Healthy living research for carers

In partnership with Local Solutions, Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) has been conducting research into community health management and healthy lifestyles.  The findings will  contribute to a European programme known as CHANCE (Community Health Management to Enhance Behaviour).

Universities in Germany, Sweden, Austria, Romania and Latvia are partners in the research, which is funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union.

Local Solutions has been working with unpaid carers for many years and is aware of how important it is for carers to have access to good health information. Carers have a high level of responsibility for the welfare of their dependants and it is therefore of paramount importance that they too maximise health opportunities for their own wellbeing to enable them to effectively continue in their caring role.

Although research has been conducted into the general needs of carers, very little attention has been paid to community health management.  To address this gap, a lengthy questionnaire was completed by members of Local Solutions’ carers group, followed by one to one interviews with carers in order to identify health interventions relevant to carers.  As a result, a Food Hygiene course was delivered over four days in February.  The course was a huge success all participants were awarded a Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Basic Food Hygiene Certificate.

The next phase of this Action Research is the production of a DVD about food hygiene relating to cooking our local food favourite … Scouse!  The DVD will be evaluated by carers who have taken part in the course, prior to wider distribution to carers across Liverpool. All recipients will have the opportunity to enter into a further prize draw to promote food safety in the home.