Epping Forest Youth conference

Epping Forest District Council held its annual Youth Conference on Friday 22 November. The theme of the conference was Health and Wellbeing. It was hosted in collaboration with West Essex CCG.

There were over 90 young people in attendance. Speakers came from organisations including West Essex CCG, Princess Alexandra Hospital and Epping Forest District Council.

They discussed many topics including:

• health and wellbeing
• healthy diets
• exercise
• lifestyle
• mental health

The day’s activities included quizzes, debates and videos. There was also a ‘wake and shake’ exercise to start the morning that everyone took part in.

Topics covered by speakers from the CCG looked at ways to improve quality of life for young people. The speakers included Dr Christine Moss, Peter Wightman and Ian Tompkins. Ian also gave an update on the One Health and Care Partnership and how young people can get involved.

Maria Mantziou, the Recruitment and Retention Nurse from PAH was on hand to answer queries from teachers and students.

A member of the youth council said:

“We found the conference very informative and it was useful having people from NHS present with loads of experience and knowledge.”

Ian Tompkins said:

“The Youth Conference was a great example of how we can all work together and a great demonstration of how engaged young people are in their health.”