Tags: PHE

PHE – Lyme disease: signs and symptoms

Lyme disease, or Lyme borreliosis, is a bacterial infection spread to humans when they are bitten by an infected tick. It’s estimated there are 2,000 to 3,000 new confirmed cases of Lyme disease in England and Wales each year, although not all cases are confirmed by laboratory testing. About 15% of cases are acquired while people are abroad.

Lyme disease can be treated effectively if it’s detected early on. But if it’s not treated or treatment is delayed, there’s a risk you could develop long-lasting symptoms.

Go to PHE Lyme Disease information

PHE Healthy weight promotion: consistent messages – resources published

Public Health England (PHE) has published a suite of resources focused on promoting a healthier weight for children, young people and families – a set of training tools providing evidence-based healthy weight messages for health and social care professionals to share.

These resources are intended to support health and care professionals to be consistent and provide a core set of healthy weight messages throughout the life course. This suite of resources is part of Public Health England’s All Our Health ‘call to action’ for health and care professionals. Resources can be accessed here and include:

  • Consistent messaging infographics: For use in practice. Each infographic highlights the key evidence-based healthy weight messages for specific age or target groups.
  • Consistent messaging slide sets: The aim of these slides is to be used as a training tool to inform workforce development.  It provides detailed evidence-based healthy weight messages from preconception through to age 18 years. It includes links to a range of useful free resources including e-learning and guidance documents.
  • Child obesity animation: This animation demonstrates for all health and care professionals their vital role in supporting children, young people and families to maintain a healthier weight to prevent and reduce childhood obesity, from pregnancy through to the transition to adulthood.

Go to PHE: Healthy weight promotion: consistent messages

New Planning for Pregnancy tool launched

Tommy’s, in partnership with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), Public Health England (PHE) and the UCL Institute for Women’s Health, has launched a digital tool today to give women all the information they need to know before pregnancy.

There are several key steps that can be taken before conception to improve fertility, pregnancy health and the baby’s future health. However, before women become pregnant, they are often not talking to health professionals and many are not aware of about how they can reduce their risks.

The tool is being launched this week with a national #AreYouReady campaign to raise awareness of the importance of planning for pregnancy as a factor in having a safe and healthy pregnancy.

In a survey of more than 750 women, pregnancy health charity Tommy’s found that the majority of women put a lot of thought and planning into an annual holiday. When it comes to trying for a baby, however, most of us aren’t aware there is anything to do other than stopping contraception.

The survey found that 67% of women plan for three or more months for a holiday, compared to 20% planning for three or more months for a pregnancy. Just under 40% of respondents said they stopped using contraception the same week they made the decision to have a baby, leaving little time to make any change that might affect the health of pregnancy and baby, such as taking folic acid, improving diet and achieving a healthy weight.

The survey also found a big difference between the perception of how long it takes to get pregnant compared to the reality. More than a quarter of women surveyed (25.3%) became pregnant within one month compared to fewer than 5% expecting this to happen.

Go to Planning for Pregnancy Tool

Go to Planning for Pregnancy Hub

The hub includes comprehensive information about all the topics women planning a pregnancy need to know about, from healthy diet and exercise, to taking folic acid.

The #AreYouReady campaign

The campaign to launch Tommy’s new Planning for Pregnancy digital tool (#AreYouReady) plays on the idea that women are currently not aware that there is anything to be done before getting pregnant, and thus they do not plan for it as they do for other events in their lives, such as holidays or moving home.

The campaign aims to educate and inform women aged 18-40 of the importance of looking after yourself and making behaviour changes before pregnancy.

This includes

  • taking folic acid at least two months before pregnancy
  • quitting smoking
  • maintaining or coming closer to a healthy weight (BMI)
  • adopting healthy eating behaviours
  • staying active or becoming more physically active before pregnancy
  • speaking to a GP if taking medication for a mental or physical condition.

#AreYouReady campaign film

Do you have a case study on smokefree pregnancy to share?

Teenage pregnancy and young parents publication

Published by Public Health England (PHE) and the Local Government Association, Good progress but more to do: teenage pregnancy and young parents provides case studies and practical information.

It is over 15 years since the then government launched its Teenage Pregnancy Strategy in response to England having one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Western Europe. Since then, thanks to the hard work of councils and their partners, the under-18 conception rate has dropped by 60 per cent and the proportion of teenage mothers in education and training has doubled.

As time has gone by it has become clear what works. Evidence shows that high quality relationships and sex education (RSE), welcoming health services (in the right place, open at the right time) and friendly non-judgmental staff, help young people to delay sex until they are ready and to use contraception effectively.

Go to LGA Good progress but more to do: teenage pregnancy and young parents

Healthmatters Reproductive Health Telephone conference and Q&A session

PHE is running a telephone conference on reproductive health on Tuesday 26 June 2018, 10:00 – 10:45, and invites health professionals to join. Please join Professor Viv Bennett, Chief Nurse & Director for Maternity & Early Years, Public Health England, for the launch of this latest edition of Health Matters. She will be joined by Dr Sue Mann, Medical Expert and Public Health Consultant in Reproductive Health, PHE and Dr Catherine Swann, Deputy Director, Maternity and Community, PHE.

About the telephone conference

Ensuring that women and men achieve and maintain good health in their reproductive years is a public health challenge that impacts on future health for both themselves and their child.

A woman who is healthy at the time of conception is more likely to have a successful pregnancy and a healthy child. A planned pregnancy is likely to be a healthier one, as women tend not to be optimally prepared for pregnancy if it is unplanned.

The aim is for pregnancies to happen by choice, which means increasing the proportion of planned pregnancies for those who do want to conceive, and preventing pregnancies for those who do not. Currently, one third of births in England are unplanned or associated with feelings of ambivalence, which can have adverse impacts for the mother, baby and children later in life.

Teleconference: Tuesday 26 June 2018, 10.00am – 10.45am

Please join Professor Viv Bennett, Chief Nurse & Director for Maternity & Early Years, Public Health England, for the launch of this latest edition of Health Matters. She will be joined by Dr Sue Mann, Medical Expert and Public Health Consultant in Reproductive Health, PHE and Dr Catherine Swann, Deputy Director, Maternity and Community, PHE.

Why you should take part:

The preconception period (the years in which you can have a child) presents an opportunity for women and men to take steps to protect the health of a baby they might have sometime in the future, and stay healthy throughout life.

There are both universal and targeted opportunities to embed preconception care as part of day-to-day business and thereby improve outcomes, reduce inequalities and radically upgrade prevention.

Health professionals and commissioners need to work collaboratively to deliver the best outcomes. The session will be of particular value to local authorities, directors of public health, health and wellbeing boards, commissioners, CCGs and health professionals.

 

Improvements in oral health at 5 – how did your area do?

PHE’s Oral Health Survey of 5 year old children 2017 shows tooth decay in 5 year olds continues to decline in England, with current levels at 23.3% – down from 30.9% in 2008. However, clear inequalities in oral health remain, with children in deprived areas more likely to be affected.

Public Health England has published, for the first time, these 2 reports presenting information on the oral health of children at local authority level:

  • ‘Local authority area variation in the oral health of 5-year-olds‘ identifies the 30 local authority areas with higher levels of tooth decay and the trends in decay over the past 9 years
  • ‘Oral health improvement programmes commissioned by local authorities’ shows which oral health improvement programmes local authorities are currently commissioning

Both reports should be read in conjunction with the official statistics publication National Dental Epidemiology Programme for England: oral health survey of 5-year-old children 2017.

Go to PHE - Oral health of 5-year-old children in local authorities

PHE – call for Speech, language and communication local practice and pathway examples

Call for good local practice and pathway examples:

  • Speech, language and communication local practice and pathway (0-5 years)
  • Evidence-based speech, language and communication training for health visitors/ health visiting teams

Public Health England has formed a partnership with the Department for Education as part of their Social Mobility Action Plan to address the “word gap” and the inequalities associated with speech, language and communication needs in the early years. They are pleased to share the first of a series of regular communications with you in this briefing by Wendy Nicholson.

The programme of work will include training for health visitors on speech, language and communication needs; the introduction of an early language assessment tool to support clinical decision-making; and the development of a model pathway for services for children 0-5 years to promote language and early identification/ interventions for children with speech, language and communication needs.

There are some excellent examples of innovative, evidence-driven practice in parts of the country and PHE would like to learn from your experiences and work with you to develop a model pathway for speech, language and communication for children 0-5 years.

If you would like to be involved in this work, please complete a short case study example describing the model/ training that you have developed and any evidence of outcomes.

Please submit your case studies to [email protected] by COP Tuesday 29 May (if you are unable to meet this deadline – please get in touch with Alison directly).

PHE will review all case studies and plan to hold a workshop at the end of June/ beginning of July at Wellington House in London to develop the pathway. They will be inviting representatives from areas with good practice examples to join with them and members of their Expert Advisory Group to develop this programme of work.

If you would like to discuss your ideas informally, please contact Alison Morton by email and she will arrange a call.

Download Wendy Nicholson briefing

Download short case study example

Exciting Job Opportunity with Public Health England

Public Health England is seeking to appoint a number of professional technical advisors – these are nurses and midwives with expertise in public health including those with a background in midwifery, health visiting, school nursing, community nursing, health protection, health promotion or nurses with an interest and background in public health, for example from the learning disabilities or mental health fields of practice.

Applications are also welcomed from those in hospital settings with an interest in embedding prevention and public health or who have a specialist public health qualification such as infection prevention and control.

For further details of the post and how to apply, please click here.

iHV welcomes PHE/COHIPB briefing on breastfeeding and dental decay

iHV welcomes PHE/COHIPB paper on breastfeeding and dental decay, and the statement below from Dr Jenny Godson MBE, Chair of the Child Oral Health Improvement Programme Board.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director iHV, commented:

“Health visitors will be very pleased to have this clarity.”

There have been a number of recent queries received by Public Health England (PHE) and the Child Oral Health Improvement Programme Board (COHIPB) with regard to policy and guidance on breastfeeding and dental decay.

The briefing paper clarifies current evidence and guidance.

Key points from the briefing are:

  • Dental teams should continue to support and encourage mothers to breast feed
  • Not being breastfed is associated with an increased risk of infectious morbidity (for example, gastroenteritis, respiratory infections, middle ear infections)
  • Breastfeeding up to 12 months of age is associated with a decreased risk of tooth decay
  • Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for around the first 6 months of life. Complementary foods should be introduced from around 6 months of age alongside continued breastfeeding.
  • The prevalence of breastfeeding in UK is low with 34% of mothers still breastfeeding their child at 6 months with only 1% exclusively breastfeeding
  • Further advice for dental teams can be found in Health Matters: Child Dental Health and Delivering Better Oral Health (2014)

With regard to the recent British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) position statement on infant feeding, it supports breastfeeding and seeks to provide individual level preventive advice to all. With regard to the small proportion of parents who continue to breastfeed after 1 year, the statement advises that with diversification of the infant diet to include foods and drinks other than breast milk or infant formula, the risk of dental decay changes depending upon the free sugar content of the complementary foods and drinks, and how frequently such foods are consumed and access to fluoride through the commencement of tooth brushing with fluoride toothpaste. The BSPD statement recognises these confounding issues, and advises careful consideration of all factors and individual patient counselling.

There is evidence of benefits  to child health including oral health from breastfeeding however levels of exclusive breastfeeding at 6-months remain very low (1%). PHE and BSPD agree that dental teams have a key role to play in supporting and encouraging mothers to breastfeed.

Download PHE briefing on breastfeeding and dental decay