Mens Health Topics and Issues - health of men

H.O.M HIGHLIGHTED IN BRADFORD COUNCIL'S BEACON STATUS BID

November, 2007

In 2001, as part of a grant application to the National Lottery for funding as a Healthy Living Centre, HOM was established as a partnership organisation with Bradford Metropolitan District Council. Although principally staffed by NHS employees the administrative and co-ordinating office of HOM is based within the Council, who also provide management accounting for the project.

This partnership has been acknowledged in the Council's recent Beacon Status application. This has now passed through two stages of vetting and the third and final stage will take place in London in January 2008. The Common Criteria of Assessment for the scheme are:- Leadership, Partnership, Community & Voluntary sector Involvement, User Involvement, and Diversity.

The National Beacon Scheme exists to recognise disseminate and share excellence within the public sector. Successful Beacons receive funding to assist with the dissemination of good practice and innovation in cooperation with the Improvement and Development Agency (IDEA), the Government and other partners; to help improve services nationally. Bradford Council felt that the Authority was well placed to present with partners, examples of good practice under the theme of 'Reducing Health Inequalities'.

One of the key aspects of the HOM project has been the planning of new ideas and programmes for the delivery of men's health services in the workplace. These have been pioneered with Bradford MDC and then rolled out to other employers in the private sector. HOM has also contributed to the Bradford Local Area Agreement in relation to Floor Targets for health and the ‘Children and Young People' and ‘Healthier Communities and Older People' Themes.

In another key part of HOM's delivery, its Health MOT's, these have evolved from general health discussions to much more specific health assessments involving checks e.g. on blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar etc. In these programmes most of the developmental work was piloted with Bradford Council employees i.e targeted at older manual workers on shifts who were less likely than other employees to visit their GP; Please follow the link on the right of the‘Research & Evaluation' page, to view Leeds Metropolitan University 's ‘1st Phase Report 2005' which discusses this work.