Last month your Wednesfield North Councillors took part in a Public Health campaign here in Wednesfield North supporting the Life Style choices professional who is based at The Hub at Ashmore Park it was a very successful campaign to raise the awareness of a ‘No Smoking Campaign and signposting the help that can be achieved here in our community.
The three City Councillors coming together in this way has seen to be ‘groundbreaking’ and the result of this partnership work with the Healthy Lifestyle professional is the following correspondence that we have received.
“Councillor Paul Sweet, Cabinet Member for Public Health & Wellbeing, and Ros Jervis, Service Director of Public Health & Wellbeing, would like to say a big thank you to Wednesfield North Councillors Mary Bateman, Rita Potter and Phil Bateman for their support on local Public Health campaigns. With the support of councillors, we can help raise the profile of Public Health programmes and services on offer to our local communities.
The Councillors have actively promoted and supported a local campaign in partnership with Wolverhampton Healthy Lifestyles Service. Councillor Phil Bateman MBE used his presence in the local community and on social media to promote a stop smoking campaign. This reached over 900 people on Facebook and Twitter, encouraging local smokers to quit for National No Smoking Day with the support of the Health Lifestyles Service. Councillors are well respected figures within their communities and have the opportunity to support and encourage local people in making better lifestyle choices. Encouraging the over 40’s to have their free NHS Health Check is one way councillors can help improve the health of their local population. Encouraging residents to take up this offer can help prevent diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, stroke and dementia.”
The correspondence went onto say that -” Councillor Sweet and Ros Jervis would also like councillors to actively support other services including local pharmacies. Healthy Living Pharmacies have been launched in Wolverhampton which aims to improve the health and wellbeing of the local populations. They promote a healthy living ethos and a proactive approach to health and health improvement. They would urge councillors to use their strong presence locally to get behind their pharmacies and promote the services they offer. ”
This again is a campaign that Wednesfield North Councillors are already involved with, it was Wednesfield North Councillors that have been campaigning for more than a year to safeguard community Pharmacies! It was this ward that placed a resolution supporting Local Pharmacies in front of The City Council, only for the Conservative opposition not to support it!
The letter from Public Health went onto urge other City Councillors to do something similar to what your Wednesfield North Councillors have lead on. It said – “Reducing health inequalities is a key priority for Public Health and with the support of councillors can reach and signpost people support to local services. They would encourage all councillors to find out what’s on offer in their local areas and show their support for Public Health, from local pharmacies to the Healthy Lifestyles Services. Councillors are ideally placed and a powerful figure that can help top motivate and empower their local community. The support from elected members behind local initiatives can help support life changing decisions for our communities.”
I thought Wednesfield North residents would be pleased to see how well our Wednesfield North initiative has gone down in our City.
