Opening Doors to More Healthy Communities – The Healthy Communities Collaborative – Widening Access to a Healthy Diet in Low Income Groups – UK

Henry L¹*

1. National Primary Care Development Team, Piccadilly South, Manchester, UK

The Healthy Communities Collaborative was set up to test whether the collaborative method of improvement science could be effective in reducing health inequalities in a community setting. After successfully piloting the approach in reducing falls in older people by 37.5% against a target of 30%, teams went on to widen access to a healthy diet. Fifteen community led teams, based in deprived areas, worked with local professionals to address the food poverty issues of accessibility, affordability, availability, acceptability and awareness of a healthy diet. Using a range of simple interventions the teams have addressed these issues and the affects for all members of the community. Initiatives include cookery courses for widowed people to maintain independence and relieve depression, blender schemes, breakfast clubs, food co-ops and many others. They support local nutrition initiatives and involve local retailers and industries. This work cuts across education, health services and the development of the community. Social capital improvements are in evidence and collected via a social capital questionnaire performed before the initiative began.
In 9 months the teams have improved the number of available food outlets by 20%, improved the quality of existing outlets by 17%. Provided 334 people with basic food and hygiene courses and created 4 new employment opportunities and have received much publicity for the intergenerational nature of the work. A video of the work recently won the Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinical Microsystems Film Festival in the category of “Joy in Work”.

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