Dundee Healthy Living Initiative has grown from a small community health project established in 1993 to a large multi-agency, partnership funded project launched in March 2003. It works in designated, disadvantaged communities across the city to tackle health inequalities in conjunction with other organisations and local people themselves.

To enable Dundee Healthy Living Initiative to grow to its current capacity a bid to the Big Lottery Fund was developed between 2000 and 2002. The key criteria for Healthy Living Centre initiatives were to:

• Promote health in its broadest sense
• Target the most disadvantaged sectors of the population
• Reduce differences in health inequalities and improve the health of the worst off in society

The bid was based around evidence of need gathered through community health needs investigations in 1998/99. 1400 local people were questioned to find out what affected their health, what affected the health of their communities and what could be done to improve health and wellbeing?

The key issues raised during the investigations were:

• Social isolation
• Poor mental wellbeing
• High incidence of smoking
• Lack of exercise opportunities
• Healthy eating on a low income
• Lack of local health advice and information
• Life circumstances

Dundee Healthy Living Initiative tackles these issues through offering a range of healthy activities such as:

• Cooking skills courses
• Weight reduction classes
• Food and Mood
• Exercise classes
• Community Walks
• Tai Chi
• Stress Management Sessions
• Health Information Points
• Health Checks
• Training in health topics
• Smoking Cessation
• Men’s/Women’s Groups
• Health Issues in the Community

Almost £1million of Big Lottery Funds was awarded to Dundee Healthy Living Initiative, which funded the initiative until March 2007. Since then, a number of funding streams have helped sustain the work of the initiative, including Keep Well, Give It Up For Baby and Sexual Health.

The Partnership

Dundee Healthy Living Initiative is a partnership supported by Keep Well, the Health Improvement Fund, Fairer Scotland Fund, NHS Tayside, Dundee CHP and Dundee City Council. It has 4 main aims, which are to:

• Develop local activities to improve health
• Help bring health services into the community
• Provide local health advice and information
• Involve local people in decisions about health

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The Approach

Dundee Healthy Living Initiative uses the community development approach to health, which means it adopts the following principles:

• Local people identifying their own health needs and solutions
• A social model of health
• Reducing health inequalities
• Building capacity to make healthy choices
• Partnership working
• Sustainability
• Collective Action

The Communities

Dundee Healthy Living Initiative works in designated, disadvantaged communities across the city with a focus on:

• Ardler and St. Mary’s
• Kirkton and Mill o’ Mains
• Hilltown and Stobswell
• Mid Craigie, Linlathen
• Charleston and Lochee
• Douglas
• Whitfield

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The Team

The multi-disciplinary team consists of:

• Community Health Workers
• Community Health Nurses
• Smoking Cessation Advisors
• Volunteer Development Worker
• Monitoring Officer
• Manager
• Team Leader (Strategic Development)
• Admin Team
• Outreach Specialist Nurses and Community Specialist Health Nurse