RSPH

Independent Consultant in Mental Health and Wellbeing

'Why the way we are living may be bad for our mental wellbeing and what we might choose to do about it: responding to a 21st century public health challenge

With economic recession biting ever harder, rates of mental ill-health rising and levels of mental wellbeing falling, it is time to critique the progress we have made, re-evaluate what it is that makes life worth living and what public health may have to offer in the 21st century.
Our mental wellbeing both individually and collectively is a precious public health resource, one, which until now traditional approaches to public health have underplayed and undervalued. The future requires a more integrated approach to public health building on a range of discourses and disciplines to create a more mentally healthy society.

Director: International Institute for Society and Health; MRC Research Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London

'Fair Society Healthy Lives'

Indicators of overall population health and the distribution of health tell us much about how well a society is doing. The WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health advocated for
action on the wider social, economic and political determinants of health in order to improve population health and reduce health inequalities. Sir Michael will discuss learning from the Commission
on Social Determinants of Health, the Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England (Marmot Review), and the current
European Review and how it can be applied in different contexts; regionally, nationally and locally.

Masterclass: 'The importance of health when addressing population ageing'

Populations around the world are rapidly ageing. While this transition is often perceived as a burden on health systems and social services, older people can also be seen as a significant, but often overlooked and marginalised, social resource. However, the key to the full expression of this resource is health. If an individual retains good health, age has little influence on their ability to contribute to society. This class will explore how a global response can be developed to foster the health and social engagement of older people, regardless of where they live.

Professor of Food Policy, City University, London

Masterclass: 'Food and the ecological public health challenge'

In this session, Tim Lang will propose that the public health movement (professions, societies, educators, etc) needs to help re-orient the food system. Alongside our role is tackling diet’s role in non-communicable disease, we now need to tackle Western food system’s ecological failings. They are energy-dependent, wasteful, distort land use, besides adding to the burden of disease. But how can we fuse this two foci – human and planetary health?

National Director for Health and Work

'Health and Work: Progress and Priorities in 2011'

Dame Carol Black will explore the importance of work for good health and well-being. Her session will update delegates on work following her 2008 Review and outline the next steps in achieving a healthy working age population in the UK.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords, President of the Royal Society for Public Health and former Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate

'Health and wellbeing: the role of government'

In promoting better health, Governments often refer exclusively to the importance of personal behaviour change, thereby placing all of the emphasis on individual responsibility. But health related behaviour does not happen in a vacuum and Governments also have a major role to play in creating the necessary social,
economic and environmental circumstances to promote and protect health. The evidence tells us that success is likely to result from this combination of complementary measures.

Director, Health, Sustrans

Masterclass: 'Active travel: how public health can influence the creation of activity-friendly local environments'

There is now strong consensus on the importance of the built environment as a determinant of physical activity levels, particularly in relation to active travel (walking and cycling). From Foresight to NICE to the last CMO, the most authoritative voices have called for intervention to raise active travel levels. For public health professionals, the question is how best to get involved and influence the development of active-travel-friendly environments, when the strategies, planning and investment decisions are taken by others such as DfT, CLG, local authority planners and transport strategists or commercial developers, and many of the most effective promotional interventions are led by voluntary sector bodies.

Masterclass: 'School Food and Child Health'

The aim of the workshop is to explore the impact of school food on child health, obesity, behaviour and attainment. The School Food Trust will set the scene and present their latest research findings, followed by a leading researcher on children’s diet, growth and health, and a Director of Public Health setting out their policy aims and objectives in relation to child health and the role of school food. There will be ample opportunity for questions and discussion.

Professor of Health Education, Canterbury Christ Church University

Masterclass: Singing and Health

We will begin with some easy voice exercises to demonstrate the musical qualities of the spoken voice and the narrow division between speaking and singing. Exercises will focus on the dynamics, tempo, pitch and melodic contours of the voice and their role in non-linguistic communication of meaning and emotion. The exercises are designed to be fun, engaging and inspire confidence in using the voice, they will also illustrate some fundamental mechanisms through which the musical voice is linked to physical, mental and social wellbeing. We will give a short overview of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health’s work on singing, wellbeing and health. Participants will have the opportunity to view and discuss a short film on the East Kent ‘Singing for Health’ Network Project which has involved people with enduring mental health issues. Finally we will teach a simple wordless song and prepare the group for a final performance.

Masterclass: Singing and Health

We will begin with some easy voice exercises to demonstrate the musical qualities of the spoken voice and the narrow division between speaking and singing. Exercises will focus on the dynamics, tempo, pitch and melodic contours of the voice and their role in non-linguistic communication of meaning and emotion. The exercises are designed to be fun, engaging and inspire confidence in using the voice, they will also illustrate some fundamental mechanisms through which the musical voice is linked to physical, mental and social wellbeing. We will give a short overview of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health’s work on singing, wellbeing and health. Participants will have the opportunity to view and discuss a short film on the East Kent ‘Singing for Health’ Network Project which has involved people with enduring mental health issues. Finally we will teach a simple wordless song and prepare the group for a final performance.

'No Sustainability without Health Equity'

Why do sustainability practitioners need to make a much higher priority of health issues in their campaigning work – both at the national and the local level?
Picking up on the new Route Map for its sustainable health system, produced by the NHS’s Sustainable Development Unit, Jonathan will explore the opportunities for making the synergies (between health inequalities and sustainability) really stick.

President of the Mens' Health Forum

Masterclass: Premature Exasperation? Mens use of health services.

Not only do men use health service less often than do women, they also wait far too long before getting a health problem sorted. This results in men being admitted as an emergency to hospital almost twice as often as women over the age of 50 yrs. It is also a factor in the dreadful life expectancy in some parts of the UK (54 years in Glasgow’s East end compared to 82 years in Dorset). Even so there are examples of how this can be addressed, not least through innovative approaches towards mens health. The workplace as a venue for health care is now well recognised as is the link to better access (walk in centres, pharmacies) Sporting connections are particularly powerful for engaging men in health issues. This presentation is not all doom and gloom. It will show light at the end of the tunnel and not necessarily that of a rapidly approaching train.

Professor of Infectious Disease / Epidemiology Co-Director, Institute for Global Health

30 years on. What can HIV treatment do for prevention?

Nearly 30 years on from the first description of AIDS, there are now over 33 million people estimated to be infected with HIV worldwide. Thanks to antiretroviral drugs, people with HIV are now living longer and healthier lives. Drugs that improve survival also reduce infectiousness and are changing the way we think about HIV prevention. This lecture will look at the successes and failures of HIV prevention and explore the social, economic and technical challenges involved in slowing its future spread.

Medical Director for UK Occupational Health Services to Abermed

Masterclass: 'Making a case for workplace health and well—being'

In this interactive master class Dr Boorman will be asking
how do we convince of the need to invest in those that work
for us and does good health really equal good business?

Professor of Public Health and Primary Care, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

'Health benefits of a low carbon economy'

Professor Haines will be discussing the effects on health of strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in four sectors; household energy, urban transport, food and agriculture and electricity generation.

President, Faculty of Public Health

Public Health in Changing Times

Editor-in-Chief, the Lancet

The 21st Century Paradox of Public Health