Progress
The 2023 Annual Director of Public Health report took a focus on cardiovascular disease in Torbay. Titled ‘Getting to the heart of the matter: cardiovascular disease in Torbay’ here follows an update on progress made since its publication.
Recommendation 1
Be strategic – develop a systems approach to promoting healthy weight
- Healthy weight needs assessment
- Multi-agency healthy weight action plan to improve the environments sustaining and promoting healthy weight in Torbay
Update:
Torbay Public Health team have completed and published a healthy weight needs assessment in April 2024. A copy is available here: Promoting healthy weight for all (southdevonandtorbay.info)
A healthy weight action plan is now being developed, building on the findings and recommendations of the needs assessment.
Recommendation 2
Be imaginative – use our combined workforce in different ways
- Primary and community groups working with neighbourhoods to share skills around heart health promotion, blood pressure and pulse checks
Update:
The Public Health team set up a Torbay CVD Prevention Partnership in 2023. This group has members from the NHS, pharmacy, voluntary sector, peer support groups, and the healthy behaviours team at Your Health Torbay, as well as the local authority. Members have been working together to promote skills in heart health promotion with a range of groups across the community and have plans to expand these further.
Recommendation 3
Be aware – coordinate our messaging
- Consistent, coordinated heart health messages & campaigns to increase awareness & early detection
Update:
As part of our outreach work, Torbay is promoting ‘Know Your Numbers Week,’ the UK’s biggest blood pressure testing and awareness event, in September, partners across Torbay came together to organise a range of free events. These were hosted by Paignton Community Hub, Paignton Library, The Happy Hearts Peer Support Group, and Torquay United football club, with the aim of promoting heart awareness and carrying out as many blood pressure checks as possible.
Recommendation 4
Start young
- Recognising the link between adverse childhood experiences & future health
- Awareness around heart health in our Family Hubs
- School based physical activity & heart healthy behaviours through Torbay on the Move and active travel around schools
Update:
In Torbay as part of the Family Hubs Start for Life offer, and the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative, professionals and families are increasingly aware of the benefits of early attachment, and the importance of good perinatal mental health on health outcomes for children. Dedicated workforces are supporting families to engage with their babies antenatally and throughout infancy. This applies from feeding, right through to play and interaction between parent and child.
As part of the Early Help 0-19 service Early Help – Torbay Council, parents and carers learn how adverse experiences for children can lead to complications on physical and emotional health outcomes and are supported to introduce changes to benefit both.
Through Torbay on the Move – Torbay Council we and our partners have delivered cycling programmes for all ages and for families, in venues across Torbay. We also held school-based activities promoting physical activity including Back to Sport, the Furzeham School Street Project, and a Creating Active Schools pilot at Paignton and Ellacombe Academies. With primary schools we had a training programme around mentally healthy movement, a school games programme, and a range of other initiatives to encourage children and young people to take part in physical activities they can enjoy.
Recommendation 5
Go where people are
- Health checks in community venues, looking at heart health alongside wider health issues
- Targeted outreach where we know fewer people who are at greater risk of heart disease are coming forward for help
Update:
Primary care teams and public health in Torbay have been piloting new ways to offer the full NHS health check in addition to blood pressure checks, working to reach out into our communities in partnership with local community organisations.
Outreach NHS Health Checks were trialled last year at three organisations in Torbay including The Haven, Paignton Community Hub & The Crafty Fox Café and Hub. Primary care teams have gone on to upskill the host community organisations in doing blood pressure checks for their clients.
Since launching the service at Paignton Community Hub earlier this year, over 300 blood pressure readings have been taken and over 100 of these were identified as either low, raised, or high, with these people recommended to regularly monitor their blood pressure for a longer period and some referred to their surgery to seek further guidance from a trained medical professional.
Dr John McGuiness from Corner Place Surgery has been working with the Torbay Public Health team and Paignton Library staff to develop a new library-based blood pressure monitoring scheme. This free scheme enables residents to loan a blood pressure monitor for 7-day home measurement.
Torbay Public Health and GP practices are working together to improve the standard NHS Health Check offer so we can ensure people who most need these checks receive them. We are developing a resource pack to support practices to learn from each other’s experience and to identify those in their population most likely to need support with their heart health.
Recommendation 6
Foster peer support – healthy heart training for volunteers
- Training in health checks & heart health for volunteers across the community to increase awareness and early detection
- More people able to access peer support groups where they encourage each other to look after their heart, promote physical activity, and can access professional advice where needed
Members of the Torbay Happy Hearts peer support group volunteered for training this year so they can take blood pressures and support other members of the community, promoting heart health more widely. They are also working to encourage more people to join peer support groups and learn how to look after their hearts in a fun and sociable setting.
