Your health visitor promotes mental and physical well being in the community by providing:

• Advice
• Information
• Support

Your health visitor is a registered nurse with additional training in preventative medicine, health promotion and child health. Health visitors work with families with young children, from birth to 4 1/2 yrs. Your health visitor will come to your home to talk in private, as well as offering a service in clinics and at the doctor's surgery. You can expect that your confidentiality, dignity, privacy, religious and cultural beliefs will be respected at all times. Your health visitor can offer advice and give information about a range of issues.

If you have a child

• Immunisations
• Your child's development & progress
• Child minders/playgroup/nursery
• Problems with sleep, bedwetting, behaviour and childrearing issues
• Planning or preparing for school

If you are new to the area?

• Local groups
• Activities
• Public services

About staying healthy

• Diet
• Exercise
• Alcohol, drugs, smoking

Your health visitor can also help you if you are:

• Caring for a disabled child
• Experiencing angry feelings towards a child/adolescent
• Recently bereaved

The health visitor is there to:

• Listen and talk things through
• Help you to find ways to cope
• Introduce you to other health care workers who may be able to help you
• Introduce you to other organizations who may be able to help

The health visitor will be able to help you find out more about:

• Contraception
• Pregnancy
• The menopause
• Cervical screening
• Women's health
• Men's health
• HIV & AIDS
• Mental & physical disability
• Teenagers and growing up
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• Depression
• How to stop smoking

Contacting Our Health Visitors

Our health visitors are not based within the surgery itself as they are now based at Westbury Hospital and are available on 01373 823773.

Please contact your health visitor to find out more information on the following:

• Child health clinics
• Developmental checks
• Immunisation
• Registration
• Family relationship
• Post natal support

Your health visitor carries an identity card - please ask to see it until you know her/him.

Help Us To Help You

All parents now carry the health records for their children. If you have a red book always take it to any appointments with your doctor or Health Visitor.