State of the City 2013: the health of the city

It may be home to a thriving host of businesses, but just how healthy is Brighton as a place to live and work?

Director of Public Health for Brighton and Hove Dr Tom Scanlon gave us the inside track on the main health issues affecting our city.

He particularly emphasised that alcohol and drug misuse remained a problem in Brighton, and that rates of alcohol misuse had flatlined ― however, he revealed that smoking rates had been steadily coming down for years.

“Sexually transmitted infection infection rates have not really changed,” he added, “they have been moving up for years and years now. We need to get a better handle on it.”

Dr Scanlon explained that the high STI infection rate was linked to drug and alcohol use, and that “people are less worried about them [STIs] because the treatments have improved.”

He also spoke about the considerable challenges the city faces regarding people’s mental wellbeing, stating that although suicide rates had come down slightly recently, this was still an area of concern due to the high rates of mental health problems in Brighton and Hove.

In terms of how public health priorities for the city will change in the future, Dr Scanlon highlighted the resurgence in cases of measles and the use of club drugs as emerging areas that needed to be targeted.

He revealed there had been over 100 cases of measles last year, adding: “It’s shocking ― it’s 100 per cent preventable. In the 21st century it shouldn’t be happening.”

“We have got a large group of children and young adults who are not immunised,” he added.

Dr Scanlon said that officials did not have enough information about the prevalence and use of club drugs, warning: “We do not really understand what effects they can have on people.”

The issue of city refuse workers’ recent strike action, which hit the headlines nationally, had led to some fears around public health. However, Dr Scanlon was quick to offer reassurance that the health risks had not been substantial.

He said that while the build-up of rubbish had been “proving an obstruction to pedestrians,” in terms of any potential spread of disease, the risks had been “very low.”

Despite this recent temporary blot on its green copybook, Brighton and Hove has developed a reputation as an environmentally conscious city.

However, Dr Scanlon said it would be “good to see the actual evidence a bit more” to ascertain whether or not this reputation was deserved.

He also mentioned the importance of ‘nudge theory’ in terms of trying to change people’s behaviour in order to improve their health.

He explained that as this government was “against legislative approaches” to tackling health, the current methodology was to “‘nudge’ people in terms of good behaviour.”

According to Dr Scanlon, there are also prompts that lead to people making choices that aren’t good for them ― he gave the example of supermarkets displaying chocolate bars near their tills as a particularly unhealthy ‘nudge.’

Taking the example of supermarkets tempting queuing shoppers with sweet treats, just how difficult is it to encourage businesses to engage with public health issues if it means putting the health of the city before profits?

Dr Scanlon said it was not easy, but he had been quite encouraged by his interaction with local businesses, adding:  “We are gaining a bit of a reputation for being open to this joint working.”

He also noted that the fact that his role had moved from the NHS to the local authority had made it easier to “make those connections” between social inequalities and health, giving the example of working closely with hostels to “get a better strategy” to support homeless people.

Despite the many challenges, it’s apparent that work is continually being done to make the city fitter and healthier. So it’s not just the need for a healthy economy that we’ll be considering at our State of the City debate, but the importance of a healthy population, too. 

Interview byRosalind Branagan
@rsb_2013
www.jwtrainee.wordpress.com

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