Friday - March 20, 2009

Well-meaning ‘snoops’ are being recruited by the Government . It’s for our own good.

I had posted something the other day to which our Dr. Jeff said;

“Gawd, monitoring the trash.  What will they think of next?  Re-educating people who like soda pop?  Too much sugar is bad for you, can’t have that going on.

Well Doc, as it happens .......
Your question could not have been timed better.

‘Snoops’ to nag their friends to live healthier lives
Well-meaning ‘snoops’ are being recruited by the Government to nag their colleagues, family and neighbours into living healthier lives.

By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Last Updated: 8:18AM GMT 20 Mar 2009

Public health “mentors” will be enlisted by the NHS to offer ‘on the spot’ advice in their local neighbourhood when they see people smoking, eating or drinking too much.

The Government hopes that the volunteers will help to get across its messages on healthy living in a new and influential way but the plans have been criticised as evidence of the creeping ‘nanny state’.

Speaking at the Royal Society of Arts yesterday , Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, said mentors could be “amazingly successful” and that he hoped that they could revolutionise the nation’s health.

The mentors, who as volunteers are not paid, are expected to work to influence the people around them, offering advice to workmates, family and friends about how they should change their unhealthy habits.

Eating a third fried breakfast of the week in the office canteen, having a drink ‘for the road’ at your local pub or chain-smoking another cigarette while waiting for the bus could all see the mentors spring into action to offer the Government’s advice.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said that it was hoped that mentors would spread the word among “people they come in contact with on a daily basis, including their friends and neighbours, and also be able to point them to NHS services, such as smoking cessation services”.

Ministers are concerned that some people are turned off by its traditional methods of advising on public health, including large-scale advertising drives such as the recent £75 million Change4Life campaign.

But critics warned that the public was increasingly being “nannied” over their health. The latest example of this was a nursery in Essex where toddlers were told to badger their parents to stop smoking.

The same NHS trust has also been accused of using taxpayers’ money to bribe pregnant women into giving up cigarettes, offering them £100 if they stop smoking.

Martin Dockerell, from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), the anti-smoking charity, said: “If you get the mentoring scheme right and if you manage to turn things around so it seems that healthy behaviour is not abnormal then that can be very powerful.

“If, however, you are trying to be the only mum on the estate whose kids don’t go to McDonalds, or the only 19-year-old who doesn’t drink in the park, then that is not going to work.”

MORE RIGHT HERE

Posted by peiper     on 03/20/2009 at 08:31 AM   
Filed Under: • Government • Health-Medicine • UK •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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