Ask your Pharmacist Week

This week is “Ask your Pharmacist Week” whereby the National Pharmacy Association aims to promote the health services provided by community pharmacists, which may not be familiar to everybody.

People generally use pharmacies to collect prescriptions and pills,  seldom realising the wider role that pharmacies can play in their local communities.  Pharmacies offer more than just a place to pick up prescriptions, the pharmacist can advise, support and offer guidance on a number of common health problems and minor ailments.  These range from obesity, diabetes, sexual health, skin conditions, coronary heart disease and airway conditions.

Pharmacists are also able to provide help on dieting and exercise, as well as alcohol consumption and stopping smoking.  

“Pharmacies are there to help you stay well, not just to treat you when you are sick”

Healthy Living Pharmacies

Some pharmacies are known as Health Living Pharmacies, because they have a healthy living champion who, as well as delivering services themselves and advising people on health issues,  also keeps up to date with health services and are able to signpost people to receive further help.

For further information on the services that Pharmacies provide, please click on the Ask Your Pharmacy website. 

The RSPH supports the work carried out in pharmacies and sees their role as integral to helping to reduce health inequalities and ensuring that everyone can access health services as well as getting the right advice.

RSPH Training Solutions currently offer the Level Two Award in Understanding Health Improvement to health trainers and champions and continue to develop tailored programmes for people working in pharmacies.. 

For more information on this please contact Gina Mohajer gmohajer@rsph.org.uk or 0207 265 7327.

  

Positive Pharmacy

-       There are currently 12,000 pharmacies across the UK, therefore for the majority of us, they are easy to access and tend to be close by.

-       To visit a pharmacy you do not need to make an appointment.

-       There is always a fully qualified healthcare professional and support team who can answer queries and offer knowledgeable advice.

-       Most pharmacies have a consultation room, whereby you can talk with your pharmacist without being overheard.

-       Health checks and vaccinations can also take place in the consultation room

Sport for Health: Bringing sport into people’s lives

The Royal Society for Public Health and the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Fund have launched a new two day course for sports leaders who would like to extend their experience and improve the health of their community.  The courses have been designed specifically for people who work or volunteer in sport.  

Sport for Health equips people with the skills to increase the level of physical activity of those who do not normally take part in sport and physical activity.

Participants will learn how an active lifestyle promotes good health and why behaviour change is so difficult for some people. They will also gain the practical skills to help people overcome these barriers and take part in physical activity.

Londoners may be eligible for up to 75% off the cost of the training in exchange for volunteer hours thanks to the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Fund, which is managed by the National Skills Academy for Sport and Active Leisure. This £3 million fund provides subsidised training to increase the number of Londoners working and volunteering in the sports sector, and up-skill those already involved, leading up to the 2012 Games.

Professor Richard Parish, Chief Executive of RSPH, comments “Sports leaders will gain a clear understanding of the key factors affecting health and well being, and the ability to communicate the benefits of sport and physical activity to others. They will have a better understanding of why many people are unwilling to get involved, and come away with practical ways to encourage a change in behaviour.”

National Skills Academy for Sport and Active Leisure CEO Florence Orban says: “A key goal of the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Fund is to remove barriers and engage Londoners who haven’t traditionally been involved in sport and active leisure, and the Sport for Health course clearly delivers on this. We are pleased to support this programme and encourage all eligible Londoners to apply for funding and help create a sporting legacy for 2012.”

The full price for each one day course is just £200 per participant and includes lunch, refreshments and full course materials.  The Mayor’s Sports Legacy fund will consider applications from people who commit to volunteering their skills with London communities.

To find out more about this course, available funding and other programmes offered by RSPH, please click here, call Nicolette Boustaoui on 020 3177 1625 or email sportforhealth@rsph.org.uk.   

The Need to Improve the Health of Prisoners

There are currently around 10 million people incarcerated worldwide and over the past decade this number has increased by a million.  Research indicates that mental disorders, infectious diseases, higher suicide rates and increased mortality are more prevalent in prisons than in the general population.  Prisoners are often from the poorest sectors of society and as a result already suffer from greater health inequalities.

A review published today in The Lancet examining "The Health of Prisoners" reports that there is insufficient health care in prisons.  The evidence suggests that more needs to be done to help improve the health of millions of young, marginalised individuals, who are often beyond the reach of community health services.     

It is argued that reforming the medical service within prisons could improve public health, because as prisoners are released and return to their communities, they will be in a better sate, both mentally and physically, to contribute to society.   Seena Fazel from the University of Oxford, UK, and Jacques Baillargeon from the University of Texas Medical Branch, USA, argue that the importance of prison health care to public health needs to be recognised: "Prisoners act as reservoirs of infection and chronic disease, increasing the public health burden of poor communities."
They add: "For these individuals, prison provides an opportunity for diagnosis, disease management education, counselling, and treatment that they would not receive in the general community."

The authors of the review propose that there should be a universal screening of prisoners for physical and mental illness by trained individuals along with community-based aftercare for released prisoners.  Additionally, they call for national prison-specific policies and guidelines incorporating minimum standards and goals for improvement in the health care of women, older adult prisoners, and juveniles.

RSPH - Supporting Offenders on a Pathway to Health

At present, the RSPH is working with the National Offender Management service as part of the South East Innovation Project - Health and Physical Education.  The project focuses on improving the health and well-being of offenders, through the expansion of the Health Trainer model within the prison and community settings.  The RSPH also offers the Level 2 Award in Understanding Health Improvement course, which can be undertaken in communities, local authorities and prisons. 

Our recent sucess stories include the Sheppey cluster of prisons, initiated by Gary Lyttle and Brian Greig.  These events have been commissioned by the Sheppy Cluster of prisons to support the further roll out to other offender units and interested organisations locally.  The project was also undertaken by theYorkshire and Humberside cluster of prisons, led by Geof Dart.  A recent end of year report published by Yorkshire and Humber Improvement Partnership, Offender, Health and Social Care: Health Trainers in the Criminal Justice System, highlights the many benefits of training and empowering prisoners about health 

In addition, NHS Devon's health promotion team in partnership with Age Concern (now Age UK) created the Age Concern Older Offenders' Project, with the aim of improving the health of older offenders within Devon prisons.  NHS Devon's story can be viewed in the October archive of the blog.


To view a copy of the Yorkshire and Humberside report please contact Gina Mohajer email: gmohajer@rsph.org.uk.
For more information on the RSPH Level 2 Award in Understanding Health Improvement please contact Nicolette Smith email: nsmith@rsph.org.uk.