Lorna Smith sets out opportunities to improve Newcastle residents' health as they get older.
Fairer chances and healthy choices for the people of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Read the full Director of Public Health report 2022 (PDF 3.5MB)
Despite its relatively small size, Newcastle upon Tyne is a city with a strong identity that is known for its proud and welcoming population nestled next to the beautiful bridges of the River Tyne. However, other thoughts you have about our city may vary greatly depending on your local experience or expertise. This means radically different views on living in this remarkable city exist, both between and about our 300,000 residents. These views are based on local history, topography and diversity, and bred from values of hard work, kindness and tolerance.
Newcastle can be accurately perceived as a place with beautiful homes in leafy streets just a short walk to the city centre, as an acclaimed, popular university spot for students, and a place where health professionals are world leading. It is a city with fiercely loyal NUFC fans, and, increasingly, as a creative hub for entrepreneurs, culture and the arts.
But for many both in and out of Newcastle, your reference points could equally be about the scale of our food insecurity, the high levels of unemployment or welfare needs, worsening child poverty, limited transport infrastructure and key markers of these deprivations including our burden of chronic illness, heavy drinking and drug-related deaths.
While these parallel characterisations may all be true, this range of life experience cannot be acceptable – not only because of the many assets the city hosts, physically, professionally and culturally, to enrich full and happy lives - but because of the impact these life experiences have in determining our residents’ length and quality of life, often before they are even born.
For many, Covid-19 demonstrated the undeniable role that the social determinants of health play in our health and wellbeing and, rightfully so, there has been increased focus on inequalities and action to address these.
Our homes, our jobs and our social network all were, and are, the biggest predictors of not only how long we live but the joy and satisfaction we experience throughout it. While the memory of the pandemic fades for most, the lessons about the consequences of these factors and the effectiveness of our collaborative response, aligning social vulnerabilities and health outcomes, should not similarly diminish. Now more than ever, where there is a real risk of feeling bleak at the cost of living, public service instability and war returning to Europe, I feel it is important to focus minds on what can be achieved, and how through a public health approach, both health improvement and social justice can be championed and realised.
This report aims to reflect on the knowledge we have from evidence, data and community insights. It sets out the biggest opportunities to improve the health of Newcastle residents as they grow up and get older, focussing on the wider determinants of health, and taking action through local empowerment and leadership.
Lorna Smith, Interim Director of Public Health
Read the full Director of Public Health report 2022 (PDF 3.5MB)
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