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Healthy Living Alliance
The Healthy Living Alliance (HLA) aims to give everyone an equal chance to improve their health and well-being. It is the only national organisation focusing specifically on healthy living in its broadest sense and on measures to prevent ill-health. Launched in 2005, the HLA now represents a wide range of healthy living initiatives throughout England.
Healthy Living Alliance Click to visit their web site.
What is healthy living?
Preventive health can be described as the actions taken to help people avoid developing illnesses or to prevent them from worsening. For example, cancer prevention includes avoiding risk factors (such as smoking, obesity, lack of exercise) and increasing protective factors (such as getting regular physical activity, staying at a healthy weight, and having a healthy diet).
Aims
The purpose of the HLA is to co-ordinate and provide leadership for organisations providing preventive health and lifestyle solutions in the voluntary and community sector. It also provides a national voice and drives forward knowledge of preventive healthcare with a view to providing high standards and consistent messages to the public.
The provision of health services in the public sector has traditionally been driven from a treatment-based approach - you present yourself to your GP, hospital or healthcare practitioner who is hopefully able to diagnose your condition and provide a cure.
Overall population growth, coupled with the fact we are living longer, means more and more pressure is being put on the clinical services that are provided as part of the NHS. In addition, a growing number of people are realising the long-term benefits of adopting a healthier lifestyle and choosing to take active responsibility for their own health and well-being.
Healthy living initiatives exist all around the country to help people to help themselves. The more people we can motivate to make positive decisions about their health, the more illnesses, such as heart disease and diabetes, we will be able to prevent, and ultimately people's quality of life will improve.