Making Every Contact Count is an approach that uses the millions of day to day interactions that organisations and people have with other people to support them in making positive changes to their physical and mental health and well being.

Making changes such as stopping smoking, improving diet, increasing physical activity, losing weight and reducing alcohol consumption can help people to reduce their risk of poor health significantly.

The voluntary and community sector has many contacts every day with individuals and is ideally placed to engage the population in healthy conversations.  It is not easy for everyone to raise questions about lifestyle behaviours.  It requires a range of skills and knowledge to gain confidence to support and direct people. Training is being provided specifically for the voluntary and community sector by Northumbria Healthcare.

Arranged in partnership with Northumberland CVA, this training is aimed at those who work with the public and wish to understand how they can talk to people about health, wellbeing and healthy lifestyle choices.  It is a free course for voluntary and community sector staff and volunteers.

The course will provide you with an understanding of health promotion and public health and enable you to identify opportunities to promote healthy messages/ brief advice.  You will also gain knowledge and understanding of tools and skills that can be used to engage people about their health and well being and signposting opportunities. Please register here.