Developing a Regional Strategy for the Health and Personal Social Services (PDF 73KB)

2002 - 2022

Vulnerable young people and drugs: opportunities to tackle inequalities.

This document presents executive summaries of pieces of research carried out under the auspices of a Department of Health funded research programme. The aim of the programme was to provide research based evidence that would underpin the development of high quality and effective interventions with groups of young people thought to be vulnerable to developing drug misuse problems. The focus of the initiative was to inform primary and secondary drug prevention strategies and other opportunities to intervene. The background to each project, methodology used and findings are presented.This resource was contributed by The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use.

Making the Link Between Obesity and wellbeing

Making the links between Obesity & Well-being. A briefing paper developed for Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) North West. The paper covers the epidemiology and evidence of links between health and obesity. Mental well-being is a key factor of obesity and weight management. Good mental health is a protective factor for good physical health and against physical illness and is essential for making healthy lifestyle choices and behaviour changes. Poor mental health can lead to unhealthy lifestyle choices and unhealthy weight management. Obesity and physical illness can also lead to poor mental health. People with mental health problems, especially severe, are also at increased risk of obesity and related poor health. In order to ensure that strategies and programmes effectively address the relevant mental well-being factors, a mental well-being impact assessment (MWIA) could be undertaken. This process is based on health impact assessment methodology and a set of evidence based mental well-being determinants and factors, grouped under the four themes of enhancing control, increasing resilience and community assets, facilitating participation and promoting inclusion. The process also involves identifying indicators to measure progress. Evaluation shows it is effective in engaging stakeholders in service development and evaluation and it increases understanding of mental well-being and its determinants.