23.06.17
A hub for healthy communities
Source: NHE May/Jun 17
Mark Robinson, New NHS Alliance pharmacy lead, discusses why pharmacy is at the heart of healthy living in communities – and explains how pharmacists can play a wider role in supporting the objectives of the new Health Creation Manifesto.
The NHS Alliance has consistently said that community pharmacy is an underutilised asset within the NHS family. They are the frontline professional clinical retail element of healthcare – and the focus of self-care for the population – representing ‘health on the high street’ and within our communities.
Our view has been that the health and care system has needed to better recognise the vital part that the nation’s community pharmacists play in improving the care of patients and in helping people to stay healthy, and we have argued strongly for a greater role for pharmacy within primary care.
Our advocacy for the value of community pharmacy – and its importance as a hub for healthy communities – is now further amplified in our ‘A Health Creation Manifesto’, launched in May. This groundbreaking and visionary manifesto sets out 10 high-impact recommendations to create a wellness-based health system, aimed at tackling the root causes of ill health and the continuing problem and social injustice of health inequalities. Health creation is an evidence-based approach that is about putting people in control of their own lives and we have developed a deep experience of actually making it work.
The essence of this health creation approach is based on ‘3 Cs’:
- Control over the circumstances of our own lives
- Contact with other people that is meaningful and constructive
- Confidence to see ourselves as an asset
We have to create the conditions for people to increase their confidence, to connect with others and their families, to give them hope and empower them. We have to help to put them in control of their wellbeing. We have to do things that will help them feel well. And crucially, we have to show them that they can do it themselves and they don’t need the constant attention of their doctor. People don’t need a pill for wellness.
This is where the community pharmacy sector is a crucial and dynamic resource for supporting health creation and wellness — because community pharmacies are not just accessible geographically, they are also accessible psychologically. People aren’t intimidated going into a pharmacy and talking to a pharmacist — and that, in part, is because their local pharmacy’s focus is also on health and wellbeing, rather than solely on sickness. What’s more, the staff in a pharmacy are invariably drawn from the local community and they often know many people within the neighbourhood. That sense of familiarity actually gives a real and tangible sense of confidence and trust to the local people coming into their local pharmacy.
The Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) concept, launched in 2010, has done much to build on the elements of trust and confidence that communities have in their local pharmacy. HLPs have gone over and beyond their ambitious targets – and in doing so, align strongly to the New NHS Alliance health-creating objectives and long-term goals to reduce health inequalities. The HLPs have a specific attitude and direction and team members qualified to health trainer status. They are qualified and able to deliver health and wellbeing reports to all people. And don’t forget that a staggering 1.8 million people visit a pharmacy every day.
The HLP framework is underpinned by three enablers:
- Workforce development: a skilled team to proactively support and promote behaviour change, improving health and wellbeing
- Premises that are fit for purpose
- Engagement with the local community, other health professionals (especially GPs), social care and public health professionals and local authorities
The New NHS Alliance would now like to see a natural evolution from HLPs to health-creating pharmacies, and for community pharmacists to welcome and embrace the opportunity to provide their local communities with advice and support on health creation, health-creating services and initiatives to encourage a sense of physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.
New NHS Alliance has seen many excellent examples of innovative community pharmacy involvement in health creation around the country. One such example, cited in our manifesto, involved community action in reducing GP appointments. Community groups and residents in Eccles learned about the Minor Ailments Scheme and were encouraged to tell other residents to visit the local pharmacy before the GP. Children, parents and clinicians co-wrote a story that was read out at the local school – teaching children to steer family members to the pharmacy.
In summary, New NHS Alliance believes that only by forming strong relationships and listening to communities can we address the ‘causes of the causes’ of ill health and for community-led solutions to be found. So, let us maximise the skills and expertise that community pharmacists bring to health creation – and make our local pharmacies a vibrant and proactive hub for health-creating local communities.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
W: www.tinyurl.com/health-creation-manifesto
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