By Dr Mselenge Mdegela,
Senior Lecturer in Public Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellbeing.
August 31st 2023 was the 175th anniversary of the 1848 Public Health Act. A momentous piece of legislation signifying the recognition of public health practice to protect and promote the health of the nation at a population level. Several notable advancements followed the ratification of this act, not least the 1854 John Snow's cholera investigation in London, which used public health (PH) approaches to identify the cause, and to stop the spread of a deadly disease outbreak.
It is for this reason that the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is celebrating the publication of this notable legislation which gave Public Health its face both nationally and internationally.
Seventeen decades after its publication, in 2019, the Public Health Act, proved its relevance once more, when COVID-19 began ravaging lives across the globe. As often is the case, the world's glare on PH intensifying at such moments, when the threats of a deadly disease outbreak looms. Shaking politicians, businesses, and other establishments to the core. Everybody banking on the PH expertise for advice, if not, for a scapegoat. These moments are when the usual key PH functions, such as food and water safety, or behaviour change programs are put on hold to focus at averting the imminent danger.
COVID-19 affected those with less access to good healthcare disproportionately validating the old ugly truth of the inverse care law – healthcare is least accessible to those most in need. Fulfilling the prophecy, ten years on after the first Marmot Review, 2020 saw even more deepening health inequalities across the UK, the North East harbouring some of the worst deprived neighbourhoods and a lower life expectancy at birth. Do these observations suggest it is time to strengthen the PH team at the University of Sunderland? Certainly!
The Public Health team at Sunderland University sits within the Postgraduate Psychology Provision in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellbeing. It is gradually expanding with enthusiastic staff, keenly defining the PH role in promoting the University of Sunderland's ambition of changing lives, through sustainable social, cultural and economic contributions locally and beyond.
Through research, teaching, and reach-out, the team contributes to cost-effective and workable PH interventions to slow or reverse the worsening health inequalities in the North East. Nevertheless, the team understands it takes more than the health sector alone to bring tangible and lasting improvements in population health. Evidence suggests investment in PH has a high return on investment (ROI), and has never been more imperative.
Headed by Dr Tracey Platt the PH team is vested with a range of talents and immense experience in key PH areas including community health, marginalised and minority women's health, health inequalities, health promotion, air quality, reproductive health, mental health, and epidemiology. The growing interest among international students for the Sunderland's MSc in Public Health and the on-going success with the Apprenticeship BSc programme for home students is testament to the PH team's notable contribution to teaching.
The team organises and delivers the Public Health MSc which attracts both home and international students, and the Public Health Practitioner Apprenticeship BSc (Hons) degree, an apprenticeship program, delivered to home students working in Public Health departments in North East and York & Humber boroughs.
Through modern innovative teaching approaches, the PH team aims to continue to deliver bespoke student experience in teaching and learning across the North East, within the UK and internationally. The team takes student and staff feedback seriously, constantly, and constructively reviewing the relevance of curriculum, mode of delivery and assessments to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
Collaboration is key for success. The PH team is open to, and is actively seeking to work with other establishments across the university. Working closely with the Helen McArdle Nursing and Care Research Institute for example, is welcome and will strengthen the team's research portfolio. In addition, members of the team are part of Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, which operates under the umbrella of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Fuse is a consortium of five North East Universities of Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside geared towards translating research into policy and practice. It ultimately aims to improve population health and wellbeing and tackle health inequalities in the North East and beyond. The team has taken an active role in organising the forthcoming Society for Social Medicine and Population Health Annual Scientific Meeting 2023, organised by NIHR and Fuse, taking place in Newcastle from 6th to 8th September, 2023.
Furthermore, the PH team links with lecturers from other North East universities will help broaden professional networks and build strategic alliances pushing Sunderland University closer to the limelight. Collaborations through Fuse also helps to banish silos, create more defined synergistic north-north, and north-south partnerships leading to better utilization of resources and expertise in PH for teaching, research, and dissemination of evidence.
The recent hunt by the University of Sunderland for a Fuse Associate Director indicates the university's recognition of the key role Fuse plays in advancing public health across the North East. The team looks forward to working hand in hand with the Associate Fuse Director. Likewise, this development should indicate that strengthening the PH team at Sunderland is both timely and strategic.
Strengthening the team could mean the formation of sub-teams such as 1) Primary research (qualitative/quantitative), 2) Secondary data research (national/international data sets), 3) Evidence synthesis (systematic reviews +/- meta-analysis), and 4) Epidemiology and statistics. With clearly defined roles for each sub-team in the delivery of the MSc and the Apprenticeship programs. Additionally, the sub-teams could increase the potential to shovel deeper roots positioning the PH for effective teaching, and reach-out and research in line with the university's research and knowledge exchange plan 2025.
Importantly, a stronger PH team is best placed to deliver a much sought for standalone undergraduate BSc Public Health degree. BSc Public Health graduates are likely to delve into Public Health profession earlier in the career. With focused mentoring they will be a force to roll back health inequalities and take lead in the battle should another pandemic head our way.
Excellence can only be realised through strategic hard work. While the PH team rolls up its sleeves to leap into the ring to confront the giant – health inequality, it needs all the hailing and help there can be. There can only be gains by investing in a stronger Public Health team at the University of Sunderland.
The team would like to acknowledge the contribution and support from Professor Jonathan Ling in strengthening the Public Health team at Sunderland University and would like to take this opportunity in wishing him well in his new role outside of academia.
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