A Sandwell Council employee has won a national award for her work in helping hundreds of people in the borough to lose weight.
Maxine Dixon has won the UK Public Health Practitioner Award for Improving Public Health Practice for the council’s much-praised Weigh2GO programme.
Maxine is a weight management project manager in Public Health at Sandwell Council and leads on the Weigh2GO programme, which uses a combination of the latest ‘smart scale’ technology from Activ8rlives and their Activ8rlives⁴ Health+Wellness App with good old-fashioned community partnership work.
The programme is run through community partners, including the voluntary sector, libraries, leisure centres and Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospital, which are supported to establish their own bespoke weight management support groups tailored to the needs of the people who use their services.
All of these partners are trained to effectively run the programme and they support their clients with access to the smart scales. This allows individuals to weight themselves independently, receive real-time weight data through their smartphones, track and monitor their weight through the Activ8rlives App.
The Weigh2GO programme allows people to be in control of their own weight management plans while harnessing the power of local community groups to offer support.
There are no joining fees, no expensive diet products and no stigma involved in the programme.
Lisa McNally, Sandwell’s Director of Public Health, said: “We are proud that our public health employees have won another top award and Maxine has helped so many people on their weight loss journey.”
The programme has proven to be popular and Maxine’s analysis of the data available, through the UK-based Activ8rlives web portal, shows that hundreds of people have engaged with the programme and been successful in achieving a healthier weight.
Library Manager, Jean Fenn, who host the Acti8rlives smart scales, said: “Library customers can monitor and access information about their weight and BMI. This is a great weight management tool and it’s so easy to use. The scales are used by individuals and groups and are a great addition to our health and well-being resources.”
Jenny Wright, Health and Wellbeing Manager for Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospital NHS Trust, said: “The programme has been a huge success with NHS employees and subsequently NHS staff have encouraged patient groups to participate in the programme through local community groups.”
Dr Kevin Auton, Managing Director of medical device innovator Aseptika (Activ8rlives), commented “We started discussions with Maxine about 4 years ago to assist her in developing her vision of a light-touch community self-management weight management tool that would help tackle Sandwell’s high excess weight rates (overweight and obese) in adults. The programme has been hugely successful and uniquely meets the needs and requirements of local people in tackling this issue. Maxine is a worthy recipient of the UK Public Health Practitioner Award for Improving Public Health Practice.”
– End –
Notes to the Editor:
Sandwell Leisure Trust are right behind Sandwell Public Heath by offering use of Activ8rlives Body Analysers at the Wednesbury Leisure Centre, Haden Hill Leisure Centre, Tipton Leisure Centre & Portway Lifestyle Centre.
Healthy Sandwell’s Weigh2GO is the self-monitoring weight management programme in Sandwell available for people who live or have a GP in Sandwell and are BMI 23 or above.
An individual can sign up to use one of the Activ8rlives Body Analysers and weigh themselves at a time and place that is convenient for them. Their weight data is instantly sent to their smartphone or email address enabling the user to track and monitor their progress with access to a range of online support and information.
The Smart scales are in various community venues across the borough including:
• Libraries;
• Community centres; and
• Leisure centres.
The Activ8rlives Body Analyser deployed in the Weigh2GO programme uses the latest in smart scale bioelectrical impedance testing to give the user the accurate weight, body mass index (BMI), muscle mass %, body fat %, visceral fat rating, bone mass % and water % readings. These readings are sent to their phone’s Activ8rlives App in seconds via Bluetooth where graphs are produced giving the user full control over their body composition changes throughout whatever goals they may have over time.
Further information:
Activ8rlives, Activ8rlives.com and Active⁺me are trademarks of Aseptika Ltd.
For further details, please contact Jessica Auton on +44 (0)1480 352 821 or email jessica.auton@aseptika.com
For more information about the smart scales and online application technology or if you’re thinking about setting up a similar programme in your area and would like advice on how to use technology to do this, call Activ8rlives on 01480 352 821 (www.activ8rlives.com).