Health Improvement

We will continue to do right by each and every person in Lanarkshire and ensure that those hardest hit, are not plunged deeper into hardship.There is strong evidence that people on lower incomes have poorer physical and mental health than more affluent individuals. There are also unacceptable differences in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy between individuals living in the most and least deprived areas in Scotland.Working with partners and using our position as an anchor organisation we can contribute to tackling poverty and the development of an inclusive and sustainable economy for all people in Lanarkshire.

Routine enquiry of finances is a key way for NHS staff to sensitively ask about financial worries and then signpost or refer to local support services. Staff working with children, young people and their families are especially well placed and maternity and health visiting staff for instance have this practice well embedded: Maternity and Health Visiting Services

To access local support, information and make referrals (including self-referrals);

South Lanarkshire

• Money Matters Advice Service: Contact using the online enquiry form or by calling 0300 029 0041 (opening hours: Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 9am-4pm, Wed 11am-4pm)
• Access to free period products
• Managing Your Money Information Pages
• Money is not the Only Problem Booklet
• Worrying About Money South Lanarkshire Leaflet

North Lanarkshire

• Tackling Poverty Team: Contact by emailing at TPteam@northlan.gov.ukor by calling on 01698 332551

• Access to free period products
• Financial Support for Families with Children at School Booklet
• Worrying About Money North Lanarkshire Leaflet

National Support

• • Citizens Advice Scotland
  • Social Security Scotland

Employability is more than just finding a job. Employability is a combination of factors and processes that help a person to progress towards work, find work, remain in work and move on in the workplace. Supporting people into fair, sustainable jobs is central to delivering an inclusive, sustainable economy with health and wellbeing at its core. Employability services are pivotal to avoiding the widening of social and economic inequalities. Ensuring employability support is available to those who are most vulnerable to disadvantage contributes to both local economic development and reducing poverty.

The Policy Context: No One Left Behind (NOLB)

The employability system in Scotland has been transforming since NOLB was published in 2018.  It described the current landscape as ‘cluttered’ and outlined the need for a better aligned and integrated employability support system and partnerships which places people at the centre.

Local Employability Partnerships (LEP)

These were set up in each local authority area to deliver NOLB, including enhancing local partnership working to ensure the right support is in place for those who require these services. The LEP, North and South, is the vehicle for our employability work and oversight is provided by Community Planning Partnerships. As a member of the LEPs, health improvement are committed to the following:

• Employability becomes a priority across Lanarkshire H&SCP
• Employability services staff are supported to improve the health and wellbeing needs of their clients
• Employability Referral Pathway promoted across H&SCP
• Ensuring employability staff and service providers are linked into local communities
• Contribute to and deliver on LEP checklist (North and South)
• Promote the use of Client Support Toolkit with employability partners
• Support the Rollout of the Care Academy
• Enhance the contribution NHS Lanarkshire, as an anchor organisation, makes to employability

The following are links to the main employability policies and local support services for the public:

• No-one Left Behind
• North Lanarkshire Council Employability Support Service
• Routes to Work- North Lanarkshire
• South Lanarkshire Works for You
• Routes to Work – South Lanarkshire

We work in partnership with communities and key agencies such as the Voluntary Sector, NHS, Social Care, Education and Housing, Police and Fire and Rescue services pulling together resources and assets at a community level.

Community led activity based on needs is core to any work that we do.  A holistic approach to supporting communities allows any issues such as poor housing, anti-social behaviour, unemployment etc. to be addressed at a local level. We integrate public service to help build community resilience.

Helpful Resources:

• Community Planning Partnership South Lanarkshire
• South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership
• Voluntary Action South Lanarkshire
• Community Planning Partnership North Lanarkshire
• North Lanarkshire H&SCP
• VANL
• Health Issues in the Community

The Lanarkshire Green Health Partnership works to connect health & social care with nature.  Lanarkshire is rich in greenspace, parks and nature but this is currently an underused asset.  We are aiming to raise awareness and confidence of the health and social care sector workforce and members of the public to “Get Outdoors Lanarkshire”. We will achieve this by:

• ensuring outdoor activities are promoted and valued in how we provide health services
• calling for action from many organisations
• shaping work around local health priorities

Local partners include North & South Lanarkshire local authorities, leisure and voluntary sector organisations. Find out more.

Health Improvement focuses on preventing and reducing alcohol related harm and work in partnership with the North and South Lanarkshire Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) and wider partners using a collaborative approach that aims to reduce alcohol consumption and the risk of alcohol related harms across Lanarkshire.

We play a key role in working with partners to prevent people from starting to drink as well as promoting safe levels of drinking. If this work identifies people who require contact with support services they can facilitate them getting support to reduce their drinking.

We provide Alcohol Brief Intervention training across Lanarkshire to a variety of service providers to equip them with the knowledge and skills to identify problem drinking and there are a number of services and resources available that focus on addressing alcohol-related harms.

We work with partners to prevent gambling harms by increasing awareness, building skills and confidence, and delivering targeted education and early intervention support for young people, families and communities.

Watch the alcohol explained video.

Helpful Resources

• NHS Inform – Alcohol help and support
• NHS Inform – Drugs help and support
• NHS Lanarkshire Alcohol Harms Consultation Survey Data Summary
• NHS Lanarkshire Alcohol Needs Assessment Report from Focus Groups
• Reducing Alcohol Harms in Lanarkshire Health Needs Assessment

Challenging mental health stigma and discrimination is at the heart of Lanarkshire’s Mental Health Strategy.

Stigma Free Lanarkshire’s programme of activity has been effectively embedded across Lanarkshire’s Mental Health Strategy, Good Mental Health for All (North and South Lanarkshire’s framework for collective action on promoting mental health improvement) and in the North and South Lanarkshire Suicide Prevention Action Plans.

Tackling stigma and discrimination is key to creating the best conditions for mental wellbeing, preventive action and early intervention. It’s also key for delivering personalised support, care and treatment and for promoting recovery. When mental health stigma and discrimination are removed people feel valued, included and respected. They have better access to, and experience of services and supports, and they achieve the outcomes that are important to their lives and recovery. In short, we cannot talk about mental health without addressing the stigma that often surrounds it.

A specialist team, Stigma Free Lanarkshire (SFL) in partnership with NHS Lanarkshire and See Me, Scotland’s National organisation for challenging mental health stigma and discrimination, have been working tirelessly on an ambitious programme of work.

SFL aims to grow a Lanarkshire ‘Movement for Change’ to empower people with lived experience of mental health issues and support organisations across all sectors to take collective action to end mental health stigma and discrimination.

The programme encompasses work across four key areas:

• Health and Social Care
• Education and Young People
• Communities
• Workplaces

More Stigma Free Lanarkshire information.

If you would like to know more about the national See Me programme.

If you’re considering any healthy tweaks you would like to make in your life, there is support available to do so.

Being physically active and eating a healthy balanced diet are important for not only our physical health, but also our emotional and mental health, therefore, we have put together Health and Wellbeing ideas to support and empower you to lead a healthier lifestyle.

For more information on the NHS Lanarkshire Healthy Lifestyle and Weight Management Service for various ages and requirements, you can view their webpage. 

Working together across sectors, including leisure, the third sector and green health partners, we deliver physical activity and green health programmes that help people become more active, improve wellbeing and prevent ill health, targeting support where it is needed most. This includes programmes such as Active Health, Physical Activity Prescription, Get Walking Lanarkshire, Full of Beans, Weigh to Go, hospital gardening and volunteer-led green health initiatives.

For more information on the Physical Activity for various ages and requirements, you can view our webpage.

Other Helpful Resources

Green Health 

• There are many physical, mental and social health benefits to green health and spending time outdoors. This could include walking, gardening, cycling, volunteering, outdoor learning and play as well as just enjoying being out in green spaces and nature!

Get Outdoors Lanarkshire

• For Lanarkshire’s greenspace, parks and nature information.

South Lanarkshire

Active Health

• Active Health is a programme for residents of South Lanarkshire living with long term conditions. Residents are referred via Acute, Physio & specialist nurses to a 10-week programme.

North Lanarkshire

Active Health

• North Lanarkshire Leisure’s Active Health Programme in partnership with NHS Lanarkshire provides a range of supported programmes to help individuals realise the benefits of becoming more physically active whilst also assisting those who are recovering from minor or even more serious illness.

The Blood Borne Virus and Sexual Health (BBV&SH) Improvement Team deliver prevention activities, services and education programmes to reduce inequalities and support the delivery of the N The Scottish Government’s Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan in response to local need.

Condom provision is designed to help reduce the spread of HIV, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and blood borne viruses (BBVs) and the number of unintended pregnancies. Free condoms are supplied locally in Lanarkshire via the universal C Card Scheme and Just Ask Service. Lanarkshire residents can also receive Condoms by Post, delivered directly and discreetly to their home address. Details of these services can be found on the Lanarkshire sexual health website where the team strive to provide accurate and reliable online and downloadable information about relationships, sex, sexual health, wellbeing and services for the population of Lanarkshire. The team provide training opportunities primarily targeted to workforce development and topics include; Sexual Health and Relationships Education, Blood Borne Viruses, Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood Education in schools and LGBT+ Identities.

Useful Resources

• Lanarkshire Sexual Health website
• Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood
• LGBT Health and Wellbeing
• HIV and Sexual Health

Health Improvement contributes to the Lanarkshire Screening Inequalities Plan by supporting targeted engagement, capacity building and workforce development to improve screening uptake and reduce inequalities across Lanarkshire, particularly in communities experiencing the poorest health outcomes.

Find out about the types of tests offered in Scotland and the conditions they look for.

Cervical Screening – Lived Experience Interview 

Regular screening helps prevent cervical cancer from developing.

Health Improvement interviewed a woman who had lived experience of cervical cancer and wanted to share her story. The woman was identified from engagement work carried out at a mosque in Lanarkshire.
The woman shares that she had ignored her smear test invitations for years until attending in her 40s. This smear detected cervical cancer. Now cancer free, the woman urges others to attend their routine screening appointments.

Watch the video:

• Punjabi Version
• English Version 
• Urdu Version 
• Arabic Version 

The Gender-Based Violence Service is a small, specialist multi-disciplinary team that works with very high-risk and complex cases involving violence against women and issues of gender inequality. The work applies a gendered analysis to the issues of domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault, commercial sexual exploitation, human trafficking, ‘honour’-based violence, female genital mutilation and childhood sexual abuse.
Since inception, the service has developed and adapted as both a frontline service and a source of expertise for NHSL, building a quality reputation locally and nationally.

Find available Gender-based violence Services.

Health Improvement supports workforce development across Lanarkshire targeting resources where they can have greatest impact. We provide a wide range of training and learning opportunities to NHS staff, partner staff, volunteers and local residents. Through accessible training, resources and capacity-building programmes, we help develop the knowledge, skills and confidence of the workforce and communities to improve health, reduce inequalities and support prevention and early intervention.

See Training and Learning opportunities with Health Improvement.