Northwest Public Wellbeing Conference 2009

Date of the event: 10th November 2009
Organised by: NHS NW and the Regions For Health Network
Venue: Midland Hotel, Manchester
Reported by: Rob Squires, Network Co-ordinator (Third Sector)

Above right: Dr Ruth Hussey, Regional Director Public Health

This was the event of the year where all the bigwigs from the NHS across the Northwest came together and discussed Public Health. The conference was also combined with the 17th annual conference of the WHO Regions for Health Network, so there were delegates there from across Europe too.

Groundwork Northwest and Target: Wellbeing shared a stall, which was a great opportunity to speak to lot of senior officers from the NHS in the region about the vital work of Target: Wellbeing and it's projects. We also ran a workshop, which was delivered by Maggie Moody (Target: Wellbeing Portfolio Manager), and Ian MacArthur, Regional Director at Groundwork Northwest. The presentation included case studies of the following TWB projects:

• Workplace Wellbeing (Ellesmere Port)
• Great Outdoors (Knowsley)
• Youth Works (Burnley)

One of the highlights of the conference for me was a seminal presentation by Lynne Friedli, who works across the EU to support the development of public mental health. She gave a wonderful talk about the importance of social networks to mental health, and why the NHS should be more proactive in supporting these.

There was also a lot of fascinating debate about the importance of natural spaces to mental and physical wellbeing, and about limits to growth, and the fact that happiness stops increasing above a certain per capita income. The conference gave me an insight into how public health is addressing the sustainability agenda.

You can see all the powerpoint presentations for the various sessions here: http://tiny.cc/nwphconfpres