Apr 8, 2021Member-onlyPicking our battles: public health in publicI started thinking about this blog last year, when it was still basically socially acceptable to cough on strangers. Simpler times. …Public Health13 min readPublic Health13 min read
Apr 8, 2021Member-onlyProper prevention Part II: Shit Place SyndromeThis is the second of two blogs on ‘proper’ prevention, with the first on the need for a general ‘shit life reduction strategy’ and this one on what I’ve come to think of as ‘Shit Place Syndrome’. Acknowledging ‘Shit Place Syndrome’ A quick thought experiment — two people, same income…Prevention11 min readPrevention11 min read
Apr 8, 2021Member-onlyFor proper prevention we need a General Shit Life Reduction Strategy — Part IIn health terms, ‘prevention’ basically means doing stuff that reduces risks to health. Primary prevention focuses on the whole population to stop a problem occurring in the first place, for example through immunisation or discouraging smoking; secondary prevention focuses on at-risk individuals and aims to nip an issue in the…Prevention7 min readPrevention7 min read
Apr 8, 2021Member-onlyPublic health has a language problemHow many of you were inspired to work in public health because you wanted to champion a sustainable place-based locality-level social movement to address the underlying upstream determinants of health agenda through a transformative bottom-up asset-based community co-production approach? Not me, because I had no idea what any of that…Public Health8 min readPublic Health8 min read
Apr 8, 2021Member-onlyGood intentions but the right approach? The case of ACEsAdverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events that children can be exposed to while growing up. These include the direct impact of suffering abuse or neglect, or the indirect effects of living in a household affected by domestic violence, substance misuse or mental illness. The original ACEs study found that…Adversity11 min readAdversity11 min read
Apr 8, 2021Member-only‘Wellbeing in every decision’: reframing ‘health in all policies’We know that most of the things that influence population health — poverty, education, the environment, transport, work, relationships, safe and comfortable homes — are not really touched by what the money marked as ‘health’ gets spent on. …Wellbeing6 min readWellbeing6 min read
Apr 6, 2021Investment in public health — we need better arguments, not better evidenceHere in the UK, we’ll soon have a chance to make the case for investment in public health and prevention (again). The NHS 10 year plan and a spending review are on the way, and both the Prime Minister and Secretary of State have said that prevention is one of…Public Health11 min readPublic Health11 min read
Published inThe Wellbeing Economy Alliance·Apr 6, 2021Member-onlyAddressing the causes of the causesThose of us working in public health are interested in the causes of poor health and wellbeing, but also in ‘the causes of the causes’. Consider someone with coronary heart disease, for example, for which the cause is blocked arteries. But what caused the arteries to be blocked? Often, it’s…4 min read4 min read
