Calling all public mental health practitioners!
Are you practising public mental health? Are you developing and delivering evidence based policies and programmes aimed at advancing the public’s mental health and wellbeing?
If yes, then submit your work for the Sarah Stewart Brown Award for Public Mental Health and be in with a chance of winning the £500 cash prize that’s on offer. The award is an opportunity to highlight what you are doing and the impact you are making in enhancing mental health and wellbeing at a population level. It’s also an opportunity to highlight innovation and to share good practice with public health colleagues and with the wider public.
What is public mental health?
Public mental health has been described as the art and science of improving mental health and wellbeing and preventing mental illness through the organised efforts and informed choices of society, organisations, public and private, communities and individuals.
Good mental health and wellbeing are profoundly important to our quality of life and our capacity to cope with life’s ups and downs. They also help protect us against physical illness, social inequalities and unhealthy lifestyles. There are now a large number of evidence-based approaches to promoting mental wellbeing and preventing mental illness, and these are growing daily. They range from programmes to mitigate the impact of Adverse Childhoood Experiences (ACEs) through to tackling social isolation in the elderly.
Who is Sarah Stewart Brown?
For the last 20 years, Professor Sarah Stewart Brown has devoted herself to developing and promoting public mental health at the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) and in other settings. She chaired FPH’s Public Mental Health Committee from inception in 2007 to 2015 and before that worked with various FPH committees including the Mental Health Working Group.
Since 2003 she has been Professor of Public Health at Warwick University where she leads research and development in the fields of mental health and wellbeing and teaches on public mental health to medical and public health students.
As an advocate for public mental health, Sarah has sponsored the award with the aim of encouraging and promoting leadership and innovation in public mental health in the UK.
Now is the time to bring your work into the spotlight.
Who can apply?
If you’re a member of FPH, you work in the UK and you’ve played a significant, but not necessarily lead role in the development or implementation of an innovative approach to promoting mental health and wellbeing, you are eligible to apply.
Criteria for award
Submissions must provide evidence of:
- Development or implementation of an innovative approach to mental health and wellbeing improvement at population level
- Use of appropriate research evidence to inform practice
- A sound plan for monitoring and evaluating the innovation
- Engagement by appropriate stakeholders including service providers, partners and/or community
- Potential for sustainability
Exclusions:
- Projects or programmes addressing secondary or tertiary approaches to prevention are not eligible for this award
The Award recipient will have:
- Enabled public health mental health work to flourish and grow – either directly or by enabling others to act
- Demonstrated innovation in the field of public mental health – doing things differently – thinking differently and / or enabling others to do so
- Shown how their contribution has made a difference to individuals, to communities, to staff or to public policy
What can you win?
A cash prize of £500 which must be spent in a way that either promotes the work that’s already been delivered, or helps to progress the work in some way. For instance, it could fund the design of a discussion paper and associated comms or it could go towards an event.
How do you enter?
To nominate yourself for this award, please submit a proposal (500 words max.) that briefly outlines the work you’ve led, or enabled others to lead, and your plans as to how the award money will be spent. Email your submission to policy@fph.org.uk by 1 March 2019 or for more information, click here.
Written by Dr Mike McHugh, Public Health Consultant at Leicestershire County Council and member of the FPH Public Mental Health Special Interest Group (SIG). Follow Mike on Twitter @hguhcmekim.
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