How about a chance to have your say on plans to improve our wellbeing in the next few years?
The Director of Public Health for Torbay’s draft Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy has just been published – and you can go online to say what you think about it.
The strategy describes what efforts there will be from 2018-2022 to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities.
The aim is for the people of Torbay to have an unrivalled quality of life in one of the UK’s most beautiful destinations, ‘a place where connectivity, culture and ambition are growing fast, creating opportunities for everyone who lives, works and enjoys being here.’
The Strategy, put together by the Health and Wellbeing Board, partners in the health and wellbeing community – including Healthwatch Torbay – who work across the public and voluntary sectors, aims to address ‘what’s important to people in their lives and what helps us all to enjoy life more, at home, at work or in our communities.’
‘We have a national and international reputation for our integrated working across health and social care,’ the Board tells us, ‘but we know we need to go further to meet our ambition. We need to put greater effort into tackling the inequalities we have across Torbay and into addressing the wellbeing of those who are particularly vulnerable.’
Like many coastal areas, they add, Torbay has its challenges, including high levels of deprivation, with not enough opportunities for our young people, while our ageing population means that an ever higher proportion of diminishing public resources is spent on care.
That said, their aim is to build on our strengths – for example a strong entrepreneurial culture and our established fishing, tourism and hospitality sectors – to deliver economic growth, tackle inequality and create change that benefits all of us.
The draft strategy highlights seven priorities:
- · Working together to promote good health and wellbeing and prevent illness
- · Enabling children to have the best start in life and address the inequalities in their outcomes
- · Building emotional resilience in children and young people
- · Creating places where people can live healthy and happy lives
- · Supporting those who are vulnerable and addressing the factors that result in vulnerability
- · Enabling people to age well
- · Promoting good mental health
If you want to find out more and, still more importantly, if you’d like to have your say on the draft, you can visit:
http://www.torbay.gov.uk/council/consultations/health-and-wellbeing-strategy/
Bob Jope Healthwatch Torbay
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