South West Public Health Tutorial Programmes

Wednesday 13th October 2004 Gypsy Hill Hotel, Exeter - Public Health Advocacy

Programme  Learning Objectives

9.30	Tea and Coffee on Arrival
10.00	Welcome and Learning Objectives
10.05	Public Health Advocacy Professor John Ashton, Regional Director of Public Health, North West Region
11.05	Using the Media for Public Health Advocacy Paul Pilkington, Public Health Specialist Trainee
11.30	Break
11.45	Group Work: Framing Exercise for Media Advocacy
12.05	Feedback from Group Work
12.15	Voices and Choices Hazel Stuteley, Research Fellow (Regeneration), Institute of Health and Social Care Research, Peninsula Medical School
13.15	Lunch
14.00	National Advocacy: Influencing Alcohol Policy Mary-Ann McKibben, Public Health Specialist Trainee
14.30	Community Advocacy: Working with Young People and Children Sara Gibbs, Public Health Specialist Trainee
15.00	Group Work: Advocacy within Public Health Practice: What Can We Realistically Achieve?
15.40	Feedback from Group Work
16.00	Close

Learning Objectives      To develop an understanding of public health advocacy and how it can be delivered.      To consider the role of public health professionals in advocating for the health of their population.      To gain an understanding of the role of different agencies, NHS and non-NHS, in advocacy.      To understand how different ways of involving the public and communities can improve health.   Relevant RITA Competencies 4.1 Recognise and value the potential contribution to improving health made by different agencies: health and other – in public, private and voluntary sectors. 4.5 Understand, contribute to and value the work of the non-statutory sector and their role in improving the public health.  7.3 Understand how different ways of involving the public and communities can improve health. 7.7 Act as an advocate for the public health and articulate the needs of those with poor health in society, including those who are dispossessed, vulnerable and discriminated against. Definitions of Advocacy “To publicly support or suggest an idea, development or way of doing something.” (Cambridge Dictionary).   “The action of advocating, pleading for, or supporting a cause or proposal.” (Merricam-Webster Dictionary of Law).   “The act of pleading or arguing in favour of something, such as a cause, idea or policy; active support.” (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language). Definitions of Public Health Advocacy “Representing the interests of disadvantaged groups, speaking on their behalf or lobbying to influence policy.  Any attempt to exert pressure on policy makers to recognise health disadvantage.” (Naidoo and Wills.  Health Promotion: Foundations for Practice).   “Public health practitioners must always adopt a robust approach and engage other professionals, politicians and the public to ensure the maximum gain for the public’s health.  They must be advocates for the public and come into the ring in the pursuit of health gain.”  (Wall P, Chapter 3.4. Influencing Government Policy: A National View.  In Pencheon et al. (Eds) Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice.) Speakers’ Biographies Professor John Ashton Professor John Ashton CBE, North West Regional Director of Public Health and Regional Medical Officer, was born in Liverpool in 1947.  Educated at Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool, the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Medical School and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, he has specialised in psychiatry, general practice, family planning and reproductive medicine and finally public health.  He worked in Newcastle and Northumberland, Hampshire and London before returning to Liverpool in 1983.  For two years he was a Councillor on Hampshire County Council.   John Ashton in well known for his work on planned parenthood and healthy cities and for his personal advocacy for public health.  He was a member of the British delegation to Macedonia during the Kosovo emergency and played a prominent role in resolving the fuel dispute.   John holds chairs in the Liverpool Medical School, Liverpool John Moores University, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Manchester Medical School and the Valencia Institute of Public Health in Spain.  He is the author of many scientific papers; articles and chapters in books and of several books including “The New Public Health” which is a standard textbook on public health.   Since 1993 John has held his regional position and has played an active part in developing government policies for public health.  He was awarded the CBE in the Millennium New Year’s honours list for service to the NHS.  He lives in Liverpool and has four sons. Hazel Stuteley OBE, RGN, RHV Hazel Stuteley qualified as a health visitor in 1972 following registered nurse training at King’s College Hospital, London.  Hazel worked in inner city practices in London and Southampton before moving to Cornwall in 1975 gaining many years’ experience in rurally deprived  areas.  In the mid-eighties, in partnership with social services, she worked with self-harming teenagers and teenagers on remand, and initiated the setting up of parenting initiatives for abusing families.   1990-2000 was spent as a full-time health visitor working with a crucially deprived caseload in Falmouth, co-founding the Beacon project (Nye Bevan award winner – South West 1999 and awarded Beacon status for Health Improvement). In April 2000 she was appointed as a member of the Prevention and Inequalities Modernisation Action Team to develop the NHS Plan.  Later that year, Hazel was seconded to the Department of Health as National Head of Healthy Communities to lead the development phase of the Healthy Communities Collaborative.   Now working back in her native Cornwall, Hazel held a post as Community Development Manager within West Cornwall PCT before moving in October 2003 to become Research Fellow at the Institute of Health and Social Care, Peninsula Medical School, Exeter University.  She is a member of the Deputy Prime Minister’s National Panel of Neighbourhood Renewal Advisers and the Nursing and Midwifery Modernisation Board.  She is married with three sons and was awarded an OBE in the 2001 Queen’s New Year’s honours list for services to the Community in Falmouth.

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