Feel good factor for local health campaign

Local public sector communicators have been short-listed for a national Best Campaign Award for their work on promoting healthy lifestyles.

The work is that of the Heywood, Middleton amp; Rochdale PCT working in partnership with Link4Life, the Borough’s new Cultural Trust and Rochdale Council. The campaign - called ‘Do you feel good?’ – is designed to help promote four key health messages: keep active, eat healthy, live smoke free and maintain a healthy weight.

Selected from over a hundred entries, the ‘Do you feel good?’ campaign has been chosen because of the high standards of communication shown and will be judged by a panel of professionals from industry, business, education, the public sector and central government as part of the Communicating Health Awards 2007 organised by the Association of Healthcare Communicators. 

Dr Michelle Loughlin, strategy lead officer, speaking about the nomination said: “Heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and respiratory disease are key causes of premature death in our Borough and this is largely caused by smoking, poor diet and a lack of physical activity. ‘Do You Feel Good?’ focuses on preventing ill health and reducing health inequalities. It is based upon evidence that even small changes to lifestyle produce real improvements to health.” 

Key aims of the ‘Do you feel good?’ campaign are to raise awareness about healthy lifestyles and to target individuals and groups with the greatest health needs. This is done by working in a variety of settings, including workplaces, schools and communities as well as through the healthcare system. A key part of the delivery of this is through the recruitment of local people to become Health Trainers – to work within communities to help people to develop personal health plans and to give practical advice that overcomes personal barriers to change. 

Link4Life Marketing Manager, Barbara Lloyd explained how this has been put into practice. “The design work of the Feel Good brand provides all the partners in the healthy lifestyles strategy with a single theme that can help deliver the key health messages and tailor them to individual needs. Time has also been spent in developing effective channels of communication to ensure target audiences are reached. This has been done by asking people what works and what doesn’t when it comes to printed literature and also by mapping routes into particular communities. The work was funded through a grant from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.”

More information about healthy lifestyles in the Borough of Rochdale is available at:

• www.hmrpct.nhs.uk/yourhealth/doyoufeelgood