A GROUNDBREAKING pilot study is to be held in the North East aimed at taking a more proactive approach to public health within local communities.
Sport Works, a social enterprise supporting around 5,000 people nationally each year, is to work closely with ten grass roots organisations to assess the value of embedding health and wellbeing into community life.
The ‘Holistic Health’ study – focusing primarily on more vulnerable and disadvantaged people – will be launched in January and run for three months, covering from the Tees Valley to Tyne and Wear.
An independent researcher, Dr Christopher Hartworth, has been commissioned to provide robust data throughout the trial. The evaluation will then continue for a further three months to assess whether there has been long-term behavioural change.
Neil Cameron, founder and director of Sport Works, said: “Our objective is to see whether we can establish a new, much more proactive approach to managing public health by having programmes embedded in local communities, so that fewer people end up having to visit a…
