The Centre for Public Health and Wellbeing held its annual Showcase Conference online on 2nd July 2024, followed by a meeting of its advisory board. Using a quick-fire format presentations and discussant responses providing external stakeholders, alumni, students and staff colleagues with the opportunity to gain valuable insight into building capacity and collaborative working generate research with impact on healthier lives, healthier communities and healthier environments. There were also presentations and discussions around collaborative research across UWE, teaching and learning and the postgraduate research environment including delivery of multidisciplinary public health in Hainan China.
Part of public health work is about preventing ill health and keeping people out of hospital through preventative interventions. But it’s also about empowering people. Involving and engaging – giving people agency, building trust. Our research starts with the priorities and needs of communities. Giving them control over their ability to make their own decisions and respond to change in the way that they need to.
Public health is about raising people up, so that everyone can be well and do well. For example, ‘Tackling Root Causes of Unequal Urban Development (TRUUD) funded by the UK Prevention Research Partnership has led to the creation of powerful and hard-hitting films that bring home what it means to live in poor housing. Production was led by Centre members Dr Jo White and Dr Andy Gibson.
There are three films in total, https://truud.ac.uk/living-in-unhealthy-places/ and they’ve already been used as part of conversations with civil service servants at national government to try and influence a decision making there. Some anti-poverty campaigners are interested in using them as part of a new way of doing deliberations with the public about the impact of urban environments on health and wellbeing.
Watch the showcase below: