The Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy (JHWS) is a critical document that guides our work and the work of the NHS and other key partners in Bath and North East Somerset.
To help guide the direction of the strategy, we are asking for your thoughts on what is important in keeping you healthy and well, to help us know what we need to focus on and what we should include in the strategy.
Why we are consulting
We know that lots of different things contribute to making you healthy and well. This includes factors, such as:
- where you live
- your job
- decisions you make about your lifestyle
- access to health services
- access to transport
- access to education
- access to healthy food and enough to eat
- the cost of living
For example, living in poor-quality housing may mean that you are exposed to damp and mould, which can cause respiratory problems. The stress of living and dealing with this situation can impact your mental health and affect your immune system, meaning you are ill more often than usual.
We have a lot of data on different areas and issues that may impact your health and wellbeing, as you can see in our Strategic Evidence Base. However, this data only tells us part of the story and not the full picture of health and wellbeing needs in the area.
This is why we want to ask you about the health and wellbeing priorities that you think are most important. We will use your responses alongside the other evidence and data to identify which priorities the JHWS will focus on.
How we will engage with you
This consultation is the first step in the update of the new JHWS. Your feedback in this first step will help us establish the key priorities we will take forward in the strategy.
Read more about the expected progression of this process on our project timeline