Category: Uncategorized
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Where are all the public health workers?
Terry Slevin Significant gaps in the size, training, structure and credentialing of the public health workforce have been exposed as a result of the demands generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This problem has been highlighted by the need to scale up to levels of activity never previously required by a communicable…
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Smoking rates falling among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
Christina Heris and David Thomas Following a history of being paid or provided with rations of tobacco, smoking is the leading preventable cause of illness and death amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Historically, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people start smoking at a young age, and a…
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Boris Johnson: could he really be a champion for public health?
Jane Martin and Alexandra Jones The United Kingdom’s ground-breaking obesity strategy, launched recently by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is close to his heart. In a video introducing the ‘Better Health Strategy’, Johnson draws on his own experience with obesity and COVID-19, a frightening and potentially deadly combination. Obesity already makes us vulnerable…
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Mental health and adaptation to climate change
Dr Fiona Robards, Co-Convenor Mental Health Special Interest Group, PHAA Climate change presents an existential threat. It is almost unbelievable that we may be confronting the breakdown of civilisation and human extinction. For parents, the prospect of their children experiencing predicted hardship can be particularly unthinkable. The public is becoming…
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The false dichotomy of public health and the economy
Louisa Gordon Six months into the COVID-19 crisis and Australia is faring well on a global scale. Contributing factors are the border closures and united public health decisions based on scientific advice. It helped to have a giant moat around the country too. While Australia has been largely successful…
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COVID Wars: Do we have the resources to take up the public health battle?
Terry Slevin, PHAA CEO On 25 January 2020, Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, made a public announcement that Australia had recorded our first case of COVID-19. Six months on, what have we learned and where are we headed? Anxiety is understandably high with the outbreak in Victoria continuing, and concerns…
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Those who ‘pay the piper’ damage our health
Malcolm Baalman Should political donations from industries which sell harmful products, and then lobby governments vigorously to give them favourable regulation, be banned? It’s a common scene in Australian politics, indeed worldwide. A major political party holds a fundraising event. Industry representatives and their lobbyists pay an exaggerated amount –…
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Nice to get a win for public health
Dr Ingrid Johnston and Professor Simone Pettigrew We often say in public health that it’s a long, hard game. Sometimes it feels as though the wins are incremental at best, and all too rare. All the more reason then, to celebrate them when they do happen. On Friday 17th…
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Let’s make the handshake history
As many Australians are emerging from lockdown and returning to workplaces, sporting activities and social meeting places, there’s a distinct nervousness and unease about how we greet our friends and colleagues after such a long time apart. For most people, the traditional hug and kiss are certainly off-limits until further…
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The Therapeutic Goods Administration must do better.
Almost 2 years after complaints about numerous hangover products were submitted to the TGA they have finally published one outcome. The TGA agreed there was insufficient evidence to support claims related to hangover relief. This important result is buried in an obscure section of the TGA’s website, has not been…
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Blame and COVID-19?
We remain in the midst of the world’s worst health crisis in a century. Millions of cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed around the world and hundreds of thousands of deaths have ensued. So, who should we blame? Well, I think a more important question is, where does blame get…
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Australia’s leading cause of preventable, non-genetic disability is not required to carry a warning: is that about to change?
Food safety ministers are being urged to prioritise the health of families and the community when they meet on 17 July to vote on an effective pregnancy health warning for alcohol products. Alcohol is the leading cause of preventable non-genetic developmental disability in Australia. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) affects…
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COVID-19 policy responses show why political literacy is a public health issue
The adage “never discuss politics or religion” is invariably proffered to us with well-meaning intent at some point during our life. If anything, when it comes to public health issues, we need to be discussing politics more, not less, and certainly not avoiding it altogether.
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It’s time to stop locking up 10 year olds
Many Australians would no doubt be shocked to learn that our current laws in every State and Territory allow children as young as 10 years old to be arrested by Police and sentenced to prison by Courts. That’s a primary school child, removed from their family, school and everything familiar…
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Standing against the slide to fascism: what can public health do now?
It is said that democracy is a frail flower in need of constant nurturing. Having decried our slip toward fascism (in Croakey and the Public Health Association of Australia blog) I thought it useful to think about actions the public health movement might take to stand up for democracy.
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Black Lives Matter protests should proceed – safely
Two hugely important public health objectives – Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 have been framed as competing imperatives. They are not. The Black Lives Matter movement in Australia seeks to highlight the deplorable circumstances of disadvantage and discrimination experienced by Australia’s First people.
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We don’t know if breastfeeding is rising or falling in Australia. That’s bad for everyone
As the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us all too well, good health policy depends on prior planning, decisive action, and a willingness to spend money. But there’s another area where Australia’s willingness to plan and spend has fallen far short: monitoring breastfeeding rates.
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Coordinating a response to bushfire and climate change crisis
By David Templeman, former Director General of Emergency Management Australia and President of the Public Health Association Australia As states across Australia slowly lift COVID-19 restrictions and we inch closer to ‘normal’ every day, there is a cautious sense of triumph that we may have survived a public health emergency.…
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Chronic disease, health equity and COVID-19
One in two Australians has a chronic disease or condition such as diabetes, asthma, heart disease or cancer. Chronic disease is driven – and made worse – by social and economic inequities; disadvantaged communities and groups experience higher rates of chronic disease and poorer health outcomes