Overweight to get their own trainers

Overweight and unfit people in Dudley are to be assigned their own health trainers who will accompany them on trips to the gym, tell them what to eat and encourage smokers to quit.

Ten people will be appointed as health trainers at a cost of £260,000 a year to help people get into shape in some of the borough's most deprived areas. Areas to be targeted by the programme, which has already been introduced successfully in other Black Country boroughs, are Castle and Priory, St Thomas's, Netherton and Woodside, Brockmoor, Pensnett and Brierley Hill.

They will add to the work already being undertaken by 65 volunteers across the borough encouraging people to exercise more and to lead a more healthy lifestyle.

GPs will be able to refer patients to the trainers if they approach them for help or alternatively they can refer themselves directly.

Although the scheme will mainly be limited to the identified areas, people living elsewhere in the borough will be able to take advantage of the service if it is felt they are in need of help.

The scheme will be run by Dudley Primary Care Trust. PCT spokeswoman Laura Broster said: "We have been given the go-ahead to recruit 10 health trainers in the current financial year and we hope to start interviewing soon.

"They will be able to offer people one to one advice and support looking at all aspects of someone's lifestyle."

The service is particularly aimed at people living in deprived communities as national research shows people living in these areas are less aware of the importance of eating healthily and exercising regularly.

l In Walsall a health trainers service was started in January 2007 in five wards with a total of 300 people signing up to the scheme in the first five months.

The cost of the project will be met fom the Primary Care Trust's budget which is allocated to them by the Department of Health. The government has stated it wants all PCTs in the country to set up a health trainers' programme.