FREE lunchtime webinars are being held for Living Well Somerset Week.

These virtual talks, which will focus on how to improve and maintain your health and wellbeing, will run from Monday, September 21 until Friday, September 25.

Organised by Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), health organisations and Somerset County Council (SCC), the programme will focus on increasing exercise, GP advice on preventing illnesses like diabetes, healthier habits for reducing your risk of Covid-19 and more.

“We are excited to be holding our first ‘Living Well Somerset Week’ with our partners to talk about the steps we can all take to improve our health today,” said Dr Henk Bruggers, a GP in Somerset and clinical lead for long term conditions at Somerset CCG.

“We are not only discussing physical health and wellbeing such as the prevention of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, but also emotional and social wellbeing too with sessions on mental health and how to improve your connection with the world around you.

“There is a variety of ways that patients can improve their health themselves without needing to visit the GP or even needing to step out of the house.

“I’d encourage all my patients to join in over their lunch break to hear insights in how change is possible and what they can do to make a difference themselves.

“Support is available and we will be directing people to organisations already helping people in Somerset.”

The sessions will include time for viewers to ask questions.

The schedule is as follows:

• Monday: Living Well Somerset - Looking at the ingredients for a healthy and balanced life for preservation of well-being and the prevention of illness. Presented by Dr Henk Bruggers, Somerset GP.

• Tuesday: Free Miracle Cures Here - A session examining why physical activity and moving is so important in our daily lives and looking at how we can practically motivate ourselves to have better habits around moving more. Presented by Jane Knowles, chief executive officer at Somerset Activity & Sports Partnership.

• Wednesday: Healthier Habits for reducing your risk of Covid-19 - Hear from local services with top tips around quitting smoking, healthy eating, health checks and preventing and managing diabetes. Presented by Kate Anderson, public health specialist at SCC and Georgina Clayton, project manager for diabetes at Somerset CCG.

• Thursday: Five Ways to Wellbeing - Simple, common sense tips to improve our mental wellbeing. Presented by Jenny Hartnoll, service lead for Health Connections Mendip.

• Friday: Supporting the older people around you - With a focus on preventing falls, keeping homes warm and healthy lifestyles support when caring for older people. Presented by Dr Orla Dunn, public health consultant at SCC.

Dr Dunn added: “We are delighted to be able to support this programme of webinars – encouraging ways to better health for our residents here in Somerset.

“The programme is packed with support for everyone to help them adopt some easy changes to their lives that can have a huge impact on their health. There are lots of ideas to help improve wellbeing that can help lead to a safe and healthy life. I encourage people from all parts of our community to log in and take part!”

The webinars will run from 1pm until 2pm each day and will be available to catch up on the Healthy Somerset website - healthysomerset.co.uk/healthy-living-week-0920/