Bury residents asked for struggles and successes in making healthy lifestyle choices

Residents of Bury are being asked to share their struggles and successes in making healthy lifestyle choices, as the Greater Manchester region prepares to take responsibility for a £6 billion health and social care budget.

The results of the Taking Charge Together campaign, launched earlier this month, will help shape health and social care plans across Greater Manchester for the next five years.

People can join a conversation about everything from exercise to mental health by visiting www.takingchargetogether.org.uk and filling in a quick survey, or by attending a community roadshow event being hosted by Key 103. The roadshow is visiting Bury (Kay Gardens) on Friday 4^th March, between 10am and 4pm.

The feedback from Taking Charge Together will be used to help Health and Social Care bosses tackle some of the worst health outcomes in the country, by:

• Revealing insight into what the people of Greater Manchester believe blocks or enables healthy choices
• Helping health and care officials to design services that can deliver the greatest and fastest improvement in the region’s health and wellbeing

    * Identifying great work in the region that can be celebrated and developed at scale across the region

More than two thirds of early deaths in Greater Manchester are caused by behaviours which could be changed. And, nearly 25% of the population have a mental health or wellbeing issue which can affect everything from health to employment, parenting and housing.

Stuart North, Chief Officer for NHS Bury Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: “We want local people to get involved in the Taking Charge Together campaign. This feedback will help to inform how services should look in the future and help us to deliver the greatest and fastest improvements in health and wellbeing for local people.”

The Bury roadshow on Friday 4^th March will also be used as an opportunity to officially launch Bury’s Locality Plan. This is the plan which describes how Bury fits into the Greater Manchester picture and at its heart aims to ensure local people are healthy, happy and as independent as possible.

Bury’s Locality Plan outlines the town’s vision for the future of health and social care services which will involve closer working between these services so that they are more co-ordinated and people only have to tell their story once, whilst making services more convenient and accessible for people. Preventing poor health and intervening quickly with care and support when it is needed is a key theme in Bury’s plan, as is making sure people have the support and information they need to take an active part in their health and wellbeing. 

At the Roadshow, Bury’s Health and Wellbeing Board will be on hand to talk to local people about what they do, and visitors can also expect to get information about opportunities already available to give their health a boost; get their blood pressure checked; find out about what the Bury Directory has to offer; and, weather permitting, take part in an outdoor Zumba class!

Cllr Andrea Simpson, Chair of Bury’s Health and Wellbeing Board, added: “It’s really important that our community has the opportunity to contribute to the conversation being captured across Greater Manchester. During the roadshow we will also be talking about our local plans to make a difference, what these will mean to local people, whilst promoting the range of tools and opportunities already in place in Bury to help people to stay fit and well.”

Ends

Date 22^nd February 2016