Public Health England adult health campaign

Public Health England (PHE) is launching a new adult health behaviour change programme on March 7 to help adults live longer, healthier and happier lives. PHE is calling on pharmacy to support this campaign. The campaign will focus on 7 key lifestyle behaviours:

• check yourself
• be smoke free
• eat well
• move more
• drink less
• stress less and sleep better
• support people to make simple changes

Many adults can expect to live into their mid-80s. Far too many people believe that a gradual deterioration in physical and mental health is an inevitable part of aging, but so much of how we age is down to the lifestyles we adopt. As the NHS Five Year Forward View made very clear, the nation has to get serious about prevention without which recent improvements in life expectancies will go backwards and health inequalities will widen.

The PHE campaign launches on March 7 on TV, in their communities, through social media and other channels. It will provide a great platform for pharmacy teams to initiate conversations with customers and patients about lifestyle behaviours and encourage them to do something about their health before it is too late.

A toolkit has been developed for community pharmacies to support the promote key health and wellbeing messages. This includes conversation starters, window decals, a poster a counter card and shelf barkers. You can place an order for a toolkit by calling 0300 123 1019, the order line will be open 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday until May 8 or until stocks run out.

This is a perfect opportunity for pharmacy teams, particularly Healthy Living Pharmacies and Health Champions, to demonstrate the value they add to the health and wellbeing of their communities by embracing the campaign and developing your own local activity plan utilising the PHE toolkit.

On a related matter, BMJ Open have published a systematic review of public health interventions undertaken by community pharmacies. The report concluded that commissioners should consider community pharmacy as an appropriate setting for the delivery of a number of public health intervention services.