Creating healthy neighbourhoods
The least affluent communities face significant disadvantages in health, because often, healthy food options and opportunities for physical activity are inaccessible or non-existent. The Community Health Survey Solutions™ (CHESSTM) evidence-based mobile tool helps people explore how easy or difficult it is locally to buy fruit, vegetables and healthy grains, and what kinds of safe, accessible indoor and outdoor options there are for walking, running, cycling and other forms of physical activity. Communities are then armed with the information they need to persuade local decision-makers to make improvements.
We partnered with C3 and the Burdett Trust for Nursing in supporting three Queen’s Nurses to pilot the CHESSTM tool with their local communities. This tool provoked lively discussions between nurses, community agencies and local residents over the health-promoting and health-limiting features of their streets and neighbourhoods.
This project also offered a modest amount of funding to help create a healthier neighbourhood. Each Queen’s Nurse worked closely with local residents and partners to decide how best to use the funds, ensuring communities were involved and able to choose and direct activities. In both Inverclyde and Auchmuty, residents chose to prioritise refreshing and extending local community gardens to include growing fruit and vegetables. In Inverclyde, the project also developed a wellbeing walking trail with information about local flora and about healthy eating. In Auchmuty, the young people involved combined community gardening with the creation of more opportunities for social interaction across age groups, thereby improving community and individual wellbeing.