30 October 2015

Just Words Workshop - All welcome

Many thanks to those who supported the launch of Just Words before I went on leave. We will be conducting a workshop about our research on Thursday 19 November 2015 at the Video Conference Room, Level 4, 34 Davey Street Hobart from 10am – 12pm as part of the Health Promotion Community of Practice gatherings. 

We will discuss the findings of our qualitative study exploring how ‘everyday’ people interpret and understand the language of social determinants of health in the context of their own lives and broader society. The study identified deep concerns among community members about health inequity and words without action. The findings have implications for the ways in which health promotion policy, practice and advocacy are framed. We will discuss as a group how we can use the findings of this study in everyday practice.

So if you didn’t attend the launch or you would like the opportunity to discuss it further please come along. Everyone is welcome to attend. We will link to other sites around the state but this will need to be organised beforehand. For further information please contact Rebecca: rebecca.essex@dhhs.tas.gov.au

Here's some great resources you might like to check out

1. How’s life? 2015 Measuring health and wellbeing
How’s Life? describes the essential ingredients that shape people’s well-being in OECD and partner countries. It includes a wide variety of statistics, capturing both material well-being. This third edition includes a special focus on child wellbeing. http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/economics/how-s-life-2015_how_life-2015-en#page1

2. An interesting resource on injury prevention: Canadian Injury Prevention Resourceincludes a deeper dive into the determinants of injury

3. Sick with worry – Stories from the front-line of inequality 2015

4. Addressing social determinants of health inequities through settings: a rapid review

5. Towards health equity: a framework for the application of proportionate universalism

6. Update from Heart Foundation. Please find attached an update on the Heart Foundation’s position regarding suggested legislative amendments to increase the visibility of health and wellbeing as an objective of the Tasmanian Planning Scheme. For further information please contact Graeme Lynch - Graeme.Lynch@heartfoundation.org.au

7. Ageing and Health. The World Health Organisation released the World Report on Ageing and Health on the 1st of October.  The report states that health inequities is a key global challenge for the future.  View the full report, fact sheets and media statements at www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs404/en/

8. VicHealth suite of 18 new health equity resources
Evidence tells us that promoting equity in health is best done by understanding and addressing the social conditions that influence health, and how these conditions are distributed unequally in society.  These are called the social determinants of health inequities.  Click here for the full suite.

9. Fantasy paradigms of health inequalities: Utopian thinking ?
Alex Scott-Samuel and Katherine Elizabeth Smith
Social Theory & Health 13, 418-436 (August /November 2015) | doi:10.1057/sth.2015.12

Abstract
This article argues that, while it can be politically expedient for governments to engage with health inequalities, they cannot, within the confines of neo-liberalism, realistically propose actions that evidence suggests will effectively reduce them – such as tackling power inequalities, social status and connections or class inequality. Indeed, a dominant ‘policy paradigm’ prioritising economic growth restricts the ability of policy actors to imagine alternative, more equitable scenarios. In this context, some policy actors and researchers have devised a parallel fantasy world in which proximal, downstream, easily tackled exposures are posited as potential solutions to health inequalities. The consequence of this is a widespread public sector culture in which well-meaning policymakers, practitioners, researchers and members of the public collude in sustaining a ‘cargo cult’ of health behaviourism. In examining this situation, we draw on accounts and critiques of utopian thinking to help explain: (i) the remarkable persistence of policy proposals to tackle health inequalities via downstream interventions, in spite of the strength of evidence challenging such approaches; and (ii) the limited extent to which more upstream proposals inform policy debates. We argue Ruth Levitas’ notion of ‘utopia as method’ offers an imaginative and potentially useful avenue for future health inequalities research.
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/sth/journal/v13/n3-4/full/sth201512a.html Please email me if you can’t access the full article and would like to read it.

10. A Practitioner’s Guide for Advancing Health Equity-Community strategies for preventing chronic disease

11. Systems change for the social determinants of health