Socioeconomic status, structural and functional measures of social support, and mortality: The British Whitehall II Cohort Study, 1985-2009.

The authors examined the associations of social support with socioeconomic status (SES) and with mortality, as well as how SES differences in social support might account for SES differences in mortality. Analyses were based on 9,333 participants from the British Whitehall II Study cohort, a longitudinal cohort established in 1985 among London-based civil servants who were 35-55 years of age at baseline. SES was assessed using participant's employment grades at baseline. Social support was assessed 3 times in the 24.4-year period during which participants were monitored for death. In men, marital status, and to a lesser extent network score (but not low perceived support or high negative aspects of close relationships), predicted both all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Measures of social support were not associated with cancer mortality. Men in the lowest SES category had an increased risk of death compared with those in the highest category (for all-cause mortality, hazard ratio = 1.59, 95% confidence interval: 1.21, 2.08; for cardiovascular mortality, hazard ratio = 2.48, 95% confidence interval: 1.55, 3.92). Network score and marital status combined explained 27% (95% confidence interval: 14, 43) and 29% (95% confidence interval: 17, 52) of the associations between SES and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, respectively. In women, there was no consistent association between social support indicators and mortality. The present study suggests that in men, social isolation is not only an important risk factor for mortality but is also likely to contribute to differences in mortality by SES.

HIA Forum, HIA: A tool to support healthier communities (September 2009)

The HIA Forum provides an opportunity for those with an interest in HIA to meet, share experiences, hear about new developments and consider how to progress HIA. 2009 HIA Forum events focused on how HIA can and is being used to support healthier communties.

IPH response to DHSSPS and Food Standards Agency (NI) Front of Pack Labelling consultation

From 2016, it will be mandatory for most pre-packed food to carry nutrition labelling.  This provides an opportunity to review the provision of additional nutrition labelling that is provided voluntarily on the front of packs.  The Governments across the UK are committed to the provision of nutritional information to help consumers make better informed food choices. Key points from IPH response Obesity and related chronic conditions are already very prevalent and are expected to increase over the next decade, placing greater financial burden on health care services. Helping consumers to make informed choices about their diet is an important aspect of tackling obesity. Providing clear consistent and easy to understand front of pack (FoP) nutrition information is important in helping consumers to make healthy choices. IPH would support FoP nutrition information using the traffic light labelling scheme and High/Medium/Low text. FoP nutrition labelling should be supported by a public information campaign to educate consumers about portion sizes and recommended daily intakes of fat, sugar and salt. IPH would support a nutrition labelling approach which empowers and enables consumers to take responsibility for their own health through informed dietary choices. The FoP traffic light labelling scheme has the potential to encourage healthier product formulation as manufacturers pursue market share. This in turn would contribute to wider availability of healthier products.

Further support for a palaearctic origin of Leishmania

The fossil record and systematics of murid rodents, reservoirs of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Palaearctic, Oriental, African, Nearctic and Neotropical, strongly support a Palaearctic origin of Leishmania. The fossil record and systematics of phlebotomine sand flies reinforce this idea. Interpretations of molecular data that place the origin of Leishmania in the Neotropical are inconsistent with the natural histories of reservoirs and vectors. The evolutionary pattern of New World rats (Sigmodontinae) indicates that they may be the most important reservoirs of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis throughout their range.

Final Report Review of DHSSPS Training Support Funding For Social Care Voluntary Organisations February 2011 (PDF 368KB)

Review of DHSSPS Training Support Funding Programme For Social Care Voluntary Organisations

Addressing Young People's Drinking in Northern Ireland: Action to Support the New Strategic Direction for Alcohol and Drugs

This action plan focuses on three main areas: • reducing young people’s demand for alcohol by providing information, education and training to young people and their parents; •restricting the supply of alcohol via measures to reduce accessibility to alcohol (including how alcohol is priced, marketed, and promoted); and • providing treatment and support for those who require additional help. While the emphasis of this action plan is on young people, it recognises that their drinking patterns are very much influenced by modelling the drinking patterns of adults in our society, and it therefore contains actions that will impact on the entire population. Alcohol misuse - however you measure the cost, whether to the individual, the family, the community, the health service, or society as a whole - is one of the biggest public health issues facing Northern Ireland.

Report of Student Support Review

Report of Student support review

Student Support Determination 07-08 (PDF 167 KB)

Financial support arrangements in the 2007/08 academic year for Allied Health Professional Students and Medical and Dental students from year five study

Multisensory mechanisms in temporo-parietal cortex support self-location and first-person perspective.

Self-consciousness has mostly been approached by philosophical enquiry and not by empirical neuroscientific study, leading to an overabundance of diverging theories and an absence of data-driven theories. Using robotic technology, we achieved specific bodily conflicts and induced predictable changes in a fundamental aspect of self-consciousness by altering where healthy subjects experienced themselves to be (self-location). Functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) activity reflected experimental changes in self-location that also depended on the first-person perspective due to visuo-tactile and visuo-vestibular conflicts. Moreover, in a large lesion analysis study of neurological patients with a well-defined state of abnormal self-location, brain damage was also localized at TPJ, providing causal evidence that TPJ encodes self-location. Our findings reveal that multisensory integration at the TPJ reflects one of the most fundamental subjective feelings of humans: the feeling of being an entity localized at a position in space and perceiving the world from this position and perspective.

Inspection of Social Care Support Services for Carers of Older People (PDF 1776 KB)

Social Services Inspection Final Report for Craigavon & Banbridge - fieldwork inspection 14-25 Nov 2005

Sperrin Lakeland Report on Care Support Services for Carers of Older People (PDF 1050 KB)

Sperrin Lakeland Trust inspection

Inspection of Social Care Support Services for Carers of Older People (PDF 494 KB)

Down Lisburn Health And Social Services Trust Eastern Health And Social Services Board Fieldwork Inspection: 31st May 2005 - 10th June 2005 (Final Report April 2006)