Choosing Health Programme, England

The team is made up of 6 Primary Care Trust employed Health and Lifestyle Advisers (HLAs) and 6 Community Health Officers (CHOs) employed by South Tyneside Council, aligned to the six geographical Community Area Forums (CAF) areas (One HLA and one CHO per CAF area). The philosophy of the team is “One Team, Two Roles, One Outcome”.

The delivery of the programme began on the 7th July 2005, however there was considerable preparation work before that (12 months of negotiations, setting , recruitment and training etc)

The Choosing Health Team

• Receives referrals from GPs and local people themselves to help them to modify significantly individual lifestyle risk factor behaviours.
  Designs a structured programme of care/health improvement with each client to meet their specific individual needs.
  Works directly with these individuals or signposts them into community based or specialist support.
  Identifies health issues within communities throughout South Tyneside.
  Takes responsibility for developing health action in defined geographic areas.
  Links the developing community health agenda into primary care through the development of local micro networks within communities.

The Health and Lifestyle advisers:

• Identify goals, types of intervention that best suit the needs of the individual and provide careful monitoring of progress.
  Develop a programme of specific “bespoke” interventions (weight management groups, single gender groups, individual programmes etc.)
  In the event of a failure to continue within an initiative, identify with the client why this was not suitable.

The Community Health Officers:

• Signpost clients into community based schemes or specialist support e.g. smoke intermediate advisers.
  Create programmes where gaps exist, including links with the business and community sectors.
  Work with a range of community based partners to increase community capacity to deliver interventions.
  Provide individual support to each client.
• More information is available here