On 20th June 2023, CHAD and the Faculty of Public Health hosted the final webinar of the 2022-23 series.
We were delighted to welcome Dr David Walsh, an expert on health inequalities and Public Health Programme Manager at Glasgow Centre for Population Health, who presented on: Understanding the political causes of health inequalities – in Scotland, the UK and beyond.
David began by setting the scene of health inequalities and the social determinants of health, before sharing robust and extensive evidence from four case studies to demonstrate the importance of the ‘political economy’. The case studies related to: European post-industrial regions, ‘excess’ mortality in Glasgow, austerity policies and health, and drug related deaths in Scotland. Throughout, the evidence showed that health inequalities are political and that political action is needed to address them. David highlighted that whilst knowledge exists about the solutions and policy measures that would help narrow health inequalities, the sticking point is the lack of political will to follow through on those measures.
Over 170 people joined the webinar and the feedback in the chat reflected on how compelling the evidence is and discussions about how to move forwards.
During David’s presentation and the Question and Answer session, he emphasised the need to raise awareness about the evidence on health inequalities and the solutions required (and underlined the importance of robust evidence on that), reflected on the role of the media, and the value of presenting evidence in different ways. David shared the example of their recent report on ‘Resetting the course for population health’ which sets out a raft of evidence and recommendations and, crucially, was accompanied by an animation: ‘Changing life expectancy in the UK and why it matters’.
You can find out more about that work and watch the animation here: www.gcph.co.uk/life-expectancy
The speakers slides which can be accessed here: Understanding the political causes of health inequalities – in Scotland, the UK and beyond.
A recording of the webinar is available below.
