A Healthier Wales, the Welsh Government’s plan for health and social care, highlighted the need for a shift towards greater prevention and early intervention, to improve people’s health and wellbeing, and support the sustainability of our health and care system.
There are many opportunities to initiate behaviour change conversations, and empower people to make healthier choices, through the high number of contacts between individuals and primary care services.
The Primary Care Hub in Public Health Wales is producing a series of resources, designed to equip the primary and community care workforce to have conversations with individuals about adopting healthy behaviours. The first two resources in this series have been tailored to staff working in (1) general practice and (2) optometry, with versions bespoke to community pharmacy and dental settings in development.
The resources discuss key health behaviours, in relation to smoking, alcohol, healthy weight, physical activity, and preventing type 2 diabetes, and specifically include:
Whilst these resources have been tailored for use in specific contracted services, the majority of the information has relevance to the breadth of staff in health and care settings.