Could your organisation benefit from Gateway Health Trainers’ expertise?
The Health Trainers service can now be tailored to the needs of a specific group or organisation, and commissioned directly. As well as traditional one-to-one support, Health Trainers now design and lead flexible wellbeing programmes for groups in a range of settings. If you are looking for creative ways to motivate your workforce or client base, a Health Trainer could be just the ticket.
Health Trainer Richard (top row, 3rd from left) with interpreters and clients at the Signing Tree, where we have been working with BID Services to run a signed Health Trainer group.
After all, Health Trainers aren’t just about physical exercise and healthy eating; they offer preventative health advice and encouragement that changes people’s lives.
As well as weight management advice, Health Trainers help people to learn how to budget and how to cook. They help people who smoke, or are at risk of diabetes or high blood pressure, to reduce their risk in the long term. They help people to become more confident and more socially active, as well as offering practical help with things like housing, benefits, and finances.
Over 40% of the people we worked with last year have both physical and mental health needs. We understand healthy living goes hand in hand with good mental health, so our Health Trainers know what to do and who to involve to reach that balance.
We also know there are strong links between good health and wellbeing, and employment. Over the last decade we’ve supported many people back into work by helping them to reduce their anxiety and build their resilience. For those already in work, support from a Health Trainer can help to build confidence, lower sickness rates and raise morale.
Could this kind of support help your organisation too?
Over the last year, Gateway Health Trainers have worked not just alongside GPs in their surgeries, but with an increasing number of local organisations including Jobcentres, Cerebral Palsy Midlands, the Signing Tree and Better Pathways. Health Trainers’ tried and tested methods can be tailored to add value to all kinds of other services. Give us a ring on 0121 456 7820 to find out more.
Case Study: Better Pathways
Better Pathways (formerly BITA Pathways) is a mental health charity in Birmingham which specialises in offering training and work opportunities for adults with mental health problems. Gateway Health Trainer Wayne (pictured) got in touch with Michael Summers, a Recovery and Employment Adviser, to create a six-week Health Trainer package for service users at Better Pathways, supplementing the great work they already do around mental health recovery and employability.
Health Trainer Wayne pictured at the Gateway Family Health and Wellbeing Day
The first thing Wayne did with the ten people who were referred into the sessions was to get everyone to start a food diary.
“It’s one of the easiest things you can do to kick-start a healthy lifestyle change, and yet it’s one of the most eye-opening,” explained Wayne. “It helps us to start to see patterns, and from there you can start making really simple changes.”
Mohammed’s diary showed that he rarely ate fresh food, but ate microwave meals twice a day. Together, he and Wayne looked at the food labels of some of his regular meals and Wayne pointed out the high levels of salt he was consuming. Mohammed started replacing some of the ready-meals with fresh fruit and veg, and managed to cut his intake to just two microwave meals a week. It’s a simple change, but it’s likely to drastically reduce his risk of having a stroke or a heart attack.
Dale was eating a lot of snacks throughout the day – and his food diary helped him to notice just how many! Thanks to the food diary and the weekly sessions with Wayne, he found it a lot easier than he thought he would to stop buying them, and put temptation out of his way. Not only is he losing weight as a result, but he’s saving so much money, he’s decided to save up for a bike!
As well as healthy eating advice, which included some fun, hands-on cookery sessions, Wayne offered one-to-one advice for everyone who came on the course. He also helped Better Pathways to set up a walking group for service users, which now meets every Friday for a sociable half-hour walk round the park – another simple lifestyle change that impacts mental wellbeing as well as physical health.
The positive social element of the Health Trainer support was a nice surprise for many of the participants – who started arriving earlier and earlier each week just to have a natter and a cup of tea, and continue to walk together regularly. But the biggest change was weight loss, with all ten clients losing weight as a direct result of the course. As a group, they lost a total of 5 stone 3 pounds (33kg)!
Michael, a Recovery and Employment Adviser at Better Pathways, says, “we believe that healthy living goes hand in hand with healthy mental health, so having the service with us was a huge benefit to our clients. All of them reported benefits such as weight loss, healthy eating, and knowing how to cook.”
You can hear more from Michael in the video below.
Wayne says, “it’s been really rewarding to see people make such big changes in just six weeks. I’m really proud of everyone I’ve worked with at Better Pathways. Not only have people lost weight – and they’ve lost a lot of weight! – they’ve gained confidence and made new friends. It just shows, no matter where you are in life and what your abilities are, a lot can happen if you have the right support.”
If you would like to talk about working with Gateway to deliver a Health Trainer service at your organisation or workplace, please contact Jemma Abbott on 0121 456 7820.
A note – and a message for GPs
Our funding from Birmingham Public Health comes to an end in September, when the Health Trainers service will be decommissioned. We’re continuing to support everyone who’s already been referred into the service, but after the end of September we will no longer be running the service in the same way.
Some of Gateway’s Health Trainers, past and present
The numbers show that Health Trainers has been a popular and successful service. By the time the funding ends, we will have worked with more than 18,000 South Birmingham residents, 85% of whom were referred by their GP or another member of practice staff. Health Trainers have assisted people to achieve or part-achieve the goals they set themselves in 84% of cases.
We’d like to express our gratitude to GPs for the way they’ve worked with us and supported our Health Trainers over the years. Many GPs hosted a Health Trainer in their surgeries and our Health Trainers tell us they really appreciate the way the GP Practices made them feel part of the team. Thank you for making them feel so welcome and valued.
We’re very keen to continue providing Health Trainer support to surgeries, as well as to other agencies and organisations, which is why we’ve come up with a cost-effective, flexible package for GPs. If you’re a GP or Practice Manager, please contact us to find out more about how we can continue our partnership.
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