Blog

The government has stated that smoking is responsible for half of the inequalities gap in life expectancy in England – will the ideas in an independent review close that gap?

Loreen Chikwira explores how better listening, collaborative working with minority ethnic women and better support for link workers can improve how social prescribing supports migrant women.

Oliver Standing, Director of Collective Voice, and colleagues from the Alliance Group, explore the opportunities offered by England’s new drugs strategy, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

Johnson Neo reflects on the role that clinicians can play in improving population health and considers how applying a framework can help make sense of the factors that can impact on their patients’ health.

Partnership working can be transformative – if it works well. Here we share two techniques, observed as part of the Healthy Communities Together programme, that can help in forming healthy partnerships.

Angela Fell, Director of Northern Heart and Soul in Wigan, outlines why we should move beyond person-centred services to a community-centred approach in order to transform people's health and wellbeing.

Dame Carol Black’s review has produced a comprehensive set of recommendations for action on drugs prevention, treatment and recovery. Ruth Robertson reflects on the wide range of services that need to be involved.

What does ‘levelling up’ mean – and how can the government start to tackle the issues it covers? Jonathon Holmes looks at the challenges of turning a slogan into action.

Data, funding and workforce – if the government wants its proposed reforms to the MHA to create change these system-wide enablers are as important as individual changes to legislation. Helen Gilburt consider the issues.

As we reach the one-year anniversary of the start of lockdown in the United Kingdom, Richard Murray outlines how a whole-system response will best support staff and patients and help to tackle inequalities.

How can organisations and individuals strengthen population health approaches and better tackle health inequalities? Durka Dougall looks at how to move from aspiration into action.

Helen Gilburt shares her research into how mental health and social care professionals make decisions around whether to detain people with mental disorders under the Mental Health Act or the Mental Capacity Act – Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. Her research uncovered a range of understandings and misunderstandings which impact on practice.

How can NHS services use their facilities to better support social prescribing? Ben Collins highlights what’s needed to make NHS sites more welcoming spaces for individuals and communities.

Digital tools and services are increasingly being used in health and care, but what happens to all the data that is collected, who should have access to it and who decides? Pritesh Mistry outlines the value of trust and transparency in these complex agreements

Sally Warren reflects on the findings of the Health Devolution Commission, which considered the role of ‘health in all policies’ and the balance between local and national action.

What can social enterprises teach the NHS about being an effective anchor institution? Ben Collins considers how organisations must work in partnership to better support the communities they serve.

Providing joined-up services that address people’s physical and mental health needs has long been a challenge. Jihad Malasi asks whether primary care networks could be the answer to providing holistic primary care mental health services.

Helen Gilburt reflects on the experiences of staff and people with mental health problems during the first months of Covid-19 and urges mental health services to learn from those experiences to plan for the future.

The Covid-19 outbreak has exposed gaps in psychosocial support for health care workers. Mary Docherty, Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust London, considers the action needed to address those gaps and meet the needs of the workforce in the future.

A resilient health and care system is about more than national action. Sally Warren shares a vision for building local resilience that would allow the health and care system to respond effectively to future crises.