A Strategy to Make Our Region the Healthiest in the Country
Last Friday I had the privilege to speak at a conference of health care professionals at the launch of the North East’s first ever health and well-being strategy.
The strategy’s vision is for our region to have the best and fairest health and well-being, and to be recognised for its outstanding quality of life. It aims to make people living here the healthiest in the country within a generation. This is a great vision for the future. But we’ve got a lot of work to do to make it come true.
There is a very strong argument that says public health is an issue of specific and urgent priority for the North East of England. And I think the key to getting people eating better, to encouraging them to drink a bit less, is to explain to them why they should be aiming for a healthier lifestyle.
Why is it that right across the developed world public smoking bans have not met with disobedience and a widespread ignoring of the law? Why are there not endless disputes with bar-staff telling people to put their cigarettes out and people saying no?
The answer is not about the new law, or about the Government telling people what to do. The real reason is that the medical profession, and those who argue that cigarette smoking is self harming, have had their argument accepted by almost everyone.
Even those who smoke say that they know its hurting them, know they shouldn’t really do it, and that they want to give up. People know now that the real benefit isn’t keeping onside of the law, or saving a bit more money each week – it’s in their own improved health and life-expectancy, and the joy of their families I seeing it so.
If we’re going to improve all areas of our region’s well-being then we need to be clear what exactly it is we are saying, and to keep explaining why. If we are to bring about lasting change to people’s health then the issues that were talked about at that conference last week need to be being talked about, and thought about, by everyone. And then I really do believe that we can start looking forward to the day when we can boast of the North East as the healthiest region in the country.