Summary
Contents
As Britain ages amid austerity, more and more people will suffer from long-term health conditions. Obesity and diabetes are on the rise. Mental health problems are widespread. Tobacco and addictions are well-known killers. Each condition brings high costs, both financial and social. Meanwhile, budgets for the NHS, social care and public health are being squeezed. Despite this potential crisis, new opportunities are emerging to support both healthcare providers and the population. Advances in understanding will change how behaviour can prevent and mitigate ill health. Our approach to health must become more ‘social’. The Health of People – a report compiled by the Campaign for Social Sciences – investigates a range of ways to cut the cost of health interventions and to improve patient outcomes as well as ways of preventing people becoming patients. The report includes arguments for and case studies in favour of a more rounded, social science informed view of health and wellbeing. It concludes with an invitation to clinicians and policy makers to think outside the box of ‘care’ about the causes and prevention of ill health.
Strategies to Encourage and Support Changes in Health-Related Behaviours
Strategies to Encourage and Support Changes in Health-Related Behaviours
Strategies to support behaviour change may range from those targeted at individuals – for example, increasing numbers of smartphone apps and wearables to support behaviour change or individual ‘treatment plans’ – to enabling social support, changing environments that influence behaviour, changing services provided by local government, changing fiscal and regulatory frameworks and social policy interventions.
There is wide debate about the value and efficacy of health-based interventions that target individual behaviour and those that focus on community and cultural values. For example, there is a strong case for community-led participatory health research producing more enduring results, especially where communities are empowered to take control of factors that affect ...