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Background
Many things shape the health of people and communities. As well as not smoking, eating a healthy diet and taking regular exercise, decent housing and having a job also make a difference. We agree with the World Health Organisation's definition of health as 'a complete state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'. This makes it equally important to protect health, prevent ill health and promote good health.
Our strength lies in being able to tackle some of the wider issues affecting health. We will take action (with others) to help healthy communities to flourish and will make sure that our services progressively help to improve people's health. We intend to narrow the gap between those who enjoy good health and wellbeing and those who do not. We will do this by focusing on specific groups and improving the circumstances of our communities.
We have taken account of some of the important national and local strategies (such as 'A Joint Future' and 'For Scotland's Children') to make sure we provide effective support and care services. The 2001 Census showed that just over 10% of residents provide some kind of unpaid care to family members, friends, neighbours or others. With our partners we are committed to making sure that support and care services are best suited to service users and their carers. This is in line with the residents' survey which identified care services as one of our most important duties.
The 2001 Census also showed that nearly 25% of our residents have a long-term illness which limits their activities or the work they can do, and 13% of our residents considered their health to be 'not good' during the 12 months up to the census. By 2008 we aim to have made significant improvements in the health, wellbeing and care of the people of North Lanarkshire. To do this we have taken a broad view of the factors affecting health - those that can make us ill and those that keep us well. We will attack the causes of ill health by working with people and communities to provide more integrated services.
Our aims are as follows.
- To promote healthier lifestyles
- To provide services aimed at improving health
- To increase support services for people in their own homes
- To improve support and care services
- To promote a safer workplace and a healthier workforce
Our intended outcomes are as follows.
- For residents to have more opportunities to make choices that make their lifestyles healthier.
- For our services to progressively improve people's health.
- For more people who need support to be living in their own homes.
- For people who need support and care services to receive appropriate care packages and have access to services.
- For us to have better co-ordinated programmes to promote health, wellbeing and safety at work.
Aim 1 – To promote healthier lifestyles
Actions we will take
- Contribute to the Alcohol and Drug Action Team's strategy to reduce alcohol-related health problems, increase the access people affected by alcohol abuse have to services and support, and develop a communication strategy by March 2005.
- Increase people's awareness of food and nutrition and improve access to high-quality low-cost foods. Expand the health promotion role of 'food co-ops' where food and groceries are bought from a wholesaler and sold on at competitive prices, work with the Federation of Food Co-ops between 2004 and 2006 and with three co-ops each year after that, and support community food initiatives aimed at improving people's diets by providing two health improvement training projects each year.
- Reduce the number of smokers by promoting services to help council staff stop smoking, and introduce a smoking policy which we all keep to by 2008.
- Increase awareness of the benefits of exercise, by 2008, increase by 5% the number of vulnerable people using leisure services, support 5% of employers to promote exercise among their workforce by March 2005 and, in early 2004, bid for one of Sportscotland's regional sports centres and for their headquarters to be located at Ravenscraig.
- Make sure all schools and nurseries gain 'health promoting school' status by 2007.
- Develop a further 20 outdoor play areas in our and our partners' nurseries to promote physical activity and learning.
Aim 2 – To provide services aimed at improving health
Actions we will take
- Achieve consistent nutrition standards across all our food services, update our Diet and Nutrition Policy by March 2005, increase day-care and residential-care staff's knowledge of nutrition by March 2005, and by March 2007, introduce the recommendations in 'Hungry for Success', the Scottish Executive's plan to improve school meals.
- Improve mental-health services and increase people's understanding of the issues affecting mental wellbeing, by April 2005, take the actions needed under the Mental Health Care and Treatment Act 2003, introduce a local
- suicide-prevention service in 2004, and introduce a mental wellbeing action plan by April 2005.
- Increase the number of people using council sport and leisure services and facilities by 2.5% each year so exercise becomes a part of everyday life.
- Increase people's understanding of the effect our services have on wider health issues, increase community action and involvement in improving health, develop a 'Health improvement capacity building' plan to tackle health problems by April 2005, develop ways of assessing the effect major policies have on health (starting from April 2005) and deliver 'Health issues in the community' training by March 2006.
Aim 3 – To increase support services for people in their own homes
Actions we will take
- Increase the number of high support packages we provide so that they are delivered to at least 40 more older people each year, and make sure that each year, 20 adults with learning disabilities receive 'supported living' services to help them live in their own homes.
- Make sure carers have better access to information and support services, and introduce a process for assessing carers in 2004.
- Provide more effective and streamlined access to services, by 2008, introduce the 'single shared assessment' so people are assessed only once for public services, improve our health and social-care services, manage our resources for people with disabilities, invest £1.7 million a year to provide community equipment and minor adaptations, and invest £1.75 million a year for major adaptations.
Aim 4 – To improve support and care services
Actions we will take
- Improve users and carers involvement in planning, developing and assessing our services.
- Increase users' and carers' choice and control over how we provide services, make sure an extra 20 people a year control their own care, provide shopping services for 300 older people in 2004, 500 in 2005 and an extra 100 each year to 2008, and develop a service to do practical jobs for 500 older people in 2004, increasing to 700 by 2006.
- With partners, manage and support services to introduce 'A Joint Future', the Scottish Executive's plan for public services to work together.
Aim 5 – To promote a safer workplace and a healthier workforce
Actions we will take
- Promote health-improvement measures in private-sector workplaces and improve existing programmes for health, wellbeing and safety (from April 2004).
- Promote a healthy workplace for our staff, receive the Scottish Health at Work bronze award during 2004 and a silver award by 2005, and introduce measures to reduce the amount of sickness leave each year.
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