Highland public health picture offers reasons to be optimistic
This is the last time that I will be writing here, since I am about to retire as director of public health.
I have been thinking back over what I have written before and the most important messages that I have been trying to get across.
Despite modern media and shortening attention spans, communicating through newspapers remains vital and I am heartened to find in conversation that people have been reading what I have written.
I started writing during the pandemic and much of what I wrote concerned information about the spread of Covid and what we could do to reduce the risk to ourselves and others.
For some, the legacy of Covid remains with continuing symptoms of long Covid or the painful memories of those who died.
For others Covid has retreated into the background.
However, many of the messages then remain important for us both to keep us healthy now and to improve our response to any future pandemic.
Washing our hands and avoiding contact with others when we are ill have remained important, and looking out for those who are the most vulnerable in the community is still crucial whether in a pandemic or not.
The greatest medical breakthrough was the rapid development of effective vaccines against Covid, and this transformed the course of the disease.
Some conditions can be almost eliminated by vaccination while others such as Covid and influenza can have their impact greatly reduced.
We should continue to take up the offer of vaccination whether for Covid or other infections to ensure that we keep them at bay.
I have covered many other themes in more recent times.
Two general areas that are especially important for public health are prevention and reducing health inequalities.
We should focus more on preventing ill health, reducing the need to treat conditions, and we should pay particular attention to those whose health is the poorest and who have the most difficulty in improving their own health.
It is not just about changing behaviour but about improving our environment and the conditions in which people live. Increasing physical activity, better food, less alcohol, quitting smoking and more social interaction can transform our health and wellbeing, but they are easier to say or write than to do.
We may need to start with small changes such as increasing walking or cooking more from scratch and we should support changes which make it easier for everyone to take the opportunity to live more healthily.
Working in the field of public health has meant that I rarely see sudden changes and often must wait a long time to see results.
During my time working locally, though, I have certainly seen great improvements, whether in the wake of Covid or more broadly.
Local health policy is promoting good health and at a national level we can see the new population health framework which includes support for prevention and nutrition.
So, I remain optimistic about continued good health for our communities into the future.
Dr Tim Allison is NHS Highland’s director of public health and policy.
