Meet Yaxley's Health and Wellbeing Coach
Liam Rushton is our Health and Wellbeing Coach, helping patients to adopt healthy habits and ways to boost their physical and mental health.
He is a qualified personal trainer with a sports science background and says early intervention can make a huge difference to conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol and heart attacks.
He joined our Yaxley team 18 months ago and undertook initial consultations by telephone or video due to Covid restrictions. Now the majority are face-to-face as it can be easier to gauge concerns, build relationships and monitor progress.
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Liam, who is also a qualified cancer rehabilitation instructor, said:
'It is getting people to understand why it is important to start healthy habits and change bad ones that may have formed over a lifetime. It comes down to management of long-term conditions, physical and mental health and behaviour change.
'Building rapport is important as patients need to buy into the process. I always ask "where do you want to see yourself in two years?" as it triggers motivation. There is an element of accountability as I book follow up consultations to ask about progress.'
An initial consultation may last for around an hour and then, depending on the condition and treatment, follow up appointments are around half an hour. Liam deals with around 70 patients per week, tracking their journey and giving encouragement and feedback:
'We have achieved great results, such as halving cholesterol levels! It's a lovely feeling to know that you have played a part in improving someone's health, quality of life and longevity as the ethos of a health and wellbeing coach is that prevention is better than cure.'