Public Health Report Herefordshire
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The people of Herefordshire chose ‘Public Health’ as a topic for Healthwatch Herefordshire to explore in 2017/18. To this end, they developed a survey focused on what people did to stay healthy (physically and mentally), where people go to for information and support on staying healthy, and awareness of Public Health Campaigns.
A survey was carried out among the general public with 55 people making comments. The survey was also conducted with 180 people from groups that have protected characteristics within the meaning of the Equalities Act 2010. In total 235 people responded to the survey.
The protected characteristic of the groups of people surveyed were: young people; people with disabilities (physical and mental health); people from ethnic backgrounds (eastern European and Gypsy/Roma). More young people took part in the group work (40%) than in the public survey (4%).
As a result of the data analysis, Healthwatch Herefordshire made a number of recommendations to Staying Healthy and about Public Health campaigns in general.
There was also a recommendation to Public Health around its place in the Sustainability and Transformation Plan which was:
"Healthwatch works across the whole health and social care system and we have been involved with the aspirations of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP). Much of STP (Sustainable Transformation Plan) is reliant on the public taking more responsibility for their overall health through increased self-care.
There is a need for the public to take up this challenge to reduce pressures on the NHS. More work needs to be done to encourage the public to take more responsibility for self-care – only 14% of those who took part in our surveys were aware of the One You campaign (this campaign encourages people to look at everyday habits and behaviours such and drinking to help adults avoid future disease caused by modern lifestyles).
Those we surveyed were reliant on the NHS for information and support for heath; GP’s were the most used source of information about healthy living amongst those we surveyed."