A four year cross-border project in Dumfries and Galloway is now underway with the creation of two health and wellbeing hubs, one in Dumfries and another in Stranraer, each with £350,000 of funding.
The CAWT Community Health Sync (CoH-Sync) Project will encourage people living in disadvantaged areas and in more rural outlying areas to sign up to a health and well-being plan and receive support from a health facilitator.
Project manager Brigid McGinty said: “The CoH-Sync project will focus on helping people to improve their health in the risk factor areas of physical activity, nutrition, smoking, alcohol consumption and mental health resilience. Such risk factors are known to be associated with the development of long term conditions or chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and arthritis for example.”
The project has secured EU funding, allowing for the creation of ten jobs for three years initially in South West Scotland. And the eight health facilitators for the region all assembled for the first time this week to meet CAWT representatives from Northern Ireland.
Hailing the project, Michele McCoy, acting director of public health for NHS Dumfries and Galloway said: “I am delighted that the health services have been able to secure additional European Union funding to deliver these locality health and wellbeing hubs. Our aim is to ensure that, through a partnership approach with our third sector, people will be provided with the information, support and skills within their own communities to enable them to achieve a healthier lifestyle.”
Anyone seeking access to the service should contact Rhuri Paton in Stranraer on 01776 707757 or Caroline Comerford in Dumfries on 01387 244401 ext 34410.
