Welcome to Your Quarterly Newsletter from RSPH

Back to School, Back to Health – Launch of the New Training Solutions Guide

This September, RSPH Training Solutions has been busy with the launch of its new and vibrant Healthy Communities Guide. This edition is designed to help communities improve their health and wellbeing by the introduction of programmes and courses which will support you and your staff to drive behaviour change and reduce health inequalities.

By being proactive, well informed and confident in your work, you can help to bring about positive health changes in people’s lives and the community. To download our Guide and see how you and your community can benefit please click on the document  New Guide 2011.  For a hard copy of the Guide please contact Gina Mohajer.  

Getting Sex Wise - Sexual Health Week 12 – 18 September

This month RSPH held their second free “Lets Talk about Sexual Health” seminar in London, which coincided with Sexual Health Week. The first seminar took place in June, and the last seminar will run in October. The seminars have been hugely popular and successful. RSPH would like to thank all those who have participated in the seminar, as well as to Sanofi Pasteur MSD Foundation, who made the seminars possible with their generous funding.  A full report on the sexual health seminars will be available and circulated soon.

Rises in Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and teenage pregnancy demonstrates that people are still not practising safe sex and/or are not reaching out to the services that can help them. Clearly, more work needs to be done. Policy makers, schools, local governments and communities have a responsibility to educate people and ensure that the correct health messages reach out to all ages and all segments of the community.

Talking about sexual health can be a delicate subject and often a tricky one to approach. To ensure you are up to date with the latest information and are confident in providing support and signposting, RSPH Training Solutions will be running a course on sexual health. To register your interest, please contact Gina Mohajer or by phone 020 7265 7327.

Planning for Healthy Communities: Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)

On the 13th September RSPH held a Free Introductory “Taster” Session on JSNA. The seminar, which was oversubscribed, is one of three training courses that RSPH will be running this year on JSNA.

“I found the JSNA course very informative and an excellent starting point for those who would like to know more”

Lee Moore, Physical Education Officer, HM Prison Service.

The RSPH has been working with HK Consulting to develop training, advice and consultancy support for local areas as they develop their health and wellbeing boards, enhanced joint strategic needs assessments and joint health and wellbeing strategies.

To download the JSNA briefing document please open the  JSNA Briefing Document.  For further information on JSNA and to see how you and your community can benefit please click here.

Our next two programmes will run on 13th October – Designing your local JSNA and on 8th November – JSNA Delivery.  Places are booking up quickly.  To ensure you secure a place download our  Booking Form 2011 and send it back to Gina Mohajer or via fax 020 7265 7301.

How can NGO and Voluntary sector organisations influence JSNAs?

The voluntary sector and third sector have an important role to play in shaping and influencing JSNA.  The voluntary sector is well placed to..read more on JSNA and Voluntary Sector

Launch of the new Behaviour Change Suite of Programmes
Saving lives through changing behaviour

Fresh food, more exercise and no smoking. These are some of the choices we need to make in order to lead a healthy lifestyle, which is sustainable in the long term.

The RSPH has responded to the Government’s White Paper, by developing a suite of training programmes on Behaviour Change designed specifically to support health and well being professionals to deliver these messages effectively as part of their behaviour change strategy.

Professor Richard Parish, Chief Executive of RSPH comments:

“It is our belief that spreading skills and knowledge in this area will have a direct effect on driving behaviour change and reducing health inequalities, resulting in healthier communities across the country.”

Rises in obesity, diabetes, heart disease and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), alongside problems associated with unhealthy eating, drinking and smoking habits, have placed our health service under huge pressure. As many health conditions are both preventable and avoidable, we have a responsibility to ensure that we intervene and steer people towards healthier lifestyle choices. This not only positively impacts the wellbeing of the individual but also their communities.

Preventing avoidable conditions is better for both the patient and the health service, but the approach differs depending on the time available, the skill of the individual and the nature of the contact.

To find out more about RSPH’s programmes on Behaviour Change download our Behaviour Change Flyer, contact Gina Mohajer or click here. 

Inspired by London 2012

Since the announcement of London being the host of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games the RSPH has been keen to be involved and use the power of the Games to develop a health legacy.

The RSPH in partnership with NHS East London and Volunteering Bureaux in the 6 London 2012 boroughs are about to launch a new project called ‘East London Health Makers’.  The project will train community members who are engaged in community based volunteering in ‘Understanding Health Improvement’ Level 2 Award to equip them to support health improvement in their communities.

To initiate the project the RSPH has been successful in applying for a Big Lottery Fund Awards for All grant.  For more information on East London Health Maker, please contact Wendy Clay. 

The 2011 Health Promotion and Community Well-Being Organisation and Partnership Awards

This is the fourth year that The Royal Society for Public Health has been supporting and encouraging good practice in Health Promotion through this scheme.

A key objective for the Scheme is to encourage and enable the development of good practice. Consequently the whole process for participants is mutually supportive and positive - always highlighting strengths and constructively identifying areas for further development.

The awards are open to all health organisations, local authorities, non-governmental and private sector organisations in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. As health promotion is essentially a partnership endeavour, applications from partnerships of organisations are accepted and are strongly encouraged.

This year, the applicants are:

• East Herts Council.
• St Mary's University College-Centre for Workplace Health
• Awaaz FM Community Radio.
• NHS Sefton (Sefton Partnership)
• School Food Trust.
• Purely Nutrition.
• Well London Partnership

RSPH will be announcing the 2011 winners in November.

Research – The Changing Landscape for Commissioning Education and Learning for Public Health Improvement

The landscape for commissioning is changing, impacting on future education and learning for everyone involved in public health.  This is setting a challenging agenda for employers, for learners and for those responsible for supporting learning and the recognition of learning.  The Royal Society for Public Health is currently working with Change Comes From Within Consulting to undertake research around this changing landscape, as key policy and supporting infrastructures emerge.

We are undertaking a series of focused discussions to help us better understand and respond to the implications that are arising from a learning perspective; for the wider health improvement workforce across all sectors and, for everyone who has a behaviour change element in their role.  We look forward to sharing the learning from this research soon.

North West Public Health Conference & Awards 2011

North West Public Health awards have been running since 2004 and celebrate the breadth and quality of work being delivered across the region.  This year has been no exception with just over 100 submissions from a wide variety of sectors including local authorities, acute trusts, public health directorates and the voluntary sector.  The theme of the 2011 conference is “Partnerships & Well-being”, a notion which is particularly pertinent during these times of change. Read more on The Awards

Newham Community Health Awareness Programme

Commissioned by the Assistant Director of Public Health at Newham PCT, this programme was developed in conjunction with the PCT to meet their ambitions to build capacity within community members to be a resource for health information and practical support for local health campaigns.  100% completion by participants from both paid and voluntary organisations demonstrated the tremendous commitment of local people towards improving the health of their community.

The programme reviewed local health statistics, strategy initiatives and included specialist local speakers to provide a foundation in health and potential to further develop community participants to undertake activities such as random pulse taking for the early identification of atrial fibrillation and blood sugar testing (for diabetes); these being longer term ambitions.
Covering the learning outcomes for both the level 1 Award in Health Awareness and Level 2 Award Understanding Health Improvement candidates achieved success in both awards.

Participants commented that the two day programme had been:

“Well worth the time, will be great for Newham in early intervention goals’ and ‘Above all, highly educating and made very interesting!”

Supporting Local Authorities

One of the great opportunities for Local Authorities as they take on responsibility for Public Health is a holistic approach, which allows health, housing, leisure, employment and all the other services to work together for the good of the community.

Preparing for these changes North West Employers (the regional employers’ organisation for local government in the North West of England), have been developing a course for elected members and councillors to be able to Champion Health in their areas, enabling the development of skills and knowledge that will have a direct effect on local planning, reduce health inequalities, help drive behaviour change and result in healthier communities.

The course takes a practical and pragmatic approach to championing health and wellbeing, focusing on working with delegates to help them to understand and navigate the key terms and concepts of health and wellbeing. The course explores practical tools and approaches councillors/elected members can use both in the community, and in influencing decision making processes.

The key areas covered are:

• Understanding health and wellbeing
• A look at the National Policy changes in relation to health and well-being
• A focus on local health and wellbeing inequalities and how you can positively influence them
• Practical tools and techniques
• How decisions local government make effect health and well-being
• The role of the councillor health champion

The course is suitable for both district and upper tier councils, Ward councillors as well as those with a leadership role.

“RSPH have a really strong track record of developing health champions across the country and we wanted to work with them to utilise their expertise and combine this with the knowledge and expertise that North West Employers had with regards to working with councillors. We are all really excited about this programme and the potential impact that it could have on local communities and the decisions that are made that impact on health and wellbeing in local areas.”

Claire Haigh, Leadership and Transformation Gateway Project Lead, North West Employers

RSPH Accreditation for Signpost UK Mental Health Brokerage training programme

The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is pleased to announce that it has accredited a mental health brokerage training programme from Signpost UK.

The training programme aims to train those people who wish to become Support Brokers. These Brokers will then support people with estimated personal budgets to work out the best way to meet their social care needs, create a social care plan and use their estimated budget to choose the right support to meet their eligible social care needs.

Read more on the RSPH Signpost UK Mental article. 

WebWise

Health and education are amongst the most important social and economic resources in contemporary Europe as in the rest of the world, and both are facing a very substantial transformation process. Accordingly, the current healthcare education system is coping with a wide -spectrum of challenges, the most notable of which being the inclusion of the ever increasing skill and training requirements for healthcare graduates as well as innovation in many fields.

WebWise brings together a range of European higher education institutions and other organisations active in the field of public health education as well as experts for innovating e-learning, to analyze experiment and develop innovative learning scenarios within public health education. Read the brief  WebWise article here.