Health & Wellbeing Coaches - Recruitment Support

They support people with their physical and mental health and wellbeing. They use coaching skills, models of behaviour change and positive psychology to guide people on how to meet their personal health and wellbeing goals. Coaches support people to think through their own challenges and goals, increasing their self-efficacy, motivation and commitment to move forwards to make changes to their lifestyle and improve their health. 

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For some patients the earliest stages of health coaching involve generating enough psychological safety to start to engage with support. Many people need this initial confidence building support before they can develop their own health and wellbeing goals.

Health and wellbeing coaches are an effective intervention for improving self-management, by developing people’s motivation, knowledge, skills and confidence around a variety of issues/conditions.

The Health and Wellbeing Coach role within Personalised Care

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The Role of a Health & Wellbeing Coach in Primary Care

Health and wellbeing coaches work with people with physical and/or mental health conditions, people with long-term conditions and those at risk of developing them. They focus on improving health related outcomes where lifestyle modification and self-management have a significant impact on outcomes and prognosis, by working with the person to set personalised goals.

How can Health & Wellbeing Coaches support in General Practice?

There is significant evidence into the effectiveness of health coaching (see appendix one and NHS England Health Coaching Guide). Internationally it is a profession with standards, accreditation and a strong research base.

Evaluations show that health coaching can produce positive effects on:

  • adoption of healthy behaviours, improving physical activity, weight management, body mass index (BMI), blood glucose levels (HBA1c) and dietary fat

  • people’s motivation to self-manage, patient activation and self-efficacy

  • patient satisfaction and quality of life (What is the evidence?).

Resources

Health and Wellbeing Coach - Overview of the role
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