Notes from Health and Wellbeing Meetings
Transition Town South Liverpool – An Initiative for Health and Wellbeing within Transition Town South Liverpool
Aims; -Provide access to alternative and to low carbon strategies for health
-Identify the critical importance of food for health and the consequent importance of localized food strategies
-Support the local authority’s movement strategy ‘Liverpool Active City’
-Work for an understanding of the wider determinants of health, particularly stress and the availability of social support
Justification; The launch of a Transition Towns Initiative in a major city like Liverpool offers a unique opportunity to advance health and wellbeing both for participants and for the wider community. Most if not all the elements in a successful Transition Towns initiative will impact upon health and upon wellbeing.
- Nutrition. Poor nutrition is a massive cause of ill health according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and to the World Cancer Research Fund. Some researchers believe that we should eat 8 or 9 items a day not 5 as suggested by the UK Government. It is suggested that 80% of our food should be vegetables or fruit.
- Transport and Movement. Lack of regular patterns of movement or exercise is again a major cause of ill health according to WHO and the World Cancer Research Fund. A transitional initiative should provide a focus on healthier patterns of transport and movement
- Social Support and networking, Social support and networking, which will be better in a successful transitional initiative is also highly beneficial to health according to WHO and to academic researchers.
- Stress, Stress, when it is experienced long term or is unavoidable is also highly dangerous according to WHO. Stress is likely to be reduced when we can control our own lives better as we can in a transitional environment
These are just four of a series of Social Determinants of Health, which has been described by WHO sponsored reseachers and which are partly susceptible to local action.
Health and sustainable living are linked according to the WHO and to the United Nations.
Recognising links is likely to be particularly beneficial for the poorest and most deprived, northern cities like Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester include populations, which experience massive inequalities. In Liverpool and Merseyside people get ill earlier, stay ill longer and die sooner than in almost any comparable area in Western Europe (excepting Greater Manchester and the Clyde Valley). According to the recent WHO Commission on the Social determinants of Health Glasgow contains a 30 year difference in life expectancy, the poorest in Glasgow have worst health experiences than many in India. Patterns of health in Glasgow reflect those found in Liverpool, Manchester and other British towns and cities. These can be tracked according to the Multiple Deprivation Indicators, which are published by the Government for every Census Super Output Area (Census areas which are parts of wards) as well as by health profiles, which are published for wards and for local authority areas.
Climate change and Peak Oil will reduce the resources available to our expensive health services. These are drug dependent and very dependent on a high wage bill as well as being capital intensive. Much of the burden of illness is avoidable and results from the failure to implement public health and risk avoidance strategies, which have been well documented by WHO and by health researchers. We need to act now to reduce the burden of avoidable illness and lead the more limited resources to those who are unavoidably ill, particularly in view of a likely reduction in carbon emissions and carbon intensive economic activity of at least 80%. Such a reduction must impact upon traditional patterns of health care.
If transitional initiatives are worthwhile and good for us anyway do we need to know about these links with health?
-Understanding these links will strengthen our priorities to take transition forward.
-The WHO has developed an optimum policy framework for Health Improvement it is called the Health for All Initiative it includes a recommended pattern for a Healthy City, which is supported by comprehensive research and resources.
If we take this research and these resources into account it will ensure that our decision making and our use of information and resources is as good as it can be at time when Government systems will come under pressure and may fail , due to Climate Change, Peak Oil and the increased pressure of competition from the developing world.
Alan Cunningham
6.10.2008