Skilled for Health/Health Trainer
Liam Ford from Northumberland has recently become an NHS Health Trainer after successfully completing a Skilled for Health course. This is the first known case in England of a Skilled for Health participant progressing into a Health Trainer role in this way.
Both the Skilled for Health programme and the Health Trainer service are helping people from traditionally disadvantaged and excluded communities get the information and support they need to make changes to improve their health. Both programmes aim to address the health inequalities which are prevalent within traditionally disadvantaged communities. It has long been acknowledged that individuals and communities that suffer the most social inequalities are also the ones which have the lowest skills and the most difficult challenges in managing their own health and in accessing health services for themselves and their families.
Skilled for Health (SfH) is the national programme, jointly created by the Department of Health and the leading community learning NGO, ContinYou, which embeds Skills for Life learning into health improvement topics. Participants on Skilled for Health courses learn about why it’s important to look after their health and are given information about how to stay healthy. Because Skilled for Health is an embedded learning programme, participants also improve their Skills for Life (language, literacy and numeracy skills) through participating in the programme. At the weekly sessions Liam and the other participants completed sessions on different health topics including, healthy eating, exercise, alcohol and smoking.
In his new role he’ll be helping to spread the healthy living messages he learnt through the course to other people just like him in his local community. Health Trainers offer practical support and guidance to local people on how to make positive changes to their lifestyles to improve their overall health and wellbeing.
Liam said: 'Attending the course was really informative, it gave me the opportunity to learn more about health and how to live a healthier life and both me and my family are getting more exercise and eating healthier meals as a result of what I learnt. I’d highly recommend the Skilled for Health course to anyone, the sessions were really relaxed and everyone got really involved in the group discussions on all sorts of health topics.'
Liam (27), who lives in Widdrington in Northumberland, completed a Skilled for Health course earlier this year after being made redundant. Liam, who is married with three children, said: 'I used to work in the car industry but I was made redundant because of everything that’s happening in the economy. It was my sister who first told me about the Skilled for Health courses – they sounded interesting so I decided to sign up.'
During the course Liam was introduced to the Health Trainer role and subsequently found out about vacancies for two Health Trainer posts with Northumberland Care Trust.
He obtained one of the roles and is currently undertaking training to gain his Level 3 Health Trainer national qualification. Liam said: 'I’m really looking forward to getting out into the community and helping people to be more aware of their health and the little things they can do to improve both their own and their family’s health.'
Since the two initiatives started over 3000 people have completed Skilled for Health courses nationally and approximately 3100 Health Trainers and Health Trainer Champions have been trained. Both national programmes have strategic plans in place until at least 2011.
For more information about Skilled for Health, please contact:
Janet Solla, National Skilled for Health Programme Manager, ContinYou, 024 7658 8453 skilledforhealth@continyou.org.uk
