Are we really living longer? And are those extra years spent in good health? A new report from Public Health England set out to answer these questions

The good news is that life expectancy has now reached nearly 80 years for men and 83 years for women. The bad news is that while we are living longer, many of these extra years are spent in poor health. This is the finding of Public Health England’s landmark report called Health Profile for England, which for the first time draws on population data to paint a picture of the overall health of the nation.

The report is a mine of information for pharmacies, which are playing an increasingly valuable role in supporting the public to look after their health. But what should pharmacy staff take notice of?

The role of pharmacy

For most people the ingredients for a healthy life include a good education and job, a healthy diet, a suitable roof over their head and people to care for and about. ‘Good health’, therefore, is about much more than ‘healthcare’, but it’s still an extremely important factor.

With the main risk factors for ill health being largely avoidable – i.e. excess weight, high blood sugar, smoking, alcohol and lack of physical activity – health education should be a priority and there is huge scope for healthcare providers, especially community pharmacies, to get involved and make a difference. Community pharmacy teams, for instance, already have a good track record for delivering health promotion interventions and Public Health England (PHE) says that its new report highlights areas where pharmacy teams can focus their efforts in improving the health of the nation.

Gul Root, lead public health pharmacist at PHE, adds that with financial pressures growing alongside ever increasing demands on the health and care system, there is a clear role for pharmacies to play. The advantages community pharmacies have to promote good health are access, long opening hours, having trusted professionals on site, staff that reflect the diversity of their communities, and the expertise and opportunity to reach out to the public with support and advice.

Breaking down barriers

Deborah Evans, managing director of Pharmacy Complete, developed and led the healthy living pharmacy concept in 2009 and now supports pharmacies to gain healthy living pharmacy status. She says there are many ways that pharmacies can break down the barriers to prompt customers to think about their health.

A key finding from the healthy living pharmacy programme has been that tackling people head on about their health problems may embarrass them or put them off. Instead, setting up in-store displays or props on the counter, such as huge lumps of fat to illustrate excess weight or fresh fruit to highlight the importance of healthy eating, can be an effective trigger for starting non-judgmental conversations with customers about healthy living. Offering free blood pressure checks and handing out leaflets are other ways of easily engaging people in discussions about their health.

Deborah is keen to encourage members of pharmacy teams to act as role models to customers and she says that there are many examples of members of the pharmacy team becoming health champions and then making changes to their own lives. This means they not to talk to people about making radical lifestyle changes, which may seem impossible, but to talk about manageable tweaks that will keep them in better health for longer.

“There are lots of reasons why pharmacy is ideally placed to promote good health,” Deborah says. “We see more people than in any other health setting and we see many people who are not sick, so we are able to intervene at an earlier stage in terms of establishing good lifestyle habits and behaviours. The feedback we have been getting from healthy living pharmacies is that the public are happy to talk about these issues.”

Donna Reid, pharmacy technician at Whitworth Pharmacy in Fitzwilliam, West Yorkshire, runs a range of health checks and health promotion services at her pharmacy and says that helping people to improve issue that people need help with. If there is a topic we don’t have the experience to tackle, we will get an expert in to help,” she continues. “The personal interaction with people is very rewarding and when you help one person they go out and tell others and word spreads that the pharmacy is a place that promotes good health. If people are going to live longer, we need to help them to live healthier lives.”

Outreach opportunity

Heading out to churches, schools, colleges, or places where young parents meet and talk about health and wellbeing, is another good way of disseminating information to the community about the health promotion services that pharmacy offers. It can also mean that you reach people who may not have otherwise visited a pharmacy.

Claire Walker, a health champion for Dudley Public Health and pharmacy technician at B Payne & Sons in Derby, has had a lot of success in promoting public health messages through her outreach work in schools and colleges in her local area.

To get your message across effectively, Claire says it’s important that you understand your audience. “In parts of Dudley,” she explains, “it is very easy to approach and engage people because they are already aware of our services, but in other parts where there are high rates of teenage pregnancies and a lot of problems with alcohol and drugs among young people and they have never known anything different, it can be extremely hard.

“In these areas you can’t just talk to people about healthy choices so you need to fi nd a different way of approaching them. So instead of saying directly to somebody ‘do you want some help with stopping smoking?’, you have to say it in a way in which you are not stating the obvious. So, for example, you could talk about the services offered by the pharmacy,” Claire says. “At one pharmacy that was local to a college, we used to hand out ‘Ask Me’ cards which youngsters could hand in at the counter, no questions asked, and go straight into the consultation room if they wanted a private chat. You have to come across as accessible and approachable and not sound as though you are telling these young people off,” she adds.

Claire remembers a questionnaire at one event which revealed that most youngsters see the big pharmacy chains as places to buy make up and were unaware they could get help with smoking, alcohol, safe sex, or even that consultations are confidential. “There is a huge opportunity to fill that health education gap. This is where the pharmacy can make a real difference to people’s lives,” she says.

There is a huge opportunity to fil that health education gap. This is where the pharmacy can make a real difference.