About The Well Man Pilot Projects

Click here to find out where these Well Man clinics are operating.

The health of Scottish men is poor. On average people living in Scotland experience worse health and earlier death than their UK and EU counterparts. Although many aspects of health amongst the male population have improved over the last few years life expectancy for men in Scotland remains amongst the worst in Europe. In addition the health of men living in the most deprived communities has improved at a slower rate than that of their more affluent compatriots. For example although male life expectancy in Scotland as a whole has increased by 3% in recent years in some of the most deprived parts of Scotland it has decreased by nearly the same amount.

Given this information, an initiative was set in place to address these issues and to improve the health of men in Scotland.

The Partnership Agreement states that:

“The Scottish Executive will support further improvements to health screening services and improve accessibility to those services by developing and piloting a range of innovative programmes…..

……including well man clinics.”

Men are sometimes perceived to be reluctant to talk about their health, never mind consider the need for a regular check up. We know for example that between the ages of 15 and 64 men attend their GP practice almost half as often as women. But does this matter? The figures below would suggest that yes it possibly does matter.

• 62% of men are overweight or obese,
• 33% of men drink more than the recommended weekly limit,
• only 38% of men claim to undertake regular physical activity,
• the suicide rate is up by 250% in last 20 years amongst young men.

There is clearly a need to encourage men to consider their own health, and to understand the impact on them of the lifestyle choices they have made. However we must also realise that if we are to target the men who are either denied health services because they are socially excluded (by either their age, faith/religious beliefs, sexuality, disability, race/ethnicity) or because of a general lack of interest or concern we have to consider different ways of working. For the purposes of this document, reference shall be made to both of the previous as “hard to reach”.

We have to consider how to engage men:

• to understand their needs and priorities and how we can serve them better, and/or
• to capture their interest and to help them to understand their lifestyle choices.

Health improvement is not simply for health professionals. Partnership of all key stakeholders is vital. To allow men to achieve the goal of improved health these men will require the support of all the agencies and groups contributing together in a shared partnership with a joint commitment to education and promoting healthy choices and most importantly, supporting men in making those choices.

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Strategy and Model

The strategy that has been developed is based on a model used by NHS Forth Valley since September 2001.

This model highlights three key principles which we believe are crucial for the success of pilots. The three principles are:

• Establishing strong community links,
• Developing appropriate support mechanisms, and
• A comprehensive health assessment

Strong Community Links

The potential for forging strong links to the community, demonstrated by the NHS Forth Valley model is particularly attractive.

Appropriate Support Mechanisms

If men are going to have a chance to improve their health then they require appropriate support mechanisms to be available.

Comprehensive Health Assessment

The NHS Forth Valley model has been based around the provision of a comprehensive health assessment delivered in a GP centre by trained nurses. This is one way of delivering the health assessment and has the advantage of allowing some control over the numbers attending the clinic and allowing a knowledge base to be established. It is then possible to go on to provide outreach clinics within the community.

Aims

The aims of the policy are:

• To promote healthier lifestyles and attitudes among men,
• To provide men with the opportunity to undertake a health assessment and to obtain advice and support on health and lifestyle issues,
• To effectively engage all men.

The aim of the pilot projects are to test whether the well-man approach is likely to make an effective contribution to these policy objectives, and to identify what works, and what doesn’t in pursuing health improvement strategies. In particular, they are intended to:

• test out effective ways of engaging men to take action from health advice and follow on the advice,
• assess whether these pilots are effective in targeting the take-up of services by hard to reach men,
• to assess the short term impact of well men clinics on the health and well being of men in the pilot communities,
• to identify effective mechanisms of support for men and how that support can be maintained.

Evaluation

It is important that the impact of well-man clinics can be monitored and evaluated. There are two aspects to this:

• monitoring the attendance and use of services;
• a full independent evaluation.

A significant part of the pilot is to establish what works and what does not and to be in a position to share that knowledge.

For more information about the Well Man Pilot Projects, please email info@mhfs.org.uk.