Better lives

How we live can have a big impact on how we feel.

Our homes, education, employment, the environment and the host of lifestyle choices we make all contribute to our overall health, be it good or bad.

Our partnership in mid and south Essex is committed to doing all it can to prevent illness.

We want to work together to take action on some of the wider reasons why certain groups are more likely to suffer poor health, such as where or how they live.

By bringing together the range of data and information our separate organisations have about our neighbourhoods, we can begin understand what helps or stops us taking charge of our own health.

We can look at what the solutions might be, and crucially support our communities to take actions to prevent problems rather than treat them when it’s too late.

This is completely different to the usual starting point for how we plan health and care services.

Through this work we want to support everyone to be healthier, more able to cope with difficulties they face and to feel more in control.

We want to help people make the most of local opportunities for support and encourage them to change their lifestyles so we can stop the rise in long term conditions.

To do this we must continue to move away from the complicated and often dis-jointed ways we have done things in the past to make a real difference to people’s lives.

This visual explains how we want to work together to change this: Population Health Visual Guide

There are many individual examples of work in mid and south Essex that are delivering health improvement benefits. The question is whether we are making the right support available where it is most needed. Through a more systematic approach on a bigger scale, we know that we can make a far greater impact.

Our Partnership wants to provide a way for organisations to pool their resources and work together to develop the following main areas:

• Information gathering and analysis. This could include, for example, information about people with high blood pressure, weight problems, smoking, hospital episodes, drug and alcohol treatments, children being absent from school, educational attainments and more.
• Ways to share and use the information safely and confidentially, whether in one particular area or across the whole of our Partnership.
• Coordinated efforts to tackle the problems we identify, whether this needs action from one or several public services together, such as health, housing, education and social care.

We will continue to work together to develop three main levels of health improvement:

For healthy people

• Regular exercise and a healthy diet – its down to you, but there are ways in which we can help
• Timely access to information, advice and support from your local community groups, GP surgery or health centre – person to person, if necessary, or through new website and smartphone apps
• Education and support for young people at school, parents and families in need and older people who may be isolated

For people with health risks or a long term condition

• Problems identified through proactive checks and tests
• Early diagnosis
• Help to manage your condition from a range of health and care professionals, not just your GP

For people with several long term conditions

• Understanding you as a person with several needs, whether physical, mental or social
• Problems identified with a single assessment
• Different health and care professionals working as one team to keep you well and independent for as long as possible and to take quick action to avoid serious problems.

Example in practice: Thurrock

Thurrock Council and Thurrock CCG gather a range of information from their GP practices to identify who may be at risk of stroke – people with high blood pressure, for example, or people who sometimes experience abnormal pulse rates. The public health team in Thurrock can also look at where the number of patients receiving treatments for these problems is lower than expected for the local area. The CCG can then work with the GP practices to ensure those patients with risk factors are called in for tests, so that those with undiagnosed problems are identified and supported with ongoing treatment.

The public health team estimates that for every 1% the high blood pressure register nears completion, 65 strokes could be prevented every three years .

This work is part of a wider health and social care plan to increase and improve primary care and healthy lifestyle services across Thurrock. The Council and CCG are investing in four new integrated care centres to bring together GPs, nurses, social care professionals, therapists and voluntary sector services.

Click here for more information.

Our Partnership has a Population Health Management and Prevention Working Group to set out the plan for the next five years.