Even more reasons to love your local library

We all know about libraries, but how well do you really know your local library?

East Sussex County Council has 17 libraries in East Sussex. You might think of a calm, warm and relaxing environment packed with fascinating, educational, and inspiring books – and you’d be right – but there’s so much more going on behind those doors.

Did you know the library can help you meet new people, or that it supports adults learning to read or who’d like to grow their IT skills, or that the library can even come to you? All for free! Of course, you can always still pop in and just relax, soak up the atmosphere or meet a friend.

Here’s some of the brilliant things on offer from local libraries across East Sussex.

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Improving health and care services for LGBTQ+ people in East Sussex

One of our top priorities in East Sussex is to reduce health inequalities, and to help people stay healthy and well for as long as possible. To help us do this we need to understand the health needs and experiences of different groups of people within our community.

Over the last year East Sussex County Council has been working closely with a range of partners to understand local lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer + (LGBTQ+) people’s experiences of health, accessing services, and how COVID-19 has impacted them. Continue reading →

How are you feeling?

Have you taken a moment recently to stop and check in on how you’re feeling? In the distraction of daily life, it can be easy to miss some of the signs our minds and bodies give us to slow down and take care of ourselves, or when things aren’t quite right.

Sometimes at mild levels the symptoms of anxiety and depression can be hard to spot, do any of these sound familiar?

  • You find it hard to stop worrying
  • You feel nervous, on edge or more irritable
  • You’ve been feeling down or hopeless
  • You’ve lost interest or pleasure in doing things

You might notice some physical symptoms too. These can be things like not enough or very light sleep, feeling hot, sweating, or feeling on edge.

If these sound like you, it might be time to seek some help. Tackling issues at an earlier stage means quicker access to treatment and can help stop things from getting worse. Continue reading →

Easier access to telephone GP appointments for d/Deaf people

Deaf people across East Sussex are set to benefit from a new Video Relay Service (VRS), which has gone live in all GP practices and offers telephone consultations to British Sign Language (BSL) users.

The new, improved service will see GP practices being able to offer the consultations with support from Signlive, a free to download App that connects the caller to a fully qualified interpreter before connecting to the recipient. Continue reading →

Evening and weekend GP appointments

Evening and weekend GP appointments now openDid you know that weekend, evening and bank holiday appointments with a GP, practice nurse or other health professional are available across East Sussex?

In addition to the previously available appointments, you can book in to be seen from 6:30pm to 8pm on weekdays with appointments also available on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. Continue reading →