Southampton Healthy Living launched in April
Southampton Healthy Living launched to support Southampton residents to live longer lives in good health
Monday 3 April 2017 marked the launch of Southampton Healthy Living, a new and innovative partnership of health, voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.
Southampton Healthy Living offer a single service which enables individuals, families and communities to develop more control over their lifestyle by helping create communities where healthy behaviour is the norm.
The NHS in England spends more than £11bn a year on treating illnesses caused by the effects of diet, inactivity, smoking and drinking alcohol. In Southampton 62% of residents are either overweight or obese, 21% smoke and tens of thousands of people are drinking alcohol at a level which puts their health at risk.
Southampton Healthy Living will be actively working with communities to help people live longer, fuller lives and to reduce health inequalities between communities in the city.
They have several ways in which they can support residents who can access the service through the Southampton Healthy Living hub so that they can choose the most appropriate to them:
- The digital hub at southamptonhealthyliving.org.uk which offers a self-help guide, information on where to find us and details of how to talk to us
- Groups will be run across the city to help people making similar changes come together to talk about their experiences and to offer our support should they need it
- Expert advisors are available to talk to people on the telephone, just call 0300 123 3791 or by email via the digital hub
Southampton Healthy Living will be working across the city, in locations that are accessible to local people, to offer support with making small lifestyle changes that can have a big impact on health.
This will include working closely with GPs, local pharmacies and others to ensure people are referred through to the service and are supported to make a positive change to their lifestyle.
They won’t judge how people live their lives but support people to make changes and celebrate successes in their journey to a healthier life. It isn’t always easy to make changes but we hope to offer people the right support, in the right way at the right time.
About the Southampton Healthy Living Members
Southampton Healthy Living is led by Social Care in Action (SCA) group, an established provider of health and social care delivery in Southampton. A charitable social enterprise, reinvesting all profit back into the organisation and the wider community.
SCA Group is joined by: Southampton Voluntary Services (SVS) the umbrella body for local voluntary and community groups in Southampton and Solent NHS Trust who are the main provider of community health services in the city including Southampton’s health trainers, health promotion and stop smoking services.
Southampton Healthy Living has been established to provide a team of experts coming together to support the residents of Southampton to live a long and healthy life.
Southampton Healthy Living has the full support of Southampton City Council. Councillor Dave Shields, Cabinet Member for Health and Sustainable Living, said:
“We face many challenges in the city in the battle against long term conditions like diabetes, respiratory illness and heart disease. It’s really important that prevention becomes everyone’s business and is not seen as the sole responsibility of any one particular agency. We all have an important part to play as active citizens, good neighbours, caring parents or responsible employers and I want to make sure that the city council, the local NHS and the city’s voluntary sector continue to work together with wider civic society to promote a healthy city.”
As lead partner for Southampton Healthy Living, Ruth Marriott, CEO for Social Care in Action (SCA) Group said:
“SCA are extremely excited about this new partnership to develop Southampton Healthy Living.
“Working with both health specialists and local voluntary, community and social enterprises will enable us to ensure that skills are shared with people in their communities.
“It will ensure a group of local people will have skills that they can share and support people on the ground in a way that helps individuals, families and communities feel that they can improve their health, have fun, and make lasting improvements that will benefit them for years to come.”
Jo Ash, Chief Executive of Southampton Voluntary Services said:
“As a partner in Southampton Healthy Living we are delighted to be delivering community development work and a small grants programme.
“We will be working with local grassroots voluntary organisations to actively engage with individuals and volunteers in the communities of Southampton, and support them to help healthy lifestyles become the norm.”
Lesley Munro, Solent NHS Trust’s Chief Operating Officer, said:
“As our health and social care needs evolve, it is important that as service providers we keep up with the changes. Putting in place services that empower people to take even more control and ownership of their health and social needs is the way forward. We are, therefore, delighted to partner SCA and SVS to deliver this behaviour change service across Southampton.
This partnership will provide innovative models of behaviour change. This is an exciting opportunity to strengthen our relationship with our local community in conjunction with the voluntary sector and make a huge difference to the people of Southampton.”
After the launch of Southampton Healthy Living on 3 April we will be attending the ABP Marathon and 10K event on 23 April 2017in Southampton. We will be acting as mile makers and have a stand in the race village for Southampton residents to find out more about the new Southampton Healthy Living team and ways we can support people to make changes to live healthier lives.