Health and Wellbeing Coaches support people to take pro-active steps to improve the way they manage their physical and mental health conditions, based on what matters to them. They support patients in identifying, setting and achieving their health goals and encouraging proactive prevention of new and existing illnesses.
This approach is based on using strong communication and negotiation skills and supports personal choice and positive risk taking. Some of the things they can help with include; managing weight, introducing healthy habits and managing low mood and/or anxiety.
Health and Wellbeing Coaches are expected to adhere to a code of ethics and conduct in line with the NHS England and NHS Improvement Health coaching Implementation and Quality Summary Guide.
What does the role involve?
Health and Wellbeing Coaches holistically support patients’ wider health and well-being, public health, and contribute to the reduction of health inequalities. This is done by:
Health and Wellbeing Coaches usually carry a caseload of patients who it is deemed would most benefit from health coaching. The aim is to work with patients to identify their goals and support them in managing their own health and wellbeing and live independently.
What benefit does this role bring to primary care?
This role will play an increasingly important role with Primary Health Care teams, supporting patients to make positive choices that will enable them to live healthier lives and therefore relieving the burden of ill-health within the practice population. They work closely as part of the team, and in particular with social prescribing linkworkers.
For more information on health and wellbeing coaches please click here.
Our Health & Wellbeing Coaches
Luke Sadler
Luke began working for the North Arden PCN early December 2023. He has a background in Sports and exercise development having studied and achieved a HNC qualification for this from south Leicestershire college. He is now in his final year at open university for his bachelor’s degree in sport and exercise coaching. Luke also has his care certificate and many CPD accredited courses ranging from drug and alcohol abuse to eating disorders taken when he did his first support work role.
Luke began his career path in the Royal Navy but due to being allergic to anaesthetic was medically discharged in 2017. From there he went into personal training and has successfully changed many lives through health and lifestyle changes.
During the pandemic when the gyms closed, he took on his first support worker role, helping people with their life skills and managing their stress and mental health. Since then, he has always juggled both industries as he has found them to be equally rewarding.
Prior to joining our PCN as a Health and Wellbeing coach Luke was a progression coach for young people between the ages of 16 to 25, a role that he thoroughly enjoyed. In this new role he will be dealing with a wider range of people with different issues and is looking forward to helping them solve those issues and supporting them throughout their journeys.
Luke has learnt a lot in his varied roles and hopes to continue working with individuals to improve their wellbeing and quality of life. His professional interests include psychology. He particularly enjoyed doing his assignments in his degree and is really interested in delving into people’s thought processes and helping to motivate them.
He also has an interest in weight management, having done so well for all his one to one and online clients throughout his personal training career he finds it extremely rewarding when a client tells him they were able to play with their children without getting out of breath.
Health and wellbeing coach is a relatively new role within the NHS, one that Luke sees an important need for. He hopes to continue to learn and grow within the role and is looking forward to expanding his knowledge and skills to better help his patients as the role develops.
Wendie Fraser
Wendie joined us at the North Arden PCN in December 2023 as a Health and Wellbeing coach. Previous to this she had been employed as a Care Co-Ordinator with Rural North PCN.
Whilst there are some similarities with previous work, Wendie feels this new role is more about supporting people to increase their ability to self-manage, regulate their motivation levels and help them keep to their commitment to changing their lifestyles.
She has been a fully qualified Personal trainer, Class instructor and Nutrition coach for the last 15 years and is constantly updating her skills and knowledge in this field. Wendie started her fitness journey working in the gym delivering personalised gym inductions, GP referrals and teaching exercise classes.
From there she trained to be a PT trainer and then took on the role of the Duty manager at three sites ran by North Warwickshire borough council. Wendie has found this work very rewarding and is still currently involved in providing PT sessions and delivering fitness classes.
Wendie is passionate about helping people and thrives on challenges. As such she is very excited about her new role and the challenges it may bring.