With any initiative, engaging the whole team will give you the best chance of success. You may be a HLP or on your way to becoming one – remember it is part of the quality payment criteria and you may even have a health champion trained in store. Health promotion and engagement with the local community is a key part of the HLP framework and even if you aren’t an HLP, following this ethos will inevitably aid engagement with the WE100™ and in turn, improve the lives of not only your older customers, but your local community as a whole.

Ways in which you can use your team to engage with customers include:

• Set up a stand in the pharmacy to highlight healthy living, e.g. nutritional advice booklets, signposts to nearby gyms, local social activities, etc.
• Run a campaign in the pharmacy specifically for older people, e.g. during the winter to encourage them to undertake flu vaccinations and look after themselves during the colder months where they might be most vulnerable
• Liaise with GP surgeries and other local healthcare providers such as dentists, chiropodists, osteopaths, etc. to highlight the role of the pharmacy team and getting them to signpost patients to the pharmacy
• Get the pharmacy team to volunteer within the local community and organise activities such as walks or evening book clubs at the pharmacy/in a local café.
• Download the Promoting long healthy lives: the role of pharmacy factsheet for your team here