Good Health

We want Dudley Borough to have the healthiest population in the West Midlands. Our concern is with health in its widest sense. It is about more than just treating people with ill-health, it is concerned with promoting healthy lifestyles, preventing illness, and reducing the inequalities in health across the Borough.

OUR AIMS FOR THE NEXT 5 YEARS:

To address the health inequalities in the Borough, recognising the link between social exclusion, poverty and ill-health.
To ensure that health matters are considered in all decision making of public bodies, with effective co-ordination of planning and service delivery.
To promote health in workplaces, schools and communities.
To promote fairness of access to health and social care services across the Borough.
To reduce ill-health in the four national priority areas of heart disease and stroke, accidents, cancer and mental health through the implementation of the Health Improvement Programme.
To improve the health of people by providing and enabling the provision of good quality, affordable homes.
To develop healthy alliances that enable people to take greater responsibility for their own health, by working with local communities and a wide range of voluntary and not-for-profit organisations.

WHAT WE INTEND TO DO:

Through the process of the Health Improvement Programme, bring together the key agencies in the Borough to create a common approach to setting priorities, targets and actions to improve the health of residents.
Prepare a multi-agency Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy to help maximise the Community Wellbeing of householders.
Undertake a health impact assessment study of one jointly identified policy area.
Encourage more people to stop smoking, providing greater access to "stop smoking" services for the socially excluded.
Work towards creating healthy alliances including bidding to establish a Healthy Living Centre.
Develop services for children with disabilities through effective partnership, working to develop and implement an action plan from the current review of services.
Develop services for older people for example through the establishment of the Community Support Link to help people over the age of 85 to maintain good health through access to community services.
Extend the Respite, Recuperative and Rehabilitative Care Services in the Borough, and improve carers’ access to information and support.
Implement the Dudley Mental Health Promotion Plan developed by the local partnership, with the current priorities being to promote the mental health of young people, and also to improve family and community life.
Extend the Health Promoting Schools Programme to help young people make healthy choices.
Enable more people to live at home rather than require institutional care, for example through providing a range of new homes for the Borough constructed to lifetime housing standards, adapting existing homes, and providing complementary Extra Care developments to provide personal support to carers or users.
Take multi-agency action to reduce unwanted teenage pregnancies.
During the period of this plan, to invest in enhanced services in community and primary care sectors so as to complement the changes in hospital services scheduled for 2003/04.

TARGETS TO JUDGE OUR PROGRESS:

Reduce the death rate from heart disease and stroke-related illnesses under 65 – aim to achieve a fall of 33% by 2010.
Reduce the rate of accidents – aim to achieve a fall of 20% by 2010.
Reduce the death rate from cancer for people under 65 – aim to achieve a fall of 20% by 2010.
Reduce the death rate for suicide and undetermined injury – aim to achieve a fall of 17% by 2010.
The adoption of a Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy.
A Health Impact Assessment undertaken.
Reduce the number of smokers and new smokers by 4% by 2010.
Set up a Healthy Living Centre.
Establish a Sure Start programme within the Borough, to promote the well-being of under 4’s.
Provide 400 new homes constructed to lifetime housing standards by 2005, and reduce levels of unfit housing.
Further investments in primary and community health services each year.

In 2001 we will also report:

The number of age checks provided.
The actual numbers of people benefiting from appropriate respite, recuperative and rehabilitative services.
The number of projects supported under the Dudley Mental Health Promotion Plan.
Progress towards achieving the target of all schools in the Borough being part of the Healthy Schools Award by March 2002.

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