East of England Health Trainer Services

 

Health Trainer Services (HTS) across the East of England (EoE) choose their service model to meet the needs of target groups and communities in their areas. Services often have a combination of Health Trainer (HT) and Health Champion (HC) roles but can be run with only HTS or HCs.  The flexibility of the HT models lends them to be established in a variety of settings.  So far within the EoE these include community settings, prisons, probation services, voluntary sector, acute sector, Armed Forces, Gypsy & Traveller sites, GP practices and the workplace. Until recently all Primary Care Trusts in the area had a HT service, 9 out of the 15 prisons and 2 probation services.

 

The majority of EoE HTs and HCs were recruited from the most deprived local communities and groups and support people to change the behaviours that can harm their lives, e.g smoking, drinking alcohol above safe level, being inactive and not eating 5 portions of fruit & vegetables a day. Helping people to change these behaviours result in the improvement of health and wellbeing of those in the most deprived areas.

 

Many of the HTs and HCs had either no prior qualifications or experience in the health arena and now have their first nationally recognised qualification and or  job; thereby reducing their own and their family’s deprivation.

 

The EoE HTS are supported by a regional hub and hold their meetings in Cambridge.