Improving health

Brighton and Hove has its fair share of the health problems seen all over Britain (heart disease, cancer, obesity and the like) but faces some particular local challenges too:

• our population is more likely than average to experience mental health problems;
• the local suicide rate is among the highest in the country;
• the city has very high rates of drug taking, binge drinking, sexually transmitted infections, and teenage pregnancy

Brighton and Hove has some areas with very good health and high life expectancy. In other parts of the city the opposite applies and people will, on average, die six years younger.

Improving the health of local people, especially those in the areas with the poorest health, is our top priority.

Please visit the how to live healthily section of this site for more information.

Related work

The Brighton and Hove Older People Mental Health (OPMH) Planning Framework sets out the vision for the future development and commissioning of services to support older people with mental health needs and their carers in Brighton and Hove, for 2009/10 to 2011/12.

It has been developed by NHS Brighton and Hove and Local Authority in conjunction with individuals from various stakeholder groups.

• Older people mental health planning framework 2009/10 - 2011/12
  (1mb Word file)
• Appendices (205kb Word file)

There are around 3100 people with dementia in Brighton and Hove, however we know that only around one third of these people have a formal diagnosis.

The National Dementia Strategy aims to increase awareness of the condition, ensuring early diagnosis and intervention as well as improving the quality of care for people with dementia and their carers.

The Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia aims to push further and faster to improve radically the quality of life for people living with dementia, their families and carers by 2015.

In early 2012, Brighton and Hove clinical commissioning group worked with the local authority and key partners to set out plans for the development of dementia services in the city over the next two years and how these work towards implementing the National Dementia Strategy locally.

• Brighton and Hove Joint Dementia Plan 2012-13 (89kb Word file)
• Equality Impact Assessment on the plan (730kb Word file)
• A paper setting out the background to the plan which was signed off by the Joint Commissioning Board in February 2012 (4mb Word file)
• National Dementia Strategy (2mb pdf file)

If you would like more information on these developments please contact the Dementia Commissioner on 01273 295490.

 

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