Lanarkshire college to ape Finland health campaign in a bid to boost life expectancy
New College Lanarkshire has set the ambitious target of helping improve the lowest healthy life expectancy in Scotland
A Scots college is looking to Finland in a bid to try to boost its community’s dire healthy life expectancy rate.
People in North Lanarkshire are spending around seven fewer years in good health than the Scottish average.
In response, New College Lanarkshire has launched its Better Than 52 campaign to educate locals about wellbeing and fitness.
“The state pension age is 67 so there’s a massive gap where people are actually still having to try and work yet they’re not healthy at that time,” Lynn Orr, Head of the College's Department of Dental Health and Social Care, said.
“This campaign is our direct response to these statistics.”
The college has been looking to Finland as an example.
It had the highest rates of heart disease in the world but managed to improve the health of its citizens with a community education campaign.
Ms Orr added: “We're hoping to follow a similar process.
“Key to Finland’s success was about giving medical knowledge in a way the community would really listen to through local voices and not really using experts.
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“New College Lanarkshire is in a unique place in our community to do that.”
This week the Coatbridge institution held a women’s health symposium with a men’s health event to follow.
Feedback from students and the community found that there is a distrust of politicians and the media when it comes to listening to medical information.
The college says it, then, has a real role to play in helping share health advice.
Ms Orr said health and wellbeing is now woven throughout the college curriculum - and changes have been made to the campus.
Staff found students were veering towards “energy drink addiction”, drinking three or four a day.
So water foundations with flavoured water have been installed around the campus.
New College Lanarkshire has also launched a free online course on women's health as part of their campaign to improve health in Lanarkshire.
The module was launched at the college's Women's Health Symposium on Tuesday.
The module - Women's Health and Wellbeing Across the Lifespan - can be accessed without charge through the college's online platform, The Learning Well.
The SCQF Level 5 module offers an introduction to how biology, social context, and structural inequalities shape women's health outcomes; and offers practical guidance for improving health.
Professor Anna Glasier, the Scottish government's Women's Health Champion, told the symposium that a focus on women's health was essential.
She said: "Women experience different health problems from men and more women in Scotland, 36 per cent of women, report long-term health conditions.
“Disability-free life expectancy is lower for women."
The symposium was the first event in the college's Better Than 52 campaign, which is a response to the low levels of healthy life expectancy in North Lanarkshire.
Christopher Moore, Chief Executive of New College Lanarkshire, added: "A healthy life expectancy in North Lanarkshire of 52 years is not what any of us want or can accept.
“At New College Lanarkshire we are resolved to play our part to secure healthier lives for people in our communities.
“We know that education leads to healthier lives.
“Our Better Than 52 programme is the bold, focused and determined way in which we will rise to this crucial challenge."
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