The Health Trainer Service is a product of the 2004 White Paper Choosing Health; Making Healthier choices easier. This document draws from a wide range of scientific evidence that people are more likely to make and sustain healthy life style changes when they are provided with one to one support.
Over the years, the Health Trainer service has grown across England with about 80% of Primary Care Trusts in the country having some form of a Health Trainer Service in operation. There are currently 2,011 Health Trainers in the country and they have seen more than 250,000 people supporting them to stop smoking, eat healthier, increase physical activity, reduce alcohol and manage their weight better. With an average success rate of 75%, this is a great service in the community especially as it targets the hard to reach and people who are socially disadvantaged. The aim of the Health Trainer service is to support lifestyle change and reduces health inequalities among hard to reach groups.
Recent pronouncements of the Coalition government, makes it clear that the NHS will undergo radical changes. Though there are still uncertainties in what shape some of these changes will take, it is clear that the new focus of government is to empower individuals and communities to take a more active role in shaping their own health, and a focus on preventative side of health rather than treatment.
This in itself means that the Health Trainer Service is perfectly suited to carry forward the vision of government, however, in an era of cuts, there is the possibility that Health Trainer Services up and down the country could be a victim of circumstance, taking cuts against more traditional services.
In the same light, the support structure for Health Trainers in the country are loosing their funding. Each Health Trainer service is part of a regional hub. Most of the funding for the Hubs will end by September 2011. The last of them will survive only till March 2012.
All these factors put together means that the picture is not too bright for the Health Trainers. It means that all those years of hard work, all those training and learning, all those community contacts and projects that have been set up could be lost, if there is no concerted plan to coordinate the activities of Health trainers at a national level. Health Trainers need to have a voice, a platform for interaction and how to learn about best practices, standards need to be set across the country and health trainers and their clients need to get the recognition that they deserve for the great work they have done.
One way to overcome these challenges is to set up a National Association of Health Trainers, this will be an independent organization made up of health trainers, membership will also be open to health champions other people who support health trainer services through training and service delivery. This association will be the voice for Health Trainers across the country, it will ensure that Health Trainers have a place in the future of the NHS, it will ensure that service standard are maintained and it will ensure that best practice are shared and improved upon. This organization will be a platform for recognizing and highlighting achievements of individual health trainers and services, it also means that for the first time the over 2, 000 health trainers and more than 12,000 health champions can express their collective views about the way our NHS is changing and offer what we can to improve it for the good of all.
To have this organization set up raises a number of questions and barriers, but as Health Trainers, we are used to overcoming barriers to make a healthy change. If you support the establishment of the National Association of Health Trainers in England, show your support by emailing ukonu.obasi@nhs.net Join the NHS Health Trainer group on Facebook or join at NHS Networks www.networks.nhs.uk and show your support. We would like as many people to let us know what you think.
About the writer:
Ukonu Obasi is Senior Health Trainer for NHS Berkshire West Health Trainer Service. A passionate public health professional, he has been part of a number of regional and national consultation on public health and health trainer services across the country. He is the group administrator for the NHS Health Trainer Facebook Group and the online Health Trainer Network. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health.
Over the years, the Health Trainer service has grown across England with about 80% of Primary Care Trusts in the country having some form of a Health Trainer Service in operation. There are currently 2,011 Health Trainers in the country and they have seen more than 250,000 people supporting them to stop smoking, eat healthier, increase physical activity, reduce alcohol and manage their weight better. With an average success rate of 75%, this is a great service in the community especially as it targets the hard to reach and people who are socially disadvantaged. The aim of the Health Trainer service is to support lifestyle change and reduces health inequalities among hard to reach groups.
Recent pronouncements of the Coalition government, makes it clear that the NHS will undergo radical changes. Though there are still uncertainties in what shape some of these changes will take, it is clear that the new focus of government is to empower individuals and communities to take a more active role in shaping their own health, and a focus on preventative side of health rather than treatment.
This in itself means that the Health Trainer Service is perfectly suited to carry forward the vision of government, however, in an era of cuts, there is the possibility that Health Trainer Services up and down the country could be a victim of circumstance, taking cuts against more traditional services.
In the same light, the support structure for Health Trainers in the country are loosing their funding. Each Health Trainer service is part of a regional hub. Most of the funding for the Hubs will end by September 2011. The last of them will survive only till March 2012.
All these factors put together means that the picture is not too bright for the Health Trainers. It means that all those years of hard work, all those training and learning, all those community contacts and projects that have been set up could be lost, if there is no concerted plan to coordinate the activities of Health trainers at a national level. Health Trainers need to have a voice, a platform for interaction and how to learn about best practices, standards need to be set across the country and health trainers and their clients need to get the recognition that they deserve for the great work they have done.
One way to overcome these challenges is to set up a National Association of Health Trainers, this will be an independent organization made up of health trainers, membership will also be open to health champions other people who support health trainer services through training and service delivery. This association will be the voice for Health Trainers across the country, it will ensure that Health Trainers have a place in the future of the NHS, it will ensure that service standard are maintained and it will ensure that best practice are shared and improved upon. This organization will be a platform for recognizing and highlighting achievements of individual health trainers and services, it also means that for the first time the over 2, 000 health trainers and more than 12,000 health champions can express their collective views about the way our NHS is changing and offer what we can to improve it for the good of all.
To have this organization set up raises a number of questions and barriers, but as Health Trainers, we are used to overcoming barriers to make a healthy change. If you support the establishment of the National Association of Health Trainers in England, show your support by emailing ukonu.obasi@nhs.net Join the NHS Health Trainer group on Facebook or join at NHS Networks www.networks.nhs.uk and show your support. We would like as many people to let us know what you think.
About the writer:
Ukonu Obasi is Senior Health Trainer for NHS Berkshire West Health Trainer Service. A passionate public health professional, he has been part of a number of regional and national consultation on public health and health trainer services across the country. He is the group administrator for the NHS Health Trainer Facebook Group and the online Health Trainer Network. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health.
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