Sections
Contents
We’ve been asking people in Torbay about their views on heart health and heart disease.
This is what they said:
What does a healthy heart mean to you?
- Being able to go out, do things and live a happy life – staying active mentally, socially and physically
- Being able to exercise and preventing other illnesses – not being in pain or breathless
- Being able to spend time with family and friends (and keep up with them!)
- Working longer and enjoying my retirement
What challenges do you face in looking after your heart?
Getting help and advice
- Accessing GP and hospital appointments is more difficult these days – especially if you aren’t ‘digitally enabled’
- “A 30 minute telephone appointment with the clinic at 8.30 in the morning is more stressful than helpful”
- I didn’t know I could ask for a health check
- “If I haven’t a car and live alone how can I ‘drop a sample in to the surgery’ or ‘come in for a quick check’?”
- Bus passes are only valid from 9.30am which isn’t helpful when you have an early appointment
- When you are on your own it’s much harder to get help and advocate for what you need
- They don’t always see me as a whole person, with my diabetes and asthma as well as my heart problem
-
I’d have liked more long term support after my surgery – I didn’t know who to ask for advice about things like ‘should my chest still feel painful?’ ‘how long will my stent last?’ ‘Will it come back again?’ or ‘how much exercise should I be able to do?’
Knowing what to do
“I didn’t know I had a heart problem, I just found I couldn’t walk up hills”
- “How do you know something’s wrong?”
- “I didn’t do anything to look after my heart before I had the first heart attack”
- "I didn’t know there was a support group like this I could go to"
The cost of looking after our heart
- “Supermarkets make the unhealthy food cheaper and promote it more obviously”
- “Since the cost of living crisis I’ve started meeting my friends in McDonalds as it’s cheaper”
- Exercise classes aren’t at a time I can get to them and they are more expensive when money is tight
What helps us to promote our heart health?
Our community
- Torbay has a vibrant community and voluntary sector that promotes health and wellbeing
- Peer support groups like Happy Hearts have a huge impact on overall health and wellbeing as well as heart health, fostering social connection, friendship and trust, and acting as a lifeline for some people
- “If I don’t know something, someone else will”
Our environment
- Our beautiful natural environment provides opportunities to support both mental and physical health, with beaches, coast paths and the sea as well as countryside and nearby Dartmoor
- Buses are great and I can travel almost anywhere, as long as the times are convenient
Supportive professionals
- NHS staff support and encourage people to look after their heart health, and to self-manage long-term conditions like cardiovascular disease
- Outreach projects across Torbay, such as health checks and blood pressure checks provided in the community, are improving access to healthcare for the more vulnerable and at-risk groups.
- Social prescribers have had a significant impact on Torbay’s residents through their work “I was scared to go out after Covid – social prescribers saved my life”
Our own experiences
- “I lost a father and uncle to heart disease in their fifties so I was being careful’’
- "All my family had heart disease so I gave up smoking in 1983"