Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Tackling mental health disparities.
Centre for Mental Health; 2022.
(The pandemic is accompanied by a rise in demand for mental health services. Even before the pandemic, mental ill health was one of the most prevalent forms of illness. Inequalities mean that while it is true that anyone can experience mental illness, the risks are much higher for certain groups who experience structural discrimination and disadvantage. Tackling mental health disparities shares ten evidence-based actions that the Government could take in the forthcoming white paper.)

Grassroots participation in sport and physical activity.
National Audit Office (NAO); 2022.
(This report examines how far the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and Sport England have achieved value for money in their spending on grassroots sport and physical activity amongst those aged 16 and over, and have supported value for money in the system-wide spending across government. We consider the decade since the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with a particular focus on the period since 2015, when government launched its Sporting Future strategy.)

Menopause and the workplace: how to enable fulfilling working lives: government response Department for work and pensions; July 2022 This report lays out the government’s response to the recommendations made in the independent report Menopause and the workplace, published in November 2021. This report aimed to bring about comprehensive change and support for those experiencing the menopause, in key areas of government policy, employer practice, and wider societal and financial change.

The rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine programme in England House of Commons Comittee of Public Accounts; July 2022 This report calls for efforts to be redoubled to reach those not vaccinated or fully vaccinated as it warns that nearly three million adults in England are unvaccinated against Covid-19. It finds that comparatively low vaccination rates persist in many vulnerable groups and have even dropped further for some. It calls for NHS England and UKHSA to urgently evaluate which methods are most effective for increasing uptake, including fresh approaches to tackle the persistent low uptake observed in some ethnic groups.

Creating a smoke-free South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw integrated care system NHS Confederation; June 2022 This case study details a smoking cessation programme in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw that aims to saves lives, decrease health inequalities and reduce hospital re-admissions by making effective treatment for tobacco addiction part of the routine care offered in hospitals.

Public Health

Current awareness updates

The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on Intimate Partner Violence and Mental Health.
The Mental Elf; 2022.
(Rachel Milligan summarises the recently published Lancet Psychiatry Commission on Intimate Partner Violence and Mental Health, which establishes a roadmap for strengthening responses across mental health services, research, and policy.)

Indicator: Hospital admissions as a result of self-harm in children and young people.
Nuffield Trust; 2022.
(Early identification, accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of mental health conditions can help to prevent self-harm and suicide in children and young people. Self-harm is when somebody intentionally damages or injures their body, and is a common way of coping with or expressing overwhelming emotional distress. Hospital admission rates are a useful measure of intentional self-harm, and an indicator of how well we are preventing this suffering from occurring.)

Finding an NHS dentist in England.
House of Commons Library; 2022.
(This page provides information on how to find an appointment with an NHS dentist in England, including a summary of guidance from the NHS and Healthwatch websites. It also provides information on NHS dental charges. The Commons Library debate pack on NHS Dentistry in England (June 2022) – https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2022-0112/ – provides more in-depth, contextual information on Government policy, dental contracts and provision.)

Improving the way family support services work for minority ethnic families.
Early Intervention Foundation (EIF); 2020.
(This report explores the experiences of minority ethnic families in accessing and receiving family support, to better understand the challenges and opportunities in how family support services work for minority ethnic families and young people.)

Improving children and young people’s mental health services Local data insights from England, Scotland and Wales.
The Health Foundation; 2022.
(This briefing presents analysis from the Health Foundation’s Networked Data Lab (NDL) about children and young people’s mental health. The analysis highlighted three key areas for urgent investigation, to help ensure children and young people get the care they need. These are: rapid increases in mental health prescribing and support provided by GPs; the prevalence of mental health problems among adolescent girls and young women; stark socioeconomic inequalities across the UK.)

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) for monkeypox outbreaks: Interim guidance, 24 June 2022.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2022.
(This Interim Guidance outlines recommendations, considerations and methods to raise awareness, manage risk perception, maintain trust and proactively support people at risk to make informed decisions to protect themselves and others from monkeypox.)

Addressing local inequalities through employment.
NHS Employers; 2022.
(A series of case studies showcasing how NHS and non-NHS partners are coming together to support people into work.)

Flooding and public mental health: assessment and management UK Health Security Agency (This guidance on flooding and health aims to provide information for public health authorities, emergency services and health professionals on the measures needed to prevent major effects on health arising from floods in England.)

New resources for safeguarding and empowering young people with SEND when online Learning disability today (A UK-based charity has created new resources to safeguard and empower young people with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) when they are online. Childnet’s new project, Thrive Online, is designed to help educators, parents and carers to support young people aged 11 and over to use the internet in a safe and meaningful way. The free resources cover important topics such as digital wellbeing, healthy online relationships and online pornography.)

Cracking Good Food; Promoting Healthy Eating

(Cracking Good Food have created a support booklet that includes a weekly
guide to family meals that are low fuel and nutritious. Their in-house nutritionist has researched current food prices at ALDI and Tesco to compile a guide to create a nutritionally balanced meal plan costing between £45-£60 each week to feed a family of 4.)

Public Health

Current Awareness

Vaccines and immunization for monkeypox: Interim guidance, 14 June 2022.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2022.
(This interim guidance, developed with the advice and support of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) Ad-hoc Working Group on smallpox and monkeypox vaccines, provides the first WHO recommendations on vaccines and immunization for monkeypox.)

COVID-19 health information needs of older adults from ethnic minority groups in the UK: a qualitative study.
Paudyal P. BMJ Open 2022;12:e059844.
(The study highlights that health information interventions should recognise the intersection between multigenerational living, family structure, and the health and well-being of older adults, and should promote intergenerational discussion.)

Abortion statistics for England and Wales: 2021.
Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID); 2022.
(Statistics and commentary on abortions carried out in 2021.)

The educational burden of disease: a cohort study Nordmo M, Kinge J, Reme B , Flato M et al, The Lancet; June 1 2022 (Students with health disorders might be at risk of disengaging from education, which can reinforce socioeconomic inequalities in health. This study aimed to evaluate the associations between 176 diseases and injuries and later school performance in Norwegian adolescents and to estimate the importance of each disorder using a novel measure for the educational burden of disease (EBoD)).

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Online support for family carers of people with dementia: what works for their mental health?
The Mental Elf; 2022.
https://www.nationalelfservice.net/populations-and-settings/family-carers/online-support-family-carers-dementia/
(Clarissa Giebel reflects on a recent systematic review which investigates online support for family carers of people with dementia.)

The Khan review: making smoking obsolete.
Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID); 2022.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-khan-review-making-smoking-obsolete
(Independent review by Dr Javed Khan into the government’s ambition to make England smokefree by 2030. The review makes 15 recommendations for government to achieve a smokefree society.)

Safer by Design: How can collaboration help design safer gambling?
Demos; 2022.
https://demos.co.uk/project/safer-by-design-how-can-collaboration-help-design-safer-gambling/ (Demos and Playtech hosted two roundtables that brought together those in the industry with gambling experts from academia, charities and policy. The first looked at the role policy and regulation can play, and sought ideas and input on how the gambling sector could learn from other areas. The second looked at gambling as a health issue, and how stakeholders might draw on progress made in other areas such as digital resilience and wellbeing.)

State of the Nation: A comprehensive, retrospective view of NHS data.
Wilmington Healthcare; 2022.
https://wilmingtonhealthcare.com/state-of-the-nation/
(This report looks at key data trends over the course of the pandemic, establishing how new trends in health care activity, patient numbers, disease burden, NHS operational practice, prescribing and regional variation have emerged. The report groups the data into six key areas: hospital episode statistics; demographic segmentation; therapy area analysis; referral to treatment; prescribing insights; and regional insights.)

Mental health and loneliness: the relationship across life stages.
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; 2022.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-and-loneliness-the-relationship-across-life-stages
(This report presents the findings from a qualitative study exploring the experiences of loneliness among those who had experienced a mental health condition. Previous research has shown there is a link between experiences of loneliness and poor mental health. The DCMS commissioned the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) to explore this issue across four key life stages as part of developing the evidence base for work on tackling loneliness.)

Public Health

Current Awareness

How can local authorities reduce obesity? Insights from NIHR research.
NIHR Evidence; 2022.
(This themed review draws on the breadth of NIHR research relevant to obesity, conversations with staff at local councils and at national organisations, and feedback from a group of practitioners, researchers and members of the public. Together they identify evidence-based actions that local authorities, working with their local partners, can take to reduce obesity in their communities.)

Support at the end of life: The role of hospice services across the UK.
Nuffield Trust; 2022.
(This new analysis draws on a nationwide survey of hospices conducted by Hospice UK to address a large gap in our understanding of the services that the hospice sector provides across the UK, including how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted those services.)

Fit for the Future: The Health Value of Wellbeing and Leisure Services.
District Councils’ Network; 2022.
(This new report from DCN, produced with health consultants HEC at University of East Anglia and Economics By Design, delivers strong evidence of the potential of these services to tackle health inequalities and level up our communities.)

Estimating suicide among higher education students, England and Wales: Experimental Statistics: 2017 to 2020.
Office of National Statistics (ONS); 2022.
(The suicide rate for higher education students in the academic year ending 2020 in England and Wales was 3.0 deaths per 100,000 students (64 suicide deaths); this is the lowest rate observed over the last four years, although the small numbers per year make it difficult to identify statistically significant differences. Higher education students in England and Wales had a significantly lower suicide rate compared with the general population of similar ages.)

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Monkeypox cases reported in the WHO European Region.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2022.

(Links to 2 reports: Monkeypox – United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; and Monkeypox – Key facts. While the number of cases in the Region is still relatively small, what is concerning is that some of the cases appear to have been acquired in the Region without a link to travel to countries where monkeypox is known to be endemic. Many cases have been detected in clinics specialized in sexually transmitted infections.)

Mental Health Awareness Week 2022: Loneliness.
House of Commons Library; 2022.

(How does loneliness affect our mental health and what the Government has done to address the issue?)

Vaccine uptake in the general population.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2022.

(This guideline aims to increase the uptake of all vaccines provided on the NHS routine UK immunisation schedule by everyone who is eligible. It supports the aims of the NHS Long Term Plan, which includes actions to improve immunisation coverage by GPs (including the changes to vaccinations and immunisations detailed in the 2021/2022 and 2022/23 GP contracts) and support a narrowing of health inequalities.)

The over-representation of Black people as restricted patients in secure hospitals. Nuffield Trust chart of the week.
Nuffield Trust; 2022.

(People with severe mental health problems who are in contact with the criminal justice system can be held as restricted patients in hospitals if they have been assessed as needing treatment. Miranda Davies takes a closer look at new data that shows that 16% of restricted patients in hospital are Black or Black British, despite only making up 3% of the general population.)

Smoking bans in prisons improve health and reduce medications.
NIHR Evidence; 2022.

(This study found that the smoking ban did not affect dispensing for mental health conditions which suggests that it did not increase levels of depression. However, the researchers caution that there may have been an impact on mental health since, in the interviews, some prisoners reported raised anxiety levels. Improvements in respiratory health were especially marked. Removing second-hand smoke from prisons also improved working conditions for staff.)

Public Health

Current Awareness Bulletin

Systemic racism, not broken bodies: an inquiry into racial injustice and human rights in UK maternity care Birthrights, May 2022

(This year-long inquiry heard testimony from women, birthing people, health care professionals and lawyers outlining how systemic racism within maternity care – from individual interactions and workforce culture through to curriculums and policies – can have a deep and devastating impact on basic rights in childbirth. The report sets out five actions maternity services should take to drive forward concrete change. Please note that free registration is required to read this report)

Support at the end of life: the role of hospice services across the UK Eilís Keeble, Sarah Scobie and Rachel Hutchings, May 2022

(Covid-19 created huge disruption to end of life care services, with many thousands more people dying at home than previously. Hospices play a vital role supporting people and their families at the end of life, but little is known about how these services are being delivered and the issues they are grappling with. This analysis, based on a survey carried out by Hospice UK, provides a picture of a sector undergoing rapid change in the face of fast-changing circumstances.)

Drug misuse prevention review Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), May 18 2022

(The ACMD was commissioned in December 2021 to provide advice on preventing drug use among vulnerable groups of people, and how those groups can be prevented both from first using and from developing dependence on drugs. This report explores the factors that contribute to vulnerability, then examines general principles and specific approaches to prevention that are supported by the available evidence. It also considers the need for the delivery of interventions to be embedded properly in the wider system and context if their potential is to be achieved.)

Recruiting young people from care into NHS careers NHS Employers, May 19 2022

(The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) Looked After Children re-employment programme supports young people with a background in care and unaccompanied asylum seeker children, providing opportunities in NHS roles such as health care support, administration and ancillary. It was developed in partnership with NHS England and NHS Improvement, Next Step and The Prince’s Trust.)

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Improving inclusion in health and care research: reflections and next steps.
HSR UK; 2022.

(In autumn 2021 HSR UK, the Nuffield Trust, The King’s Fund, The Health Foundation and PPI representatives from The Health Foundation Inclusion Panel co-developed a series of events to address improving inclusion in health and care research. This report shares insights from the expert speakers who participated in events, as well as reflections and learnings from running the series.)

Key findings from Healthwatch England’s national dental polling in 2022.
Healthwatch; 2022.

(A representative poll of 2,026 adults based in England on attitudes to NHS dentistry shows that half of the adults in England find dental charges unfair amid escalating living costs. More than two in five respondents (40 per cent) said they found it difficult to book an NHS dental appointment, while one in five (20 per cent) couldn’t access all the treatments they needed. Healthwatch England has warned decision-makers that NHS dentistry is in desperate need of reform.)

Smoking and social housing: Supporting residents, addressing inequalities.
Housing Learning and Improvement Network (HLIN); 2022.

(This report is a collaboration between Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and the Housing Learning and Improvement Network (LIN). It outlines the case for reducing rates of smoking in the social housing sector as part of social landlords’ health and wellbeing activities and the action needed to achieve this.)

A picture of health? Bridging the gap between physical and mental healthcare in adult mental health inpatient settings.
National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD); 2022.

(This report suggests that a physical health care plan should be developed when patients are admitted to a mental health inpatient setting. Other key messages aimed at improving care include calls to: formalise clinical networks/pathways between mental health and physical health care; involve patients and their carers in their physical health care, and include mental health and physical health conditions on electronic patient records.)

The Impact of Dementia on Women.
Alzheimer’s Research UK; 2022.

(This report calls for action to tackle dementia’s disproportionate impact on women and to ensure women can make a full contribution to research, both as participants and as researchers.)

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

WHO European regional obesity report 2022

(Overweight and obesity affect almost 60 per cent of adults and nearly one in three children in the WHO European Region. Recent estimates suggest that overweight and obesity is the fourth most common risk factor for noncommunicable diseases in the Region, after high blood pressure, dietary risks and tobacco. This report examines the growing challenge and impact of obesity in the Region and focuses on managing obesity throughout the life course and tackling obesogenic environments. It also considers more recent challenges, including problematic digital marketing to children and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on obesity prevalence.)

Doctor’s orders: Why adherence is critical to improving health outcomes across the life course

(Nearly half of all adults and approximately 8% of children worldwide have a chronic condition. Yet, studies have shown that adherence to medication is poor. This is expensive for governments, requiring three extra medical visits per year. This article from the ILC suggests some key recommendations to support adherence.)

Thousands of people with diabetes set to benefit from real time information after updated NICE recommendations

(More than 250,000 people living with type 1 diabetes are set to be offered new technology to help them manage their condition and at the same time reduce the need for finger prick testing by up to 50%, following new advice from NICE.)

Link workers for population health: it’s time to get with the (social prescribing) programme

(Embedding a population health approach into health care at the local, regional and national level in England will require slow, incremental cultural shifts over the space of years, as suggested in their report; A vision for population health.)