From evidence to impact: making prevention work for people and communities - a Ways to Wellness perspective
Hear from Ways to Wellness Chief Executive Sandra Mitchell-Phillips as she reflects back over two seemingly very different conferences.
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“Over recent weeks, I’ve benefited from the chance to attend two events that, while approaching health from different perspectives, left me reflecting on the same questions. How do we turn evidence about prevention into meaningful action, and how can we ensure that that action leads to lasting change for people and communities, and ultimately pays dividends for our healthcare system, which is under pressure like never before?
“At the 2026 British Society of Lifestyle Medicine (BSLM) conference, I was particularly interested in discussions around neighbourhood health and how we embed an evidence-based medical approach such as we prototype at Ways to Wellness, which uses therapeutic lifestyle changes to prevent, manage, and reverse chronic diseases, within communities. Meanwhile, at The King's Fund event, ‘From evidence to impact: making prevention stick’, the focus was on what it takes to move from understanding the case for prevention to making it a sustained reality.
“I feel these conversations are closely connected, because we know many of the factors that influence health exist or take place well beyond the clinical environment. Our communities, relationships, employment status, financial circumstances, and the opportunities that are open to us, all combine to influence and shape our short and long-term health and wellbeing.”
The conditions for prevention
“So we need to think beyond the apparent simplicity of preventing a particular disease, or encouraging an individual to make a healthier choice. As a society, we need to create the conditions that make healthier lives possible, but to do that we need to understand what those lives really look and feel like. That means real people’s experiences must be central to the conversation before any change can begin to be successfully implemented.
“On an individual level, this is illustrated by the space created by our specialist social prescribing link workers at Ways to Wellness to understand what matters to each client. They also take an active part in the multi-disciplinary teams they are part of, to ensure support is not provided in silo, but as part of a stronger joined-up model of care that brings different perspectives together quickly, with the focus firmly on the person rather than only their diagnosis or the specific service they happen to be accessing.
“As our evidence demonstrates, this person-centred approach is fundamental if we want to support people to make changes that last.”
Keeping the train on its rails
“It was particularly interesting therefore to hear Dr Paul Chadwick discussing behaviour change and the evidence behind it at BSLM 2026. As he alluded to at the event, supporting someone to make a change is not simply about telling them what they would benefit from, but about understanding their starting point, including what matters to them, what might get in the way and given that, what could help them move forward.
“A metaphor shared at the conference captures this particularly well: the ‘Third Rail of Change’, which involves thinking of change as a railway track. One rail represents opportunity. The second represents capability, and both of these are needed to create a path towards change. But there is another essential element - motivation. Ultimately, the two-rail track may set the direction of travel, but it can’t connect the train to the power that will make it run.
“This is a useful way of thinking about prevention, as not everyone has the chance to take advantage of the opportunities provided for them to improve their health. Someone may have the motivation to make a change, but lack the confidence, resources, support, or practical capability to do so. Equally, we can provide services and opportunities without ever connecting them to what matters to the individual.”
We all have a role
“This is where the role of communities becomes so important. The move towards neighbourhood health allows us to think differently about how health is created and supported. It recognises the NHS is a vital part of the picture, but it cannot be, nor should it be, the whole picture. Local government, voluntary and community organisations, employers, schools, community groups, and residents themselves all have an important role to play.
“Social prescribing sits naturally within that landscape because it can help connect people with the wider resources around them, but it also provides the time and relational approach needed to support someone to make change in areas they actually want change.
“This really matters in the context of health inequalities, because it’s very easy to talk about prevention in terms of individual behaviour. Eat better, be more active, stop smoking, manage stress, for example. But people's ability to make those changes is profoundly influenced by the individual circumstances in which they live, and they can be volatile.
“Telling someone to be more active means something very different to them than it might another individual if they live somewhere without safe or accessible spaces in which to exercise. Encouraging someone to eat well is different if financial pressures are making food choices difficult. And advising someone to take steps to improve their wellbeing doesn’t address the reality they may face around social isolation or insecure employment.
“Prevention therefore must move beyond individual responsibility, and take into account opportunity, capability, and motivation, as well as the environments in which people live their lives.”
The impact of inequity
“The evidence for prevention is increasingly strong, but evidence alone isn’t enough to create impact, and for Ways to Wellness, this is a familiar challenge.
“Our work has always looked at the whole person, and recognised the contribution relationships, community connection, and the wider determinants of health make to their lives. So as neighbourhood health develops, there is an opportunity to build on that approach and think more systematically about how we harness the incredible strengths already present within communities, alongside the expertise of health and care service providers.
“The question is not simply knowing what works, but whether we’re creating the conditions in which it can work at its best.
“That means listening to people. It means identifying and breaking down silos to work effectively across organisational boundaries. It not only involves understanding evidence, but recognising that evidence can only by fully interpreted within the context of people's lives. And it means accepting that lasting change is rarely created by a single intervention, or a single organisation, no matter how large.
“Prevention will only really become embedded when it becomes part of how we think about health at every level, in one-to-one conversations between individuals, in neighbourhood forums, and in terms of implementation within the wider system.
“The opportunity presented by neighbourhood health is to bring together evidence, relationships, communities, and services in a way that makes prevention truly tangible.”
Find out more about Ways to Wellness' work at https://www.waystowellness.org.uk/