Wellspring Healthy Living Centre

Wellspring literally bestrides the neighbourhood: built bang in the middle of Beam Street, in Barton Hill, Bristol, it's been altering the life journeys, as well as the A - Zs, of thousands in the neighbourhood ever since. 

The area of East Bristol has many high-rises, and an average life expectancy which is 9 years less than in the more prosperous parts of the city.  There's a large, recently arrived Somali community and so the service has to attract people whose English may be limited or who are dealing with the shock of dislocation.

Wellspring's wood-and-glass building mixes modern architecture with natural materials. The stained glass, curving stairways and windows high in the roof  make this the most unmedical of 'health' buildings.  At its core are the traditional medical services that you'd expect from any GP.  But as Dr  Peter Brindle says, 'I've got a vast number of referral options now, which makes my job incredibly easy and enjoyable.'

Rooms upstairs are rented out to complementary therapy practitioners who offer reduced rates that locals can afford.  There are also large rooms for all sorts of movement classes, from salsa to tai chi.  An art studio helps people produce really good work with the helped of trained artists.  If some of the offer seems to stray far from a narrow definition of 'health', this is deliberate.  The classes are for the whole neighbourhood, not just the 'ill'.  Locals get involved in Wellspring long before they have a specific health concern to address.

A recent innovation has been Wellspring's teaching kitchen.  It gradually dawned on practitioners that there was little point in issuing diet prescriptions to patients who had no idea how to cook.  Now young mothers, teenagers, people with diabetes or other health conditions can come for a series of classes and take home the food that they create.

At the furthest extreme, Wellspring's lifestyle interventions can act as an alternative to surgery.  Obese patients are initially offered 'Slimming World' coupons. But patients who are large enough for liposuction or gastric band procedures are offered a far more comprehensive service.  Cookery classes are complemented by Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to help people adjust to the idea of being much slimmer.  Meanwhile a physiotherapist tailors an exercise programme which will still be possible even if the patient has a bad back or hips. 

This access to an intensive group of interventions, rather than trying one approach only after the previous one has failed, means that people can be supported in life-changing situations.

One output of Wellspring is a drop-in complementary health clinic at the local youth centre.  Surprisingly the heaviest users are young Somali men aged 13 - 19.  The activity helps them manage the stress often experienced by people who have to leave their countries as refugees.

The centre is sustained by practice-based commissioning, backed up by several different pots of money including BIG Lottery, NHS Bristol, Bristol City Council and in the short term, New Deal for Communities.  A management board of local residents have the power of veto over any new centre plans.  As Centre Manager Ian Lawry says 'Eventually the staff here will move on, but the way that the centre is set up means that the people who use the centre will always have a say in how it is run.'