In Lecture 6, the final lecture of Seminar Series 2014-2015, Professor Bruce S. McEwen delivers a talk on how experience shapes the brain across the lifecourse; epigenetics, biological embedding and cumulative change. Professor McEwen is a neuroscientist at The Rockefeller University, New York. He studies the brain and in this lecture, discusses how the social environment affects the brain and through the brain, affects the rest of the body, health and disease through the lifecourse. He also introduces the concept of epigenetics which concerns how environmental factors regulate expression of genes and effect brain and body function.
The fifth lecture of the 2014-2015 Seminar Series is delivered by Linda de Caesteker, Director of Public Health, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Linda talks about justice for women and in particular, the Commission for Women Offenders that she was part of. One of the recommendations of the Commission was to establish Community Justice Centres, along with Linda, colleagues from Tomorrow's Women, the Community Justice Centre in Glasgow, discuss their experiences of working in and also using the Centre.
Lecture 4 of the 2014-2015 Seminar Series is delivered by Andy Whightman, self employed writer and researcher from Edinburgh. In the Seminar, Andy discusses land, society and economy, the importance of land not just as an economic resource but how it fits in with our sense of place and the impact of how we regulate land - it's ownership, it's use - has on places and on people. This is a story from the financial crash to the hills of the highlands.
In Lecture 3 of the 2014-2015 Seminar Series, Marilyn Waring, Professor of Public Policy AUT University, Auckland New Zealand, delivers a presentation on the Economics of Dignity. The dignity discussed concerns those people who are care givers and in particular, children and the question of children's agency. Professor Waring relates this to the new provisions in Scotland for carers and young carers and poses questions about their dignity.
In Lecture 2 of the 2014-2015 Seminar Series, Byron Vincent, writer and performer, delivers a talk on Nature, Nurture and Society. He first talks about his experience of growing up on sink estates and how environment often shapes behaviour and discuses what can be done about that. In the second part he talks about his diagnoses of Bipolar disorder and Post Traumatic Stress disorder, his experience within the mental health system and changes that could be made for the better.
Kevin Morgan, Professor of Governance at Cardiff University delivers this lecture on Urban Food Policy. He looks at the rise of the city as a new player in the food policy debate taking the experiences of London, New York, Toronto and distills some of the lessons learned for cities in UK.
Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister, talks about the work of the Go Well project
In this lecture, Dr. Reeve, post-doctoral researcher at Oxford University, puts forward the case that austerity does harm health but that is a choice we make and we can change how our governments respond to the recession and recessions in the future.
Professor Ian Deary, Director of The Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology at Edinburgh University, presents this lecture on healthy cognitive ageing and principally, the research he has carried out on the Lothian birth cohorts of 1921 and 1936.
Dr Manie Sher a Director from the Tavistock Institution of Human Relations in London presents this lecture on 'Who are the real insane? Our perceptions of disordered thinking and behaviour as defences against imagination'. The Tavistock Institute is concerned with a broad range of issues through activities involving research, organisational and change consultancy primarily in the Public Sector. With a background as a pyscho-analyst, Dr Sher brings these perspectives to bear on the work he does with large complex organisations which he discuses in this lecture, looking at examples where mental health issues are central to the organisations concerned.
The first of the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH) 2013-14 Seminars; Maria Pereira reflects on Money, Love and Virtue.
In the final lecture of the 2012/2013 series of lectures provided by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH), Professor Jane Macnaughton, Medical Humanities, University of Durham, discusses the links between Medical Humanities and the idea of the Fifth Wave in Public Health.
Professor Rachel Yahuda delivers a presentation on epigenetics and the effects of stress on the next generation.
Public health faces many challenges today and this will intensify in the future across many different areas – cost, technology, lifestyles, expectations etc. In this lecture, Dr Joe Ravetz proposes that we need new ways of thinking to deal with these challenges.
What of healing? In this lecture Dr David Reilly described his exploration of what might emerge from our efforts to improve health and wellbeing when we shift our focus from external interventions towards life's innate drive to restore equilibrium and wholeness. His approach was born of necessity over twenty years ago when he was working with patients who were not responding to conventional techniques. Since then he has been learning how to help people access their own potential and expanding his knowledge of the automatic maps, that impact upon self-care, change and human flourishing. Some years in, the learning was experimentally scaled from one-to-one to the group-based WEL programme. This was put into service as an action research developmental-demonstration model in the NHS Centre for Integrative Care in Glasgow. More recently the programme has been developed in partnership with the Scottish Government and extended into a primary care setting and staff welfare programmes. Can the subjective inner life be rehabilitated from its battered and neglected place in evidence based medicine? Might the principles of wellness enhancement be scaled up to larger health care systems and population health? Dr Reilly outlined promising preliminary results from this latest development of the programme and considered the potential to foster wellbeing and flourishing in everyday life. The ideas behind the programme have formed an integral and important part of the Cultural Influence on Wellbeing Project led by Phil Hanlon who chaired the session.
Founded by MOBO award-winner Akala in 2009, The Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company is a musical theatre production social enterprise which offers young people a different view of the arts and ultimately of themselves. Working in a variety of settings including schools, prisons and community venues, engaging in music and literature, the Hip Hop Shakespeare company strives to inspire and enable young people to better meet their potential, express themselves and highlight their creative talent. Central to their approach is an exploration of the social, linguistic and cultural parallels between the works of Shakespeare and modern day hip-hop artists. In this illustrated lecture, Akala introduced us to the work of the hip-hop Shakespeare approach.
Identifying biologic and behavioural causes of disease has been one of the central concerns of epidemiology for the past half century. This has led to the development of increasingly sophisticated conceptual and analytic approaches focused on the isolation of single causes of disease states. However, the growing recognition that (a) factors at multiple levels, including biologic, behavioural, and group levels may influence health and disease, and (b) that the interrelation among these factors often includes dynamic feedback and changes over time challenges this dominant epidemiologic paradigm. Using examples we will discuss how this deterministic paradigm has led us down a narrow path that challenges our capacity to meaningfully understand the complex causes of health states. Once we begin ‘thinking in systems’ we inevitably arrive at a broader public health conceptualization of the causes of health states. This has important implications both for the science as well as for a public health policy approach that aims to improve the health of populations.
Vorarlberg in Austria has 20 years of experience in experimenting with different ways and methods of promoting a more sustainable society. Out of this experience has emerged the idea of a 'learning institution' embedded in a tight-knit network of co-operating institutions. In this lecture Manfred Helrigl outlined a 'philosophy of self-organization' and illustrated its impact through practical examples. Manfred suggested that we need to rethink familiar leadership-strategies and revitalize democracy, because the existing system is not capable of handling wicked problems. He also outline how they are approaching this challenge in Vorarlberg, what a new culture of co-operation could look like and its implications for society, government and administration at local and regional level.
We all blame our genes for many of our features, behaviours and illnesses. Recent studies suggest that the environment before birth is also a major influence on the risk of ill-health across the lifespan and perhaps into a further generation. This process, called ‘developmental programming’, has been studied intensively in recent years and is beginning to reveal a process called epigenetics which underpins growth, behaviour and health risks. In this seminar, Prof Seckl will discuss these issues and how for example, stress during pregnancy or how well a child’s grandfather ate, impacts on their life.
Very few people argue with the need to address the social determinants of health and much effort has already been made at national and international level to reduce persistent health inequities between and within countries. However, global health inequities continue to widen, as the effectiveness and quality of programmes vary considerably, sometimes resulting in the reverse of expected outcomes. Local political issues and cultural conflicts clearly play a part in these situations. However, the asset model proposed in ‘Health Assets in a Global Context’ suggests that it is the disproportionate emphasis between deficit and asset based approaches that prevent effective and sustained action. The former focuses on assessing health needs, sometimes ignoring the potential strengths of individuals and communities; the latter assesses multiple levels of health-promoting aspects in populations, and promotes joint solutions between communities and outside agencies. The Asset Model sets out a challenge for policy makers, researchers and practitioners to think and act differently to support positive joint solutions for health. It brings together a range of existing ideas to provide a framework for establishing the evidence base required to demonstrate the benefits to be gained from investing in asset based approaches. Antony Morgan is an epidemiologist and the Associate Director, Centre for Public Health Excellence for NICE. He is currently responsible for producing public health guidance across a range of public health topic areas, including inequalities, community engagement, social and emotional wellbeing of children, sexual health, alcohol misuse, quitting smoking during pregnancy, domestic violence and Hepatitis B and C.