Tag: Health Inequalities

Reducing Health Inequalities

A guide for NHS Trust Board Members

Source: NHS Providers

Reducing health inequalities: A guide for NHS trust board members (nhsproviders.org)

This is a guide to support NHS trust board members to address health inequalities as part of their core business. It outlines why trusts should act on health inequalities, includes a vision for what good looks like, a self-assessment tool for trusts to use to determine where they are in their journey and a list of suggested objectives. It covers a wide range of trust work, from operational and clinical delivery of services, to the trust’s role as an anchor institution.

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Source: KnowledgeShare

We’ve only just begun: Action to improve young people’s mental health, education and employment.
Resolution Foundation; 2024.

(This report is the culmination of a three-year research programme exploring the relationship between the mental health and work outcomes of young people. The research was funded by the Health Foundation and is part of their broader Young people’s future health inquiry. It finds that more than 1 in 3 (34%) of young people aged 18–24 reported symptoms that indicated they were experiencing a common mental health disorder like depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder.)

Cold at home: How winter cost of living pressures continue to impact older people and what more needs to happen to support them.
Age UK; 2024.

(This report highlights concerns about the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis on older people who are not receiving support from the benefits system. Many of these people are likely to be eligible for support but will still be missing out for a variety of reasons. Government figures show that an estimated 800,000 pensioners are eligible for Pension Credit but are missing out on this much-needed support.)

Reducing the harm from illegal drugs.
House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts; 2024.

(In response to Dame Carol Black’s review in December 2021, the From Harm to Hope strategy was launched. Two years on from when this strategy’s implementation began, overall progress has been mixed. This report outlines progress made and gives recommendations on next steps for the cross-departmental Joint Combating Drugs Unit in implementing this strategy.)

What patients want: a vision for the NHS in 2030.
Healthwatch England; 2024.

(Using experiences of care from more than 10 million people collected over the past 10 years, Healthwatch sets out where they think the NHS should be in six years and how it can get there.)

Smoking profile: March 2024 update.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID); 2024.

(An overview of the extent of smoking, smoking-related harm and the measures being taken to reduce this harm at a local level in England.)

Health hubs: A community-centred prevention initiative to address health inequalities.
NHS Providers; 2024.

(Prevention is a crucial part of the NHS’s approach to improving population health and tackling health inequalities. One community-centred prevention initiative to address health inequalities is the creation of health hubs. This long read explores what health hubs are, how they can improve access for groups facing health inequalities, their broader social and economic benefits, and the role of trust leaders in their development.)

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Healthcare Inequalities: Access to NHS prescribing and exemption schemes in England

This report from NHDS England looks at inequalities in prescribing and medication use in the areas of overall prescribing, COPD, hypertension and severe mental illness.

healthcareInequalitiesScrollytellR (shinyapps.io)

Go to chapter seven for the focus on prescribing for severe mental illness.

healthcareInequalitiesScrollytellR (shinyapps.io)

British Medical Association Report

The country is getting sicker: The urgent need to address growing health inequalities and protect our health in the face of an economic crisis.

This report contains anonymous testimonials from doctors, patients,
and carers across the UK about their experiences of a country that is
getting sicker in the face of an economic crisis.

Read the report here.

Health and Care

LGBTQ+ inclusion framework

The LGBTQ+ population in the UK experiences significant physical and mental health inequalities compared with the general population. These inequalities extend from increased risk factors for ill health and barriers to accessing health care and support, to discrimination against LGBTQ+ staff within the workplace. This framework comprises six key pillars of inclusivity that organisations should aim to build to create and maintain inclusive cultures: visible leadership and confident staff; a strong knowledge base; being non-heteronormative and non-cisnormative; collecting and reporting data; listening to service users; and proactively seeking out partners to co-deliver services.

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

ASH brief for local authorities on youth vaping.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH); 2022.
(This short briefing is to help local authorities respond to growing concerns about youth vaping in their communities. It is primarily for public health officials and trading standards officers, but also sets out important information for councillors, schools, parents and retailers. Links to further information are also provided.)

Quantifying health inequalities in England.
The Health Foundation; 2022.
(Results show health inequalities starting at a very early age and continuing to develop through adulthood. The early ages and changing structure of health inequalities reinforces the notion that nothing short of a joined-up policy approach can address the wide and complex health inequalities we see in England. We believe this new presentation of health inequalities shows powerfully that investing in the circumstances in which people live will help people stay healthier for longer.)

Advertising ban was linked to lower purchases of unhealthy food and drink.
NIHR Evidence; 2022.
(This is the first study to look at the implementation of the TfL advertising ban. It found that advertising restrictions are feasible, and could have a meaningful impact on population health. The findings could encourage governments and local authorities to consider similar policies to prevent obesity. The TfL restrictions were part of a childhood obesity strategy, but they could influence the whole population.)

Commission on Young Lives,
Centre for Mental Health; 2022.
(Alongside the Children & Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, Centre for Mental Health have co-authored the fourth report from the Commission on Young Lives on rethinking mental health services for vulnerable young people. It reviews the latest data with a focus on those who are at higher risk, including those from racialised communities, lower socioeconomic backgrounds, young people with SEND, those in contact with the criminal justice and care systems, as well as LGBTQI+ communities.)

Domestic abuse and mental health: the amplified risks created during the pandemic.
Hisham I N. BJPsych Advances 2022;28(5):316-327.
[This article focuses on how COVID-19 and its anticipated aftermath exacerbate the risk factors for domestic abuse in the general population and discusses clinical implications for mental health practitioners in the UK. It aims to provide a point of learning based on previous disease outbreaks and recessions, with a focus on specific factors, such as unemployment and alcohol misuse, and how these contribute to increasing incidence and severity of abuse and how to mitigate these for patients…] Open Athens account required.

Institute of Health Equity

Fuel poverty, cold homes and health inequalities in the UK

Source: The King’s Fund

This report reviews the evidence on both the direct and indirect impacts of fuel poverty and cold homes on health; the inequalities in who this affects the most; and the relationship between health inequalities and climate change. It makes the case for prioritising reducing fuel poverty through policy suggestions at both the national and local level.

For more information click here.

Disabled people and health care services

Getting our voices heard

Disabled people face poorer experiences of – and worse access to – health and care services than people who aren’t disabled and these health inequalities have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, it’s vitally important to include disabled people in planning, designing and developing health and care services. This King’s Fund long read, with Disability Rights UK sets out what we found out about how disabled people are currently involved in health and care service design, and what good might look like.

Key messages include:

  • 60 per cent of those who died from Covid-19 in the first year of the pandemic were disabled. The health inequalities disabled people already faced were made worse by the pandemic and a decade of austerity. In this context, it’s vitally important to include disabled people in designing and planning health and care system responses.
  • Health and care services need to understand the broad diversity of disabled people’s identities and experiences, and adopt a social model approach to disability, understanding that people are disabled by barriers in society, rather than by impairments or health conditions.
  • Health and care professionals need to value disabled people’s expertise through properly recognising the value of lived experience and ensure disabled people’s voices are central to any plans right from the start.
  • Disabled health and care staff are potential partners in this work, with their perspectives of both using and delivering services.
  • Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) can strengthen their impact by working with other local DPOs and user-led organisations, understanding which parts of health and care systems they can best influence, and supporting health and care organisations to meaningfully engage with disabled people.
  • Both health and care organisations and DPOs need to improve their understanding of how people’s multiple identities shape their experiences, and embrace diversity of voices, opinions and challenges as an opportunity to think differently.
  • Ensuring disabled people’s voices are heard requires constant attention. While there are some examples of good practice, we heard many stories we heard where involvement wasn’t happening or felt tokenistic.

(The King’s Fund)

Public Health

Current awareness updates

Restricting promotions of products high in fat, sugar or salt by location and by volume price.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022.

[Outlines the provisions of the Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021, and provides assistance in understanding and applying them.]

United against health inequalities: a commitment to lasting change NHS Providers, April 2022

(This survey of trust leaders shows high board-level commitment and strategic emphasis on tackling health inequalities and commitment to making action on health inequalities ‘core business’. However, they describe several barriers to progress with nearly two in three (65 per cent) saying that wider pressures on the system and operational challenges hinder their ability to progress work on reducing health inequalities. Nearly half of trust leaders expressed concerns about the lack of access to data about health inequalities within trusts (49 per cent) and across the health system (48 per cent).)

Coronavirus Act 2020 two years on.
House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee; 2022.
[This report sets out concerns about parliament’s lack of ability to scrutinise and amend emergency provisions in the Coronavirus Act over the past two years and draws out the lessons that can be learnt in legislating for future emergencies.]


Covid-19: The public inquiries.
House of Commons Library; 2022.
[The Covid-19 pandemic was a severe test of the state’s preparedness, resilience and co-ordination. The response from the UK Government and devolved administrations has raised broader questions about how effectively the challenges have been met. There have been longstanding calls for a public inquiry to be held into the UK’s pandemic response. Two public inquiries have been set up: one by the UK Government and one by the Scottish Government.]

Shifting the Dial: evaluating a community programme to promote young Black men’s mental health.
Centre for Mental Health (CMH); 2022.
https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/publications/shifting-dial
[Young Black men are overrepresented in restrictive mental health settings, but are less likely to get early community-based mental health support. This report shares learning from a three-year project to promote the mental health and wellbeing of young Black men in Birmingham. The project built upon the findings from CMH’s evaluation of an earlier pilot, Up My Street. Shifting the Dial has worked with more than 500 young Black men.]

Can fermented foods boost mental health? Medscape: March 22, 2022

(Commentary by Dr Drew Ramsey)