SOUTH Cumbria and Lancashire residents are urged to reach out during November's Self Care Week.

Taking place between November 15 to 21, health services such as GPs, walk-in centres and A&E are busier than ever, the best way to avoid long waits is to prevent health and wellbeing issues getting to the point of needing urgent medical help.

Self-care is the term used to describe just that, but it doesn’t mean you have to do all the work yourself.

Louise Peacock, a social prescribing link worker, said: “Social prescribing is about talking to a person and establishing what is affecting their health and wellbeing and talking about what, if anything they want to explore further as a way to tackle those issues.

“We connect people to community groups and even come with you if you like. It’s about looking at your strengths and working to build on.”

Dr Neil Hartley-Smith, a GP, said: “With health services so busy we want to help people before they get ill. Only 20 per cent of our health needs require a trip to the doctors or hospital, the rest are down to things such as environment and our own behaviour.

"By taking care of ourselves and adopting healthy lifestyles we can reduce our chance of becoming seriously ill and needing medical help dramatically.

“We are all in this together and we want people to know that help and support is available for those who are just starting out on their self-care journey. We encourage people to make a change now and if you don’t know how, just ask.”