A local Health Improvement Service which has helped more than 1100 people stop smoking in the last year will continue to support Plymouth residents.
The Service, One You Plymouth, has been run by Livewell Southwest since 2013 and is funded by the Public Health Grant. The contract is set to be recommissioned from March 2025, with a decision due to be made at Plymouth City Council’s next Cabinet meeting on 9 December.
One You Plymouth provides a range of different services to help people live healthier lives. This includes stop smoking support, wellness and healthy weight programmes, physical activity sessions, NHS Health Checks and mental health support, including suicide prevention training.
In the last year, the service has worked with more than 6,000 people. This included engaging nearly 1,000 residents in physical activity and helping 147 people to reach a healthy weight. Nearly 300 people have had NHS Health Checks, which are aimed at people aged 40 to 74 to identify their risk of certain health problems like heart disease and diabetes.
Councillor Mary Aspinall, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, said: “This is a vitally important service. We want Plymouth to be a great place to grow up and to grow old, where everyone enjoys a fantastic quality of life, and we can support our residents to do this by helping them to be healthier.
“We know that many long-term health conditions can be avoided by being smokefree, moving more and maintaining a healthy weight. One You Plymouth helps people to do just that, for free.”
As well as helping people to adopt healthier behaviours, One You Plymouth also manages the recruitment, training and support of more than 180 active Wellbeing Champions, who are employees working in a range of local businesses that have volunteered to take on the additional role, working to help improve their colleagues’ wellbeing by sharing advice and signposting to different services.
Plymouth residents can get support to stop smoking, be more active and maintain a healthy weight from One You Plymouth and more information is available at: www.oneyouplymouth.co.uk or by calling 01752 437177.