an informative forum to learn and discuss ways to guide the people we support to have healthier and more balanced nutrition.
Dudu, a Locality Manager in Reading says:
“We support someone with diabetes who also suffers from constipation, and these webinars have highlighted the importance of a good diet in promoting people’s health. It will help me to monitor closely what could be the cause of constipation and also support the team and the individual with improving his diet, whilst still making the food attractive to him. The webinars have also made me more aware about certain medications that could potentially cause constipation.”
In addition to the webinars, our nutrition volunteers have also been helping to develop additional resources, as well as providing one-to-one support.
Jodine joined Dimensions as a nutrition volunteer in January and is currently undertaking a Masters in Public Health Nutrition. She is a registered associate nutritionist and has previous experience in volunteering her skills and knowledge for FoodCycle and Healthwatch.
Since starting her role, Jodine has created and delivered webinars to Dimensions colleagues, about heart disease, a common health problem experienced by the people we support.
Jodine says:
“The best thing about my volunteering role is that I am helping to make a real difference to the health and wellbeing of the people who are supported by the staff working for Dimensions. It is also great to know that the resources I make can be used by the staff themselves, helping them to also make healthier changes in their own lives.”
The webinars are just one aspect of a Nutrition and Wellbeing programme being run by the Volunteering team, which aims to make a long-term impact on the people we support to have healthier lives and live longer. Currently, we have 45 nutrition volunteers supporting (or who have supported) a total of 60 individuals.
Over the next 6 months, Dimensions plans to scale up the project to support 100 people by the end of 2021, and our valued volunteers will continue to play an important role in helping to make this happen!
Inspired?
If you are interested in volunteering with Dimensions, please email volunteering@dimensions-uk.org or call 0300 303 9162 for an informal chat. To find out more about our existing roles, visit our volunteering web page.