We were delighted to present our air pollution resources and Respiratory Health project (funded by The Burdett Trust for Nursing) at the UKHSA Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution Stakeholder Event yesterday, held at the Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne.
The event included a wide range of stakeholders – from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to local Public Health Leads, Global Action Plan to Universities, Clean Air Network, and other charities such as MP Smarter Travel. It was a fantastic opportunity for all these different groups to come together with a shared vision and understanding of how to make things better and put research into action.
During the day, we heard about each other’s work. There were active discussions on what is needed to shift the narrative, what investment is needed, how to balance individual and government/society responsibilities, and what can be learnt from other public health work such as obesity.
One of the most encouraging things which we came away with from the day was the impact of health visiting in this space. There was not one person or organisation who didn’t say that they “need to include health visiting in their research”, “health visitors are vital to this work”, and other variations on this theme. It was an excellent opportunity to shine a light on the importance and unique role of health visitors and why we need more investment to strengthen health visiting services.
Watch our animation about air pollution which we shared at the event:
If you would like to develop your learning in this area, contact the iHV Learning and Development team to find out more about our half-day Respiratory Health Ambassador training. This programme not only covers air pollution, its effects on health and how to mitigate these, it also discusses how to support families of babies and children with asthma, cystic fibrosis and preterm chronic lung disease.
