Bensham Grove Adult Learning Centre at Sydney Grove, Gateshead are to hold a day for Women based around women's health and fitness.

The day is aimed at women of all ages

The date is 11th March, from 12.00noon until 4.00pm.

A healthy lunch will be provided.

Why is it Happening?
Gateshead Health Trainer Service will test out the following hypothesis in relation to the new midlife LifeCheck.

'How can it help the Health Trainer engage individuals who may not access the service using our existing tools and pathways?'

Currently we use our personal health check tool (PHC) to engage individuals, helping them to self assess lifestyle and wellbeing. The PHC is generally conducted on a second or third contact visit by a client. First contacts are frequently used to establish trust with the Health Trainer and when this is in place, clients are then asked if they wish to take a more detailed look at their lifestyle.

Workforce
We have train 4 HT's to use the mid LifeCheck internet site to enable them to provide support and guidance to users over the duration of the pilot programme. The team will integrate the piloting of the programme on Thursdays for 12 weeks.

Location
We have selected the East of Gateshead to pilot the LifeCheck. Leam Lane and Felling are both areas of significant deprivation, however, there are a number of modern new housing conurbations cutting through parts of the older established housing stock. In addition, there are a number of small shops scattered amongst the housing, with a main shopping precinct hosting approximately 40 stores, public buildings and services. Regular bus services from Leam Lane and Felling also go directly to Gateshead Town Centre.

Signing people up to test Mid LifeCheck!
A3 posters, leaflets and postcards will carry details of our Health Trainers to enable individual to telephone them to book an appointment to try out the Mid LifeCheck. Venues we are hosting test site in will be briefed on how staff can signpost to our Health Trainers throughout the course of the pilot programmes.

Leaflet drop and street work
The streets identified in the Leam Lane and Felling area will receive an individual leaflet through their door. Street work/canvassing will feature on the occasions we leaflet the streets to scope potential users who maybe out shopping, walking their dog, on route to appointments or at bus stops.

Library work
Alongside the face to face contact with users of the library service in the chosen locality we propose to run a feature on the Gateshead Library ASAP site raising awareness of the pilot and inviting self users to log on. Information posted on the Health Trainer discussion forum has been successful in the past with 300 people viewing the site every month.

Appointments to meet our Health Trainer
We aim to identify people who we have 'gained' through the use of the Mid LifeCheck. On the registration form we include the question have you heard of the Health Trainer service. This will give an indication of if the person in a new contact.

Outcomes in the first 9 weeks of the pilot

Reporting our outcome 2/3rds in to the pilot has shown 22 people completed a midlife check using the laptops and 1 person who is completing on line, we have held 5 sessions.

As stated in the guidelines we allow the client to complete the LifeCheck on their own, only giving assistance if required, the client then takes the printout away with them.

Clients are advised that if they wish to discuss anything that is highlighted in their LifeCheck then they are free to do so at any time. Most of the clients do discuss highlighted points from their LifeCheck.

Case study outcomes

1 female client was identified as not having had a smear test or a mammogram within the relevant timescale, asked if she wanted to discuss this, she did, and it was because she was scared of going to the GP's to sort this out as she had other concerns. The male HT doing the LifeCheck was able to refer her to a female colleague and the situation was resolved with future contact with HT to make appointment at GP.

1 Female client completed LifeCheck which identified that smoking issues where her concern. Client wished to stop smoking and asked if she could bring partner to next advertised session as they wished to stop as well. Both attended next session and have set quit date using NRT and HT smoking cessation programme.

An evaluation by The People Partnership will be carried out near the end of the pilot programme. Additional inforamtion can be acquired by contacting Maria Taubman: mariataubman@sotw.nhs.uk

Tackling health inequalities: 2007 Status Report on the Programme for Action. Department of Health, March 2008

The status report provides a review of developments against the data since the publication of the Programme for Action in 2003. It considers progress against the Public Service Agreement (PSA) target, the national headline indicators and against government commitments. The report highlights the challenging nature of the health inequalities PSA target for 2010.
Download 2007 status report

This monthly bulletin covers national, regional and local (St Helens & Halton) news, events and other relevant information which relate to the six key areas of the 'Choosing Health' white paper, and some wider public health information.
Read the July 2007 issue here

The bulletin is produced collaboratively by the Health Improvement Library, the Primary Care Library, St Helens Health Partnership and Halton Health Promotion Service.

Partnerships for Better Health - Small Change, Big Difference: healthier choices for life
Department of Health, 20 June 2007

This report highlights the government's role in influencing non-statutory, commercial and not-for-profit sectors in securing public health goals. Through the report, case studies and best practice tips we are encouraging the greater use of such partnerships for health at a local level.
Download report or link to page on DoH website.

Informing healthier choices: information and intelligence for healthy populations
Department of Health, May 2007

The strategy sets out the Department of Health's vision for information and intelligence to support implementation of the public health white paper Choosing Health: Making healthier choices easier. It includes a framework and an overview of plans for delivery.

You can download the strategy here or read it on the Department of Health web site.

This is a locally developed resource by a multi agency group, to promote a Healthy Balanced Diet based on the Balance of Good Health. This is now available from the Health Promotion Resource Service (Tel: 0191 433 5684) or can be downloaded below. Please feel free to use and share.

Download Balance It leaflet

'Health Challenge England: next steps in Choosing Health' (Department of Health, October 2006) sets out what the Government has been doing to tackle public health inequalities since the publication of the Choosing Health white paper in 2004.
Download document

Health Challenge England will build on the success of Choosing Health. It is not a new policy development, it will link with 'Our Health Our Care Our Say', 'Small Change Big Difference' into a strategic plan for public health over the next few years.

Back in February 2005 Gateshead launched its Obesity Strategy and its Nutrition Strategy. Both of these health improvement strategies have joined the Physical Activity Strategy in aiming to improve the health of individuals and communities, living and working within Gateshead. You can now download these three strategies below.

Obesity Strategy
Nutrition Strategy
Physical Activity Strategy

As we speak, action plans for the strategies are under development and consultation. The action plans will be availible on the website in due course, so watch this space. However, in the mean time if you have any comments or questions then please contact...

Tom Hall, Health Promotion Specialist for Obesity
tom.hall@ghpct.nhs.uk
Angela Hannant, Health Promotion Specialist for Cancer Prevention angela.hannant@ghpct.nhs.uk
Michael Chappell, Health Promotion Specialist for Physical Activity michael.chappell@ghnt.nhs.uk

Picture - Stary_kashki playing chess in the park

These provide summaries intelligence on ten areas of Choosing Health:

Accidents
Alcoholl
Diet and nutrition
Inequalities
Mental health
Obesity
Physical activity
Sexual health
Substance misuse
Tobacco

Choosing Health: making healthy choices easier: Executive summary
Department of Health, November 2004
Download executive summary

Choosing Health: making healthy choices easier: Easy read version
Department of Health, November 2004
Download easy read version

Choosing Health: making healthy choices easier
Department of Health, November 2004
Cm 6374

Full version, 207 pages. Large file - may take a long time to open.
Download Choosing health - full version

Individual chapters can be browsed or downloaded from the Department of Health web site:

http://www.dh.gov.uk/SearchLink?url=http%3A//www.dh.gov.uk/PublicationsAndStatistics/Publications/
PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidanceArticle/
fs/en%3FCONTENT_ID%3D4094550%26chk%3DaN5Cor&qid=choosing+health+&coll=sponsoredLinks&Z=1