Busy roads, lack of open space and where we shop for food are just a few examples of how the built environment influences our physical and mental health. Planning can positively affect the health of residents by managing development and securing investment for the public realm. For example, planning policies …
Supporting People is a programme to deliver housing-related support to vulnerable people, including: • older people with support needs • single homeless people • people with mental health problems • women at risk of domestic violence • young people at risk It is administered through 152 top-tier local authorities and …
I am a nurse who works in an outpatients department and we have experienced recent cuts to our frontline services. We are a small team of five nurses with responsibility for delivering a range of care to patients. There is currently a vacant Band 7 post due to a nurse being off …
Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLP) aim to support young children and families in disadvantaged areas through integrated early years education, healthcare, child care, and other support services tailored to local needs. Sure Start was developed because investment in the early years of childhood is likely to be more effective in …
Behavioural insight, also known as ‘Nudge’, after the book by Thaler and Sunstein,1 is based on behavioural science and economics. ‘Nudge’ is sometimes called libertarian paternalism. The use of nudge in health is rooted in the idea of influencing our behaviour without compulsion e.g. by using subconscious cues to ‘nudge’ …
Health protection is defined as “public health activities intended to protect individuals, groups, and populations from infectious diseases, environmental hazards such as chemical contamination, and from radiation”.1 Infectious disease accounts for one in every 50 deaths,2 with rates highest in the first two years of life and amongst the elderly.3 …
To improve healthcare quality, performance targets are to be replaced by outcome measures, as detailed in recent government consultations.1,2 Quality of healthcare can be measured in terms of structure, process and outcomes.3 In recent years the NHS has largely relied on setting targets for structural and process measures. Examples of …
The government has proposed to reorganise the way public health services are delivered in England.1 At a National level this will involve the creation of a new body, within the Department of Health, called Public Health England. At a local level, health improvement functions will move into local authorities (LAs) …
Background In April 2011, the UK Government released a leaflet called “Working Together for a Stronger NHS” 1. The purpose of the leaflet is to explain to the public the health service reforms proposed in the White Paper “Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS”2. Shortly after its release, epidemiologist and Guardian …
I should explain that I am a gastroenterologist who is also training in population health. Doctors working in A&E, psychiatry, medicine and general practice see the harms of alcohol on a daily basis, but one only need to walk through any town centre in the UK on a weekend evening …