About Us
‘Do you feel good?’ is the Rochdale Borough’s healthy lifestyles strategy which focuses on helping local people to lose weight, eat a healthy diet, stop smoking and get more active.
Formed in 2006, it is partnership between NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale, Rochdale Borough Council, Link4Life, Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Community Healthcare and the community and voluntary sector.
The strategy was formed because many people living in the borough have considerably poorer health compared to the rest of the UK. This is because there are areas where a high number of people live in deprivation, are unemployed and lead unhealthy lives. By working together, ‘Do you feel good?’ aims to provide a range of services and support to local people so that they can enjoy a longer and healthier life.
Key Objectives
Using our bank of knowledge and public health data, we set the following objectives for the strategy, over four years.
- Inspire people and support them to make healthy lifestyles changes
- Target support to key groups to help them overcome their barriers
- Take a 'settings' approach - taking services to where people live, work, learn, play and socialise.
- Normalising tobacco-free places, providing quality stop smoking support
- Promoting choice and availability of healthy foods
- Promoting physical activity for all and providing access to leisure services
- Providing access to weight management services
Taking a ‘settings’ approach
We take a settings approach to reach the public, this includes:
- Children and young people - work is delivered through antenatal services, midwives, children's centres, health visitors, schools and the youth service.
- Neighbourhoods and communities - mainly our health trainers, placed within host organisations in the community such as Council for Voluntary Services (CVS), Heywood New Deal for Communities and the Rochdale Federation of Tenants and Residents Association.
- Healthcare settings - primary care deliver stop smoking support and can refer patients to our weight management schemes and exercise referral schemes.
- Workplaces - we have an active workforce advisor working across both the PCT and council with our staff, as well as a workplace health advisor who works with external organisations about the health of their employees
- Residential - this includes workers in care homes and at the local prison, HMP Buckley Hall
This approach helps our patients to access services in a way which fits in with their lifestyle, giving them a better chance of success.
