A report by Jane Foot, with a foreword by Professor Sir Michael Marmot and an introduction by Jane Foot and Trevor Hopkins.
‘What makes us healthy?’ has information on the evidence for the beneficial effects of assets such as social relationships and networks on health and wellbeing; ideas about how to put asset principles into practice; and help with assessing whether these new ways of working are having an impact. This publication will inspire and support those who want to look again at what they are doing to improve health and wellbeing and to tackle health inequalities.
It argues that asset based working is not an alternative to properly funded public services. It challenges how those services are designed and delivered and requires a recasting of the relationship between commissioners, providers, service users and communities. It puts a positive value on social relationships and networks, on self confidence and efficacy and the ability to take control of your life circumstances.
It highlights the impact of such assets on people’s wellbeing and resilience and thus on their capacity to cope with adversity including poor health and illness. These are things that need nurturing and supporting more than ever.
Making a Difference - early success and additional momentum, a report by the Staffordshire Public Health Team.
Report from the London School of Economics and Political Science
Report by Sandwell Primary Care Trust.
A supporting document to No health without mental health: a cross-Government mental health outcomes strategy for people of all ages.
This outlines the opportunities to make value for money savings in delivering mental health services using the QIPP approach, and by promoting early intervention and prevention of mental health problems.
Knapp, Martin and Bauer, Annette and Perkins, Margaret and Snell, Tom (2010) Building community capacity: making an economic case. PSSRU Discussion Papers, DP2772. Personal Social Services Research Unit, London, UK.
The toolkit, commissioned by NMHDU and Developed and produced by Karen Newbigging and Chris Heginbotham, The International School for Communities, Rights and Inclusion - University of Central Lancashire, provides a resource for local authority and health commissioners to improve the mental wellbeing of people living in their areas.
Compiled by Lesley Curtis, Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU)
The Department of Health have published a consultation paper on mental health. The document sets out ideas for prevention of mental illness and earlier intervention when things go wrong. It also looks at how services can become more innovative and work more effectively together.
For more information and to express your opinion, please visit the Department of Health website. Note that the closing date for the consultation was Thursday, 15th October 2009 and an outcome report is now avilable.
Report commissioned by NHS West Midlands Regional Development Centre, who worked jointly with West Midlands Physical Activity Network on identifying ways of marketing physical activity for its mental health benefits using a social marketing approach.
The researchers worked with two groups, adults living in a deprived community and older adults. The importance of family as a focal point for activity came out very strongly for the former group as did social contact, maintaining independence and cognitive function for older adults.
At the Stakeholder event on 31 October 2008 the West Midlands Teaching Public Health Network launched its Public Health Training Needs Assessment Tool (TNAT) for a consultation period of six months.
The West Midland’s TNAT for public health, unlike other tools, which may offer users a check list or series of questions to answer for determining their training needs, is a guideline to a training needs assessment ‘process’ that is highly interactive, inter-professional and focused on understanding public health training needs in the context of delivering improved public health outcomes.
The package contains the tool itself plus a set of resources and templates to support its use. There are a limited number of hard copies available together with CDs. Contact details for feedback and questions during the consultation period and for obtaining a hard copy and/or CD are as on the website, in the Contact section.