day in the life of . . .
. . . Charlotte Musgrove Public Health Nutritionist
Charlotte Musgrove is a Public Health Nutritionist working as a Healthy Eating Coordinator in the Food Team at South Gloucestershire Council. Before moving to South Gloucestershire in 2008, Charlotte worked at the British Nutrition Foundation for four years, as a Nutrition Scientist on the Education Team.
I have to say that my role at South Gloucestershire Council is pretty var- ied. Over the two years that I have been in post, I have been involved in a mix of policy and strategic issues, as well as delivering progammes and initiatives on the ground. It’s a Tuesday morning and I arrive at work, check my in-tray and find a few items of post waiting for me. Once I get to my desk, I go through the various envelopes and open them. As I get to the last one, a smile spreads across my face. It’s from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) to let me know that a group of teen- age girls that did a training course with me a few weeks previously, have all passed their Level 2 Award in Healthier Food and Special Diets exam (this used to be the CIEH Level 2 Award in Nutrition). I call the youth worker who had asked me to run the course to let her know that that the group have all passed. She’s over the moon (as I am to be perfectly honest)! It is moments like this that make my job worthwhile. We briefly discuss some ideas of how we could best present the certificates to the girls, so that we mark their achievement and congratulate them.
Wriggle and jiggle
After my phone call, I make myself a quick cup of tea and check my emails, before heading to a meeting I have with colleagues in the Active Lifestyles Team and the managers of the Sure Start Children’s Centres in South Gloucestershire. We’re meet- ing to discuss how healthy eating and physical activity sessions can be
sustainably delivered in the children’s centres. We have already got the ball
rolling, as the Active Lifestyles Team have delivered a series of ‘wriggle and jiggle’ (physical activity) sessions in the children’s centres and have also trained the staff to deliver these sessions themselves. I’ve also provided training to the staff on nutrition for the under fives and run cook and eat workshops to give them ideas of reci- pes and food activities that they could use in their ‘stay and play’ sessions in the centres.
The next step with these projects is to evaluate what has been done so far so that we can determine what has been achieved. We also need to determine what further training and support is needed by the staff in the children’s centres, as the service has recently been restructured and staff have changed positions. The meeting goes well and it’s good to have the support of the man- agement team for the work I’m doing in with the staff. We arrange some future training sessions and a review meeting in a few weeks time.
Wellbeing in the workplace
After my meeting I grab some lunch with a few colleagues, which gives us all a chance to catch up on life in and out of work! Then it’s time to organise some health promotion resources for an event I’m involved in tomorrow morning. My colleagues in the Health, Safety and Well-Being Team have organised a seminar with businesses and workplaces in the local area to
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promote health and safety, but also to highlight the importance of wellbe- ing in the workplace. I’m taking part to promote the importance of healthy eating and to raise awareness of a well balanced diet. I regularly use a collection of healthy eating toolkits which visually show people how much sugar, fat and salt there is in popular foods, so I need to get these ready along with some leaflets and posters. The toolkits are always a talking point and never seem to fail to surprise people how much sugar, salt and fat there is in some of the food they eat. This really helps me to get healthy eating message across. I talk to people about checking food labels; encouraging them to think about what they are eating on a regu- lar basis and how they could make small changes to the food they eat to make it healthier for them, rather than telling them to ‘never eat take away pizza again’!
Cultural diversity I’m also responsible for organising the food section of an event that the Council has coming up in October that celebrates cultural diversity. Later in the afternoon I’m meeting with one of the guys in my team who is an Envi- ronmental Health Officer who knows the local food businesses in South Gloucestershire a lot better than I do! I want to talk to him to see who we could get to participate in the event. It’s a bit of a juggling act and I need to get the right balance between the number of food businesses I have taking part, making sure that they are available to attend, as the event is on a Saturday. My aim is to ensure enough cultures are represented and that the food businesses involved can offer healthy eating from a nutrition as well as a food hygiene point of view. Thankfully, we still have a few months to plan this one!
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Julieanne@pjlocums.co.uk NHDmag.com Aug/Sept '10 - issue 57 39
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