A long life, easy on the fags – and a good death
Jan 31 2008 by Audrey Barton, The Journal
A BOLD £5m plan to transform the health of our region and make it the best in the country by tackling binge drinking and obesity is being launched tomorrow.
The area’s first ever health and well-being strategy aims to make people living here the healthiest in the country within 25 years.
The ambitious plan is the brainchild of the region’s director of public health Dr Stephen Singleton, and was revealed in The Journal in October.
It aims to tackle 10 key areas including smoking, diet and exercise, mental health and dying with dignity.
Nick Brown, the Minister for the North-East, will unveil the new vision entitled Better Health, Fairer Health to an invited audience in Newcastle tomorrow.
He said: “The health of people living in the North-East has been too poor for too long.
“We are consistently top of the health league for all the wrong reasons, partly as a legacy of heavy industry and partly because of our lifestyles.
“It is to the credit of Dr Singleton and his colleagues that they have taken an unrelentingly optimistic approach to what can be achieved – and I look forward to the day when the North-East is the healthiest region in the country.”
The strategy is being led by Dr Singleton and has been developed following a three-month consultation. He said: “We received responses from all quarters about whether we should have an ambitious strategy and they were overwhelmingly positive.
“We are still at an early stage and this is a first edition. It is by no means an end product.”
Specific plans in the strategy include setting up a regional office for the safe consumption of alcohol based on the successful anti-smoking campaign Fresh – Smoke Free North East.
The strategy also calls for people to have a “good death”, which is defined as one being free of pain, with family and friends nearby, dignified and in a place of one’s choosing.
As part of this there will be an agreement between health and social care providers specifying the level of public-sector funding that should be regarded as appropriate in support of terminal care services.
Regional advisory groups will be created from across the public, private, voluntary and community sectors to take work forward in all 10 areas.
And they will be supported by the establishment of the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health which was announced last week.
The £5m development is one of five nationally and the only one based on a substantial regional collaboration.
A regional infrastructure for social marketing in health and health services is being established and this will also support the work that needs to be done.
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Top 10 to tackle
THE 10 key themes identified for the 25-year plan are:
Economy, culture and environment
Mental health, happiness and well-being
Tobacco
Obesity, diet and physical activity
Alcohol
Prevention, fair and early treatment
Early life
Mature and working life
Later life
A good death.
