Organisations in West Wales that can help improve your overall health and well-being have signed a charter committing to do so.

At a recent Social Model for Health and Wellbeing Summit, leaders, from Hywel Dda University Health Board, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire County Councils, and organisations such as the Welsh Government, Public Health Wales, University Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD), plus regional voluntary organisations signed the same charter demonstrating a joint commitment to building and supporting healthier communities.

The Social Model for Health and Wellbeing (SMfHW) Charter and its principles, focuses on actions to reduce health inequalities, enabling people and communities to have more control over their health to achieve and maintain the best possible health. This model promotes prevention, early identification of disease and timely intervention.

It also highlights that the requirements for health and prospects for good health are everyone’s responsibility, including health services, governments, local authorities, the voluntary sector, industry, academia, communities and individuals themselves.

Dr Ardiana Gjini, Hywel Dda UHB Director of Public Health, said: “The summit provided a platform for meaningful conversation and exploring further joint working.

“We look forward to working with our partners to embed the principles and deliver on the commitment of the charter, embracing a whole-system approach to health and wellbeing,” she added.

UK experts who contributed to the summit included Cormac Russell, Founding Director of Nurture Development, who discussed the devastating effects of social isolation and the need to be people-led, and Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Professor of Epidemiology at University College London who demonstrated that: "Health inequalities are not inevitable; they are a result of the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work, and age.”

For more information about the Social Model for Health and Wellbeing, visit hduhb.nhs.wales/SMFHW.