Agenda item
Public Health Update
Members are asked to consider the information presented within the report and note the key issues described.
Minutes:
Dr Bruce Laurence, Director of Public Health addressed the Select Committee. A copy of the update can be found on their Minute Book and as an online appendix to these minutes, a summary of the update is set out below.
Public Health Newsletter
Sugar Smart
Following Sugar Smart Exeter's pioneering effort in 2017 to get the city's residents to take on sugar reduction challenges, Sugar Smart UK is taking the challenge and here in B&NES we are joining in! It's a month-long challenge to encourage people to be smart about their food and drinks choices and to try to reduce the amount of added sugar consumed during September.
Learn more about each of the challenges by downloading
the resource
pack and tracking your progress.
Organ Donation Week 3 – 9 September 2018
Right now across the UK, there are around 6,000 people in need of an organ transplant, including around 150 children and teenagers. On average three people die every day in need of an organ transplant because there just aren’t enough organ donors.
More people are needed to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register now at www.organdonation.nhs.uk. It only takes a few minutes to register and those that sign up are being encouraged to tell their family that they want them to support their decision to donate and save lives.
Please encourage conversations in communities and help to raise awareness of this important campaign.
Know Your Heart Age
Is your heart age older than you? On the 4th September 2018 as part of the One You campaign Public Health England are launching their One You Heart Age Test. The tool is a quick, online resource which uses physical and lifestyle related questions to calculate your heart age. It highlights the need to know your numbers, such as blood pressure and cholesterol, and helps you to understand how to live healthier for longer. Adopting a healthy lifestyle can reduce your risk of dementia. So use the tool, know your risk and remember there really is only One You! Test your heart age here.
Start4Life launched the 24/7 Breastfeeding Friend on Google Assistant and Google Home
The 24/7 Breastfeeding Friend has been developed to provide friendly advice to mothers who have questions and need support with breastfeeding at any point, day or night. The tool is voice activated using the Google Home app or Google Assistant, meaning mums can get NHS-approved advice and daily breastfeeding tips in the moment and when they may have their hands full.
World Mental Health Day
World Mental Health Day is observed on 10th October every year, with the overall objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilizing efforts in support of mental health. This year has a particular focus on young people and mental health in a changing world. To mark the day in B&NES we are encouraging schools and other young people’s settings to explore the idea of Five Ways to Wellbeing using some lesson / activity materials written by young people themselves.
Suicide prevention work in B&NES
As part of the B&NES Suicide Prevention Strategy (here) Public Health works with partners to collect data around suicide to help inform our practice. Over the past year we have joined with the other three councils in the Avon Coroner’s area and Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust who have produced a report (here) containing information about deaths from suicide and injuries of undetermined intent in Avon during the calendar year 2016.
Public Health England’s new Health Profile for England 2018
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-profile-for-england-2018
This is a very comprehensive “state of the nation’s health” report looking at the latest figures and projecting into the future.
Some of the main messages are reinforcing things that are already well known:
- Higher than ever life expectancy. 83.2 years for women and 79.6 years for men. But some slowing of the rate of increase after many years of steady rise.
- Only 63 years of good health so women and men on average suffer 19 and 16 years of poor health respectively.
- Obesity and smoking the two main causes of avoidable ill health… one going up and the other going down. Both contributing both to ill health and health inequalities.
- Dementia is now leading cause of death in women and may soon overtake heart disease as leading cause in men.
- Mental health problems also increasing throughout the population and in young people accounts for a third of all ill health.
Inequalities in life expectancy remain stubborn and gap in healthy life expectancy is much higher (also gaps are higher in more deprived communities).
PHE would like the NHS and others to refocus effort on prevention with obesity, smoking and cardiovascular diseases as priorities.
Making measles history together: A resource for Local Government
With outbreaks of measles across Europe and in the UK, and with some communities still under-vaccinated, PHE has produced a paper giving detailed information about the situation in this country and what can be done to eradicate, or at least prevent outbreaks of measles here. B&NES rates very high for one dose MMR (>95%) but could improve for two doses.
Commercial determinants of health
· Drinkaware / PHE controversy
· Philip Morris - Tobacco control
Councillor Lin Patterson asked if within B&NES they had considered setting up ‘Men’s Sheds’ to aid with suicide prevention.
Dr Laurence replied that he knew that the proposal had been discussed and would seek to get an update to the Select Committee. He added that he knew that one had been set up in Trowbridge for very little cost.
Councillor Bryan Organ commented on how important it was for relatives to be informed when family members have agreed to organ donation.
Councillor Vic Pritchard commented on how vaping is equally as addictive as smoking and queried how some flavours are targeted towards young people.
Dr Laurence replied that there are less toxins in vaping, but agreed that by having sweet shop flavours who exactly is being targeted. He added that he believed that some marketing restrictions should be in place.
Councillor Tim Ball stated that the strength of alcohol available these days is a concern and went some way to defining why young people are getting into difficulties at an early age.
Dr Laurence replied that he would advocate minimum unit pricing as is in place in Scotland.
The Chair thanked Dr Laurence for his update on behalf of the Select Committee.