By Jennifer Davies, Public Health Practitioner
Many of you may have understood that ‘Healthy Telford’ is the name we have given to Public Health on social media (after all, who wants to follow ‘Telford and Wrekin Council’s Public Health Team’?) But if you have you ever wondered what Public Health actually is, you aren’t alone! Despite being part of the Council’s responsibilities since 2013 there are many people who still don’t really understand what that means. Allow us to clear it up for you.
Public Health, simply put, is helping people to stay healthy and protecting them from threats to their health. Sometimes Public Health activities involve helping individual people, but mainly we deal with wider factors that have an impact on the health of our communities.
Our job is to care about Telford residents. We might look at Telford residents of a certain age, residents who live in particular areas, residents who have just had babies or residents of particular backgrounds and ethnicities. This is because health risks often have patterns that make them more likely to affect groups of people with certain heritages or life stages.
A very low-level public health intervention is providing health information to these groups. An example is the Change4Life campaign that many people are familiar with. We share these campaign messages with Telford residents using social media, posters, resource packs etc. This is about helping get healthy lifestyles information out to families with young children by providing them with information and tips so that they can make informed choices.
A more intensive intervention might be our Healthy Lifestyles Service. The Healthy Lifestyles team offer free, one-to-one information, advice and ongoing support to help any adult living in Telford positive lifestyle changes. No one will force you to go and see a Healthy Lifestyles Advisor, but if you do go there you get a lot more help than just a campaign message or leaflet.
We also commission services like Sexual Health services, Health Visitors, Stop Smoking services, Public Health Midwives and Drug and Alcohol Treatment services.
And we try out new ideas and ways of working, with projects like the Telford & Wrekin Health Champions or Work Well in Telford. Anything to reach the right people, with the right messages, at the right time that they want or need them.
Other aspects of our role include linking in with partners like the NHS, schools, Social Care teams, and services like the Police and Fire Service. We have done some great joint working to help reach really vulnerable at-risk people in our communities to help them stay safe and well. It’s inspiring to meet so many motivated and passionate people across the borough who are working hard to protect and/or improve people’s lives.
And we also aim to influence policies and decision-making so that health is embedded into all areas of work across the Council, NHS and third sector. Since the Marmot Review we have understood how health impacts upon a person’s environment, housing, employment, education – and vice versa. So we aim to have good health promoted in lots of different but relevant contexts.
Working for Public Health is varied work. It’s a bit of science, a bit of art and a bit of business, all at the same time … and we wouldn’t change a thing.