How Community Health Trainers in Manchester enable positive lifestyle changes

Introduction

When the NHS and local partners launched the Health Trainer Programme in Manchester in 2006, co-production was not much talked about. But as Governance International found out when we interviewed Delana Lawson, the Programme manager of this service from its early days, the idea behind the Community Health Trainers is not to tell local people how to live a healthier life but to empower them to develop and use their own skills to change their behaviour.

Health Trainers are based on the concept of getting help from your next door neighbours.  Most of us know the basic lifestyle messages given out by experts – indeed; we are bombarded by the media about them. However, we all find it difficult to put this advice and guidance into practice.  Health Trainers are local people who have been trained to have skills to help make a difference to the health of individuals.

Find out how the Manchester Health Trainer Programme has turned co-production principles into practice to achieve behaviour change.