Key Topics in Public Health: Essential Briefings on Prevention and Health Promotion

Key Topics is a short, easy-to-read text that provides basic information about twelve key topics in public health, such as diabetes, cancer, smoking and teenage pregnancy, and how prevention and health promotion should be tackled at community and one-to-one levels. The twelve topics are the 'must-dos' of public health action. They have been selected because they are those addressed in current national public health strategies such as Saving Lives: our healthier nation, and comparable strategies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Many are the subject of National Service Frameworks and other national policies and plans; they are often accompanied by targets which health workers are expected to meet.

Catherine Dennison PhD BSc is Research Manager for the Sexual Health and Substance Misuse Business Area, Department of Health. Her background is in adolescent health research. From 2000 - 2004 Catherine provided research support to the Teenage Pregnancy Unit, now in the Department for Education and Skills. As part of this role Catherine instigated a large programme of research and evaluation to inform implementation of the government's Teenage Pregnancy Strategy for England. Before joining government Catherine was involved in research on a wide range of issues relating to young people, including mental health, youth justice and teenage parenthood. Gail Errington BSc is a Research Associate in the Centre for Health Services Research at the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and a collaborator on the Health Development Agency's Evidence and Guidance Centre - Unintentional Injury to Children and Young People. She has a background in health promotion and education, developing an interest in injury prevention while working as coordinator on a local accident prevention programme. Gail joined the University in 1994 and was Evaluation Officer on the Safer Primary Schools Project, a 5-year randomised controlled trial. Her research interests include the evaluation of intervention programmes, engaging target groups and consolidating the evidence base. David Evans MA BA DFPH is Reader in Applied Health Policy Research at the University of the West of England, Bristol. His background is in social science, health promotion and nursing, and from 2002 - 2003 David was Director of Public Health for Bristol North Primary Care Trust. His research interests include the evaluation of initiatives to tackle inequalities in health, user involvement and the development of multi-disciplinary public health. He is also a Non-Executive Member of the Board of NHS Direct, the telephone and internet-based clinical advice and health information service. Linda Ewles MSc MA BSc RD is a public health and health service writer, editor and trainer, recently combining this with front-line practice as a dietitian in primary care. After initial training and practice in nutrition and dietetics, she worked for over 30 years in broader fields of health education, health promotion and public health, within the NHS and in higher education. She is co-author (with Ina Simnett) of Promoting Health - a practical guide, first published in 1984 and now in its fifth edition and translated into five languages. Elizabeth Gale BA is the Chief Executive of mentality, the national mental health promotion charity. Elizabeth is one of the founding members of the organization, established in 2000. Elizabeth has worked in mental health for over 12 years and for 8 of those she has concentrated on the promotion of mental health and well-being and the broader public mental health agenda. She has worked in the statutory, voluntary and commercial sectors and is an experienced presenter, trainer, writer, broadcaster and advocate. Her academic background is in law and sociology and she has a keen interest in the human rights and civil liberties agenda. Selena Gray MBChB MD FFPH FRCPCH is currently Reader in Public Health and Director of the Centre for Applied Health and Social Care at the University of the West of England, Bristol. After qualifying in medicine in Leeds, she worked in paediatrics in the UK and Saudi Arabia before training in public health medicine in the south-west. She worked for almost 10 years as Clinical Adviser for the Regional NHS R&D programme, and was a founding Director of the South West Public Health Observatory before taking up an academic post. She has had a longstanding involvement in public health training, and has published research on a variety of public heath issues. Alison Hadley SRN HV works in the government's Teenage Pregnancy Unit as Programme Manager of the 10-year Teenage Pregnancy Strategy for England. Alison joined the Teenage Pregnancy Unit in 2000 after working for 13 years at Brook - the young people's sexual health charity - initially as a nurse in the London Centre and then for Brook Central as manager of the policy and media work. She has also worked as a pregnancy counsellor for the Pregnancy Advisory Service. Alison believes passionately in young people's rights to the information, skills and support they need to develop safe and fulfilling relationships. She has edited a book for teenagers about young women's experiences of pregnancy, called Tough Choices, published by the Women's Press. Christine Hine MB ChB MRCP FFPH is Consultant in Public Health Medicine for Bristol and South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trusts. Following junior doctor posts in hospital medicine and public health, she has worked as a consultant for health authorities in Bath and Bristol and Avon, and as Director of Public Health for Bristol South and West Primary Care Trust 2002 - 2003. She was public health lead for diabetes in Bristol and Avon, and a member of the National Project Advisory Group on Diabetic Retinopathy Screening. She now specialises in public health aspects of acute service commissioning across the Bristol area. Susan Laverty MB ChB MPH MFPH MRCGP is a consultant in public health medicine in the Black Country and a general practitioner. Prior to training in medicine Susan was a lecturer in special needs and communication skills. Her main interests are in chronic disease management, primary care and organisational development issues. Pip Mason RGN BSc(Econ) MSocSc is Director of a training consultancy company and Honorary Lecturer at the Centre for Forensic and Family Psychology at the University of Birmingham. She has a background in the nursing and counselling in the addictions field, with 25 years' experience of services in the community, primary care, prisons and residential rehabilitation. Pip has a special interest in counselling around motivation and change, is a member of the international Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers and co-author (with Stephen Rollnick and Chris Butler) of Health Behavior Change, a guide for practitioners (1999). Doreen McIntyre MA MPH PGCE is Director of the International Non Governmental Coalition Against Tobacco. After a short spell in the UK civil service, Doreen has worked in tobacco control since 1988, first at city level in her native Glasgow then at UK national level as Director of the No Smoking Day charity. Her work involves the creation of national and international alliances that can mobilise resources and implement best practice in tobacco control, and her particular interest is in the use of mass media for health communications. Klim McPherson PhD FFPH FMedSci is a Visiting Professor of Public Health Epidemiology in the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Oxford. He works mainly on women's diseases, their causes and treatment from an epidemiological perspective. His main interest is enhancing a strong and rigorous public health structure in the UK that can influence positively the occurrence of avoidable disease in the future. He is Vice Chair of the National Heart Forum, a non-governmental organization dedicated to preventing coronary heart disease. Dympna Pearson RD works as a freelance trainer and consultant dietician. She has extensive experience of working in different clinical settings and providing training for healthcare professionals. Dympna has developed behaviour change skills training for healthcare professionals and she now runs multi-disciplinary courses at national and local level. This training focuses on the development of interpersonal skills as well as the more advanced motivational and cognitive behavioural approaches. Her interest in obesity management is reflected through her work as chair of 'Dietitians Working in Obesity Management (UK)' [DOM (UK)] and vice-chair of the National Obesity Forum (NOF). R Nicholas Pugh MA MD FRCP FFPHM DTM&H is a public health consultant at Walsall Teaching Primary Care Trust and the Black Country Health Protection Agency, and Visiting Professor at Staffordshire University. Nick's current research interests are in drug misuse and sexual health. He was previously a Clinical Lecturer at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, spending 12 years in Africa, and a clinical epidemiologist and Associate Professor in Public Health for 8 years at a new medical school in the United Arab Emirates. He has published especially in the fields of communicable disease, snake-bite poisoning, and public health. Chris Riddoch CertEd BA MEd PhD is Professor of Exercise Science and Head of the London Institute for Sport and Exercise at Middlesex University. Originally trained as a physical education teacher, he taught in London schools for 10 years. He then moved to Queen's University of Belfast to lecture in sports science and then to the University of Bristol to lecture in exercise and health science. During his time at Bristol he spent 3 years as Dean of Graduate Studies for the Social Science Faculty. He is an active researcher, focussing predominantly on children's physical activity and health. He has directed a number of large multinational epidemiological studies of children's health. Linda Seymour BA MA is Research and Policy Development Manager at mentality, the national mental health promotion charity. She has worked in health promotion for more than 20 years, initially in tobacco control at Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Subsequently she worked on the national evaluation team for Health at Work in the NHS. She has been a Board Level Director in the NHS at a health authority (1993 - 1996) and then at a community mental health and learning disability trust (1998 - 2002). She is an experienced trainer, writer and broadcaster and was a Research Fellow in Health and Social Policy at Brighton University. Lorna Templeton BSc MSc is a Senior Researcher at the Mental Health Research and Development Unit in Bath (Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and the University of Bath), managing the Alcohol, Drugs and the Family Research Programme. She has worked in this area for over 7 years. Lorna is also the current chair of the New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Group, a committee member of the Addictions Forum, a member of Alcohol Concern's Children and Families Forum and a member of the Encare network, an EU-wide collaboration to develop resources for professionals who come into contact or work with children living in families where there are parental alcohol problems. Elizabeth Towner BSc MA PhD PGCE is Professor of Child Health at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Her background is in teaching, educational research, health promotion and in particular injury prevention. Her research interests include inequalities in childhood injury, school-based interventions, involving children and young people in research and developing the evidence base in the field of injury. She was a member of England's National Task Force on Accidental Injury and is the principal investigator of the Health Development Agency's Evidence and Guidance Collaborating Centre on the Prevention and Reduction of Accidental Injury in Children and Young People aged 0 - 24 years. Richard Velleman BSc MSc PhD FBPsS FRSS CPsychol is Professor of Mental Health Research at the University of Bath, where he directs the Mental Health Research and Development Unit (Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and the University of Bath). He is also Visiting Professor of Psychology at the University of Naples, Italy. He trained originally as a clinical psychologist, and since then has headed up statutory addictions services, worked as an NHS Trust Board Director, undertaken many research projects and published widely. Richard is also a member of the Encare network, an EU-wide collaboration to develop resources for professionals who come into contact or work with children living in families where there are parental alcohol problems.