People asked to give viewson health plan

A public consultation on the strategy will run for 12 weeks from Friday, June 10, until Friday, September 2, 2011.

The Board and Agency want to see strong, resilient communities where everyone has good health and wellbeing, places where people look out for each other and have community pride in where they live.

The agencies point out that residents from deprived areas in Northern Ireland experience; lower life expectancy; higher rates of emergency admission to hospital; higher rates of lung cancer; higher rates of suicide; and higher rates of smoking and alcohol related deaths.

The kinds of health and social care issues which can be improved by community development approaches include depression; isolation; falls amongst elderly people; child protection; teenage pregnancy; childhood asthma; postnatal depression; drug and alcohol abuse; and ultimately also long term conditions such as obesity, diabetes and cancer.

For further information on the consultation please contact: Martin O’Neill, Health and Social Care Board on (028) 3741 4615 or Caroline Bloomfield, Public Health Agency on (028) 9031 1611.