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Archive for June, 2017

Getting the ammunition to the front line…

Posted in Academic, evidence, FPH Annual Conference, local authorities, research on June 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »

By Hannah Dorling, Helen Walters and Tara Lamont

How can alcohol licensing decisions impact upon alcohol-related crime and health issues? Does turning street lights out at midnight cause more accidents? How does a new bus service impact upon physical activity levels?

Front-line public health professionals need relevant evidence in formats that reach them and are digestible by them and those they work with. At this year’s FPH conference we are running a session on just this issue. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) spends £10m a year on its Public Health Research (PHR) programme and we are one of the main funders of public health research in the UK. We support research which may not be funded by others – from studies of impact of alcohol licensing to evaluation of urban motorways. NIHR also runs the Dissemination Centre whose specific role is to get research findings to the front line.

We want to fund research that evaluates public health interventions that happen outside the NHS – that will provide new knowledge on the benefits, costs, acceptability and wider impacts of interventions that impact on the health of the public and inequalities in health. We want this research to be multi-disciplinary and broad, covering a wide range of public health interventions. Funding comes from the Department of Health in all four UK countries. A key aim of the programme is to deliver information to allow practitioners and policy makers to improve services, rather than simply improving scientific knowledge. A challenge for the programme is finding the questions that most urgently need answering.

We also need to help decision-makers get hold of the evidence they need. Every day, about 75 new clinical trials and 11 new systematic reviews are published, many of which will be relevant to public health. The NIHR Dissemination Centre filters new knowledge and produces a wide range of publications. We want to know more about what kinds of evidence and formats work best for front line staff.

This is where we need you. This interactive conference session is aimed at front-line public health professionals (though academics are welcome!) who want to talk about how you use research in your daily work. Where do you find your research? What do you do with it? What would you like more of? Do you have challenges linking to the academic world? What questions would you like answered to help you in your work? Come along to our session and tell us what you think. We are keen to hear and to use your wisdom as we reflect on 10 years of public health research funding and make plans for the next 10 years.

In the meantime if you have an idea for research that needs doing please do contact us on phr@nihr.ac.uk or use the programme’s online mechanism for submitting suggestions.

Join the session at the FPH conference on Tuesday 20 June in Telford:
11:30 – 12:30: Public health need – filling the evidence gaps in local government
Location: Wenlock Suite 1&2
Presenters: Helen Walters, Consultant in Public Health Medicine / Consultant Advisor, NIHR NETSCC, University of Southampton
Tara Lamont, Deputy Director of the NIHR Dissemination Centre
Closing comments: John Middleton, President of the Faculty of Public Health

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Tackling road danger reduction

Posted in transport on June 9, 2017| Leave a Comment »

By Elizabeth Orton

The Faculty of Public Health’s Transport Injury Prevention Network will be holding an inaugural workshop at the FPH conference in Telford on 20 June.

As well as introducing the aims and objectives of the network, the session will focus on speed reduction as a key road danger reduction strategy. We will be looking at how to improve collaboration in local government between public health and transport teams to encourage active travel and reduce road danger. We will review the evidence around 20mph zones and limits and discuss strategies for their implementation, sharing examples of good practice, tools and approaches.

Please come along and share your ideas, experiences and views with us.

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Embedding sustainability as a public health priority

Posted in Climate change, General Election, sustainable development, tagged , , , , on June 7, 2017| Leave a Comment »

By FPH’s Sustainable Development Special Interest Group

There are many good reasons to prioritise sustainability for the health of future generations. Protection of key planetary boundaries such as climate change, air quality, ocean alkalinity and land forestation are crucial to whether our children and grandchildren can survive and have a tolerable quality of life.

However, this can be a hard sell to those making key political and economic decisions internationally, for electorates, consumers and shareholders who have come to accept excessive consumption and unequal concentration of wealth.

Therefore, we need to emphasise the benefits of sustainability to those alive today. Fortunately, these benefits are many both to individuals and to communities. Unfortunately, these benefits are rarely discussed in political and economic discourse.

Let’s start with the benefits of sustainable nutrition. These were well summarised by Barak Obama at a recent Global Food Innovation Summit (and a Guardian article on 27 May 2017). More sustainable food means more locally sourced fruit and vegetables and less processed food and meat from ruminant animals. Not only will this reduce greenhouse gases (especially methane) and protect forests but it will also mean more food security for poorer nations and less chronic disease for those in richer countries.

Another win-win opportunity is in sustainable travel. This means more walking and cycling but also better public transport (which always involves a contribution from walking or cycling). This reduces carbon emissions, improves air quality in urban areas and improves health and wellbeing in travellers (see, for example, the PHE and LGA Report ‘Obesity and the physical environment; increasing physical activity’ in November 2013 and PHE’s ‘Working together to promote active travel’ in May 2016).

There are many other direct benefits to public health from energy efficiency, urban green space and reducing waste. Public Health professionals need to publicise this evidence and advocate for action on sustainability at local, national and international levels. This is not just good for the planet but good for the health of the public and the effects will be immediate.

 

Learn more about the work FPH is doing on behalf of our membership on the General Election.

 

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Update on our General Election campaign and how you can help

Posted in Brexit, General Election, Uncategorized, tagged , , on June 1, 2017| Leave a Comment »

By Professor Simon Capewell, FPH Vice President of Policy 

Next week, voters across the country will head to the polls to determine the make-up of the next Government. The outcome may be uncertain, but this much is clear: we cannot allow the public’s health to be side-lined over the course of the next Parliament. At FPH, we are committed to ensuring that policy-makers embed health in all policies. Following the announcement of the snap-election, we therefore rapidly produced our short-list of priorities for the next Government. They are:

1) Realising Brexit’s ‘health dividend’
2) Shoring up and increasing public health funding
3) Making sure the specialist public health workforce is adequately staffed and supported

We’re doing all we can nationally to advocate for these issues. But we cannot do it alone.  We need your help to deliver our message to your local parliamentary candidates and get them to commit to our asks. As an FPH member, you are well-placed to do this because Parliamentary candidates are much more likely to listen to the concerns of their constituents- especially when those concerns are presented against the backdrop of local data or case-studies- than they are to national organisations with no concrete links to their community.

Over the next week or so, candidates will be in a mad dash to meet as many of their constituents as they can. What they hear on your doorstep or at a hustings in your community may follow them into the House of Commons. To help you get started, we produced this brief one page guide outlining how you can campaign on behalf of FPH. It includes sample questions to ask, opportunities to take advantage of, and tips for building relationships with your candidates.

Make sure you also visit our General Election webpage to access allStart Well, Live Better front cover of our resources (including our Start Well, Live Better manifesto) to help you campaign and to see the election ‘asks’ from our allied organisations and partners.

Finally, we want to hear from you! Your feedback is invaluable to us. If you do speak to any of your candidates, we would love to hear how it went. Or, if you need help in reaching out to them, please feel free to email FPH’s policy team (policy@fph.org.uk) for some advice and guidance. We want to help as many members as possible build and maintain relationships with their candidates, both in the run up to election and, crucially, with the next government. Thank you for your continued support.

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