Thornley House Patient Participation Group, Hyde, Tameside are aiming to get one million individuals to pledge to change something to improve their health in 2015, as part of their Health Pledge programme. It’s like a big, communal New Year’s Resolution. They are hoping that people will make small changes that can lead to big progress in health outcomes both mental and physical.
The idea began as a way to improve the health of Tameside residents but quickly spread and now anybody from anywhere in the world can make a promise to make better health choices. The aim is to choose one thing that they will pledge to change in the New Year. Health Pledge is open to everyone, the idea is being promoted by patients for patients, by ordinary people for ordinary people.
The idea of Health Pledge came to Ingrid Brindle on the train home from presenting at a conference in London. She had just seen an inspirational talk by Pollyanna Jones about “NHS Change Day”. Ingrid thought: ‘Why don’t we set up something similar at our GP practice so that patients can pledge to do something differently to improve their health?’ Then of course she realised that it wasn’t just about patients at the practice but the whole community.
“Tameside and Glossop score very poorly on many measures of good health. Looking at deaths from the major killer diseases , we are doing very badly despite our best efforts. Making good lifestyle choices can help to prevent patients developing many common diseases and any initiative which helps to promote good self care deserves to be supported.” explained Dr Amir Hannan, GP at Haughton Thornley Medical Centres and Tameside and Glossop CCG Board member .
The Health Pledge campaign was launched on 22nd November 2014 in the Clarendon Square Shopping Centre, Hyde. At the event, both the Mayor of Tameside and Sir John Oldham made their own health pledges, with the mayor pledging to only eat one mince pie a week, rather than fourteen and Sir John pledging to walk out of breath at least once a day.
The patient group are asking everybody to visit their website www.healthpledge.co.uk. It has lots of great information from how to write a good pledge to links to organisations which can give support for making the change.
The initiative is for everybody. Pledges can be made on the website, by twitter or facebook, or by writing it on a post- it and sticking it on the fridge!
Health Pledge are also encouraging groups such as workplaces, Brownies, schools, churches, mosques, health centres etc. to make a pledge together, to give each other support.
Jacqui, Dominic, Marilyn and Ingrid from the Patient Participation Group are keen to help as much as possible and can be contacted on [email protected]. They say “We have spent masses of time on this campaign and would love you to support us by making a pledge and spreading the word. We are keen to help you to improve your health but the decision to make a change has to come from you!”
In the below film, Ingrid Brindle tells us a little more about Health Pledge.