PHA supports World Hospice and Palliative Care Day

Saturday 8 October 2011 marks World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. The Public Health Agency would like to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world by raising awareness and understanding of the needs - medical, social, practical and spiritual - of people living with a life-limiting illness, and their families.This year's World Hospice and Palliative Care Day theme is 'Many diseases, manylives, many voices - palliative care fornon-communicableconditions'.The theme will focus on how people living with conditions thatare notinfectious can benefit from palliative care.Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which include cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory conditions and diabetes, make up60% of deaths worldwide. The majority of thesedeaths occur in low and middle income countries, where palliative care is often not available. To get involved in World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, log on to www.worldday.org/get-involved/ which gives you ideas and suggestions on what you can do on the day to support people living with life-limiting illnesses, and their families.Mary Hinds, Director of Nursing and Allied Health Professions, PHA, and Chair of the Implementation Process for End of Life Care in Northern Ireland, said: "Good quality palliative and end of life care will be important for us all. 'Living Matters, Dying Matters' is a five year strategy for palliative and end of life care in Northern Ireland, established to ensure that any person living with a life-threatening illness lives well and dies well, irrespective of their condition or care setting. "It has been encouraging to see the plans being taken forward by the Health and Social Care Trusts in partnership with local hospices and other providers, and involving local people."We aim to ensure that people receiving palliative care, their families and carers, are provided with high quality care across all settings and conditions, and are supported to enjoy a good quality of life, maximising their potential through the course of their illness."There is still some progress to be made within the context of the review of health and social services. We are looking for statutory and voluntary services to work together to make a significant difference in improving access to high quality services for those with life-limiting conditions, and to develop innovative approaches to care."

A Fitter Future for All - Framework launched

Obesity is a modern lifestyle epidemic that is threatening our health and well-being.This was the key message delivered by Health Minister Edwin Poots at the launch of The Framework for Preventing and Addressing Overweight and Obesity in Northern Ireland 2012-2022: 'A Fitter Future for All'.This ten year strategy will seek to improve the health and wellbeing of people throughout their entire life, from newborns to seniors.Minister Poots said: "We need to face the issue of obesity head on. It's an issue that will require commitment and action from across all sectors, including other government departments and agencies. It is therefore my intention to invest more than £7 million towards tackling the problem of obesity over the next three years."The negative impact on health caused by obesity cannot be over stated. Being obese increases the risk of developing serious illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, some cancers and type 2 diabetes."It is a significant challenge facing modern society and if we don't tackle it now we are storing up a multitude of problems for ourselves in the future."The Minister continued: "More and more of our children and young people are becoming overweight or obese and are putting themselves at risk of developing a range of health problems in their later years."Evidence shows that it is more likely that an obese child will become an obese adult. This in turn will lead to a greater strain on our health and social care services, with more people requiring treatment for obesity related illnesses and specialist care."The proposed framework looks to address a number of key issues, including:-increasing levels of breastfeeding;increasing knowledge and skills about food and its preparationencouraging participation in physical activity;promoting walking and cycling; making sure how we live and where we live encourages and supports healthy eating and physical activity;encouraging and supporting more community involvement with these issues; and;continuation of reformulation of processed foods.The Minister added: "In Northern Ireland 59% of adults are either overweight (36%) or obese (23%). Another worrying statistic is that 8% of children aged 2-15 years were assessed as being obese. These figures demonstrate the scale of the problem and the enormous challenge we are facing."The new framework sets challenging targets. To date we have focussed on simply trying to stop the rise in the levels of obesity, however under A Fitter Future For All we are seeking to actually reduce the level of obesity by 4% and overweight and obesity by 3% among adults. In addition, we are seeking a 3% reduction of obesity and 2% reduction of overweight and obesity among our children and young people." "Meeting these targets will require changes in our lifestyles and behaviours. Most importantly, individuals need to be given the opportunity to make decisions that will benefit their own health and wellbeing".Referring to the 'Give It A Go!' initiative, to increase awareness of the range of nutritional and physical activity initiatives in the southern area, the Minister said: "The Give It A Go! Initiative is a great example of how collaborative work can make such a positive contribution to peoples' lives by providing opportunities for learning, participation in physical activity and for social interaction."Tackling obesity and seeing positive results throughout the life course of the entire population will take time but I strongly believe that the actions set out in this framework will inspire and enable people to improve their diets and be more active."Encouraging people to consider the framework and adopt a healthier lifestyle, the Minister concluded: "Government cannot tackle obesity on its own. We can encourage and promote healthy eating and physical activity but as a society, we must take more individual responsibility for our own health outcomes."Dr Tracy Owen, Consultant in Public Health Medicine with the PHA, said: "The PHA is already working with partner organisations across many of the areas included in the framework 'A Fitter Future for All' and is addressing issues such as developing people's skills and knowledge about healthier eating along with encouraging participation in physical activity. The framework gives us the opportunity to raise awareness of this important area and strengthen action."As the Minister has mentioned, a good example of this coordinated action is the PHA supported initiative Give it a Go! which is providing people in the Southern area with the opportunity to learn about food through supermarket tours and Cook it! classes and to get active through walks, spinning classes and many other activities, all of which are free. These taster sessions are aimed at raising awareness of healthier lifestyles which will ultimately make changes in behaviour more likely."These changes, no matter how small, can help people to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight and bring big benefits to their general health. Importantly, we have developed this joint programme by working closely with our partners, particularly local councils."

Exercise on Referral

Brief intervetion exercise programme for adults over the age of 16 at risk of developing/ or suffering from inactivity related health conditions.

Enough is Enough - Food Poverty Scoping Exercise

In March 2015, over 80 people, representing food banks, churches, advice services, community organisations, statutory agencies and universities attended the ‘Enough is Enough’  launch event in City Church, Belfast to examine the rising demand for emergency food across the city.The ‘Enough is Enough’ project aims to harness the expertise of health and social care professionals, city councillors, advice workers, food banks, community and faith based organisations and strategic bodies across Belfast to collectively address the issue of food poverty. This scoping study lays the foundation for developing an action plan to tackle food poverty in Belfast in collaboration with the community, voluntary and statutory sectors.The Belfast Food Network (BFN) commissioned the project with funding from the Public Health Agency. The research was carried out by Jenny McCurry, who also wrote the report, on behalf of Advice NI.  The project was initiated and developed by Dr Elizabeth Mitchell, Institute of Public Health in Ireland, in her role as convener of the BFN Food Poverty Working Group (BFN/FPWG). Thanks are due to Kevin Higgins, Head of Policy, Advice NI, and Kerry Melville, Co-ordinator, BFN, for their involvement in the project.The BFN is a founding member of the pioneering Sustainable Food Cities Network (SFC). Therapidly growing BFN was established in March 2014 to work with partners to establish a successful Sustainable Food City in Belfast.ACCESS AUDIO AND VIDEO FROM THE EVENT

Social inequalities in health. New evidence and policy implications

Health inequalities according to people's social standing are persisting, or even growing, in modern societies. Recent decades have revealed evidence of strong variations in life expectancy, both between countries and within them. This widening of social inequalities has developed despite considerable progress in medical science and an increase in health care spending. The reasons behind this are complex, and the implications considerable.   This book provides a summary of the major achievements of a five-year European Science Foundation (ESF) Programme on 'Social Variations in Health Expectancy in Europe'. The contributors are major figures in their subjects, and combine state of the art reviews with the latest results from interdisciplinary research in epidemiology, sociology, psychology and biomedicine.   Three conceptual frameworks of life course influences, health effects of stressful environments, and macro social determinants of health, are unified, while each chapter addresses the policy implications and recommendations derived from currently available evidence. The major topics covered include the role of family in early life, social integration and health, work stress and job security, successful ways of facing adversity, and the impact of the larger environment on health. Epidemiologists, public health research and policy makers, and students of related public health and sociology courses wlll find the results of this research fascinating.This resource was contributed by The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use.

BDAWG Scoping Report: Drugs and alcohol services in Belfast

Mary Black, Assistant Director for Health and Social Wellbeing Improvement in the Public Health Agency, established the Belfast Drug and Alcohol Working Group in early 2010 to undertake a scoping exercise of drugs and alcohol services in Belfast, and to produce a report outlining their findings and making some recommendations as to how services could be better promoted, targeted, co-ordinated and ultimately improved.� This report is the culmination of a series of meetings and workshops (from June to November 2010) where members considered all of the available information in the context of what they, and the organisations they represent, consider to be the gaps and areas which could be improved upon for PHA to consider when taking forward alcohol and drug work and services over the next 5-year period (i.e. 2011-2016).� The report takes a systematic approach to scoping and compiling evidence on: funding of drug and alcohol services; information and awareness-raising; education and prevention; treatment and support; services for vulnerable groups; workforce development; skilling up and supporting of communities; reducing availability; tackling substance related crime; and coordination and information sharing. Each section of the report ends with an analysis of the gaps and recommendations for action, with all of the recommendations presented in a tabular format in Section 13.