Healthier Together

You have been invited to attend the Healthier Together Group Programme. This leaflet will give you information about the programme to support you with your health goals.

Healthier Together; is a group-based programme delivered either face-to-face or digitally. It was designed by the weight management team. The programme will be provided by:

• specialist dietitians,
• dietetic assistant practitioners,
• and physical activity instructors.

It is made up of two stages. The first is what we call an active phase and the second is the maintenance phase. To find out more about the two stages, see the box below.

Active Phase

The active phase lasts 20 weeks. It includes: nutrition advice, behaviour change techniques, and physical activity.

• Every 2 weeks: Attend a Healthier Together group session with your Dietitian and peers. You will go to 10 of these sessions in total
• Every week: You will do physical activity. You will do 12 of these sessions, starting from session 7

Maintenance Phase

This phase is to support you to keep going even after the active phase group finishes and will be every 4 weeks for 8 months

• You will attend a session every 4 weeks over 44 weeks.
• We will encourage you to do physical activity as part of your ongoing healthy lifestyle
• Moving more in small ways keeps you mobile and helps with a healthy body weight

What will we learn?

Active phase

The Healthier Together programme supports you to make changes to your eating and activity behaviours. It also helps you to stick to them. We will give you the tools to make long-term changes to your eating and activity habits and promote health and wellbeing.

Each week, we will cover different topics that you will explore with us and your peers. This will be through discussion, group activity and personal reflection. These topics are:

• How to improve your motivation to make changes
• Managing your emotions
• What we mean by energy deficit
• Healthy snacking
• Why we eat what we eat
• Setting goals to help us change our habits
• How our thoughts and feelings affect our behaviour
• Dealing with lapses

At each session, we will support you to set goals. These are to change your behaviours and put this into practice at home. You can reflect on how things went at your next session.
The programme won’t give you a set meal plan or set you daily activities to do. Instead, we will help you learn the knowledge and skills to make changes towards your goals and needs.

Weight loss medication

Our consultant can prescribe certain weight loss medications as part of treatment. This is only in exceptional circumstances. Each patient is assessed individually to see if the medication is suitable for them.
If the medication is right for you, you can only keep getting it if you stay involved with our service.
If weight loss medication is not right for you, then you can still take part in the Healthier Together Programme. You just won’t take weight loss medication.

Maintenance phase

During this phase, we will support you to stay on track with the changes you made in the active phase. It is common to come up against challenges whilst on your journey to a healthier lifestyle.
We will listen to what you and your peers have found difficult. We will then guide you to the information and skills to help you reach your goals.

Monitoring progress and your goals

At face-to-face groups, you will have the chance to weigh yourself at each session. Those in digital groups will be encouraged to
self-weigh. On your first and last session, we will record your weight in private. We will also monitor other progress you have made. Such as: having more energy when walking to your car; feeling better in your clothes; and making progress towards the goals you set for yourself.

What will I need?

The group sessions involve doing some physical activity. We advise you to wear comfortable clothes and to take a bottle of water
with you.

There is no cost to you for any of our programmes.

Physical activity

During the active phase, you will do physical activity. This is led by an experienced and qualified Health Instructor. You will do each movement as much as you are able. You will have rest periods in between. You can do the exercises in a chair if needed. We can also make other changes to suit you. The aim is to help you to move better in daily life, now and into the future. As the sessions go on, you should start to feel fitter and have more energy.

Have any questions or queries?

If you have any questions about any of our programmes, please contact our team via email: LWMS@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk or leave a message (including your name and contact number) on 01698 754275 and one of our team will get back in touch as soon as possible.

If you need this information in another language or format, please e-mail:

Translation.Services@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk