Evidence-informed policy and practice

‘Stay active, stay healthy, and live longer’ was the message from NI Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Michael McBride as he launched his annual report.

Dr McBride said that while there have been welcome improvements in the health of the public in Northern Ireland; there are still significant challenges to overcome.

IPH presented evidence on health & wellbeing measures to reduce workplace sickness absence to the Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Finance and Personnel on 26 March.

L-R Dr Joanna Purdy, Dr Elizabeth Mitchell and Teresa Keating

March 2014 provides a number of opportunities to highlight the importance of continuing efforts to restrict access and appeal of tobacco products to young people and stress the importance of smoking cessation initiatives within maternity, child and family policies and services, particularly in disadvantaged areas across the island of Ireland.  No Smoking Day was held on 5 March (Ash Wednesday) in the Republic of Ireland and 12 March in Northern Ireland.  The 10 year anniversary of the Smokefree Workplace Legislation will be celebrated in the Republic of Ireland on 29 March.

IPH presented to Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children on 6 February 2013 on Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2013.

Findings from the IPH/TFRI Report 'A Tobacco-Free Future: An all-island report on tobacco, inequalities and and childhood 2013' were used to help inform the debate.

Access IPH Open Statement here

The “CHRODIS” Joint Action, addressing chronic diseases and promoting healthy ageing across the life cycle, co-financed by the EU Health Programme, starts its work today at a kick-off meeting.

The objective of CHRODIS is to help EU countries and regions exchange good practices in tackling chronic diseases. A special focus will be given to health promotion and disease prevention, multi-morbidity (people with more than one long-term condition) and diabetes.

IPH is an associate partner in work package 5 working on good practice in prevention of chronic disease.

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for children aged 1 year and over and preventing such injury requires a coordinated approach from multiple agencies and stakeholders. A conference - Preventing Injury to Children - Can we do better? - was held on the 13th of January 2014 aiming to:

The publication is produced by the Central Statistics and Research Branch (CSRB) of the Department for Regional Development and contains information on trends in personal travel for Northern Ireland residents, how they travel, why they travel and some of the other factors affecting travel. The publication is available on the CSRB website at: http://www.drdni.gov.uk/northern_ireland_travel_survey.htm.