We focus on four complex health issues more prevalent in urban areas
With the Social Progress Imperative, we've developed the first neighbourhood level, health-focused social progress index of its kind.
With Wellcome Trust
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Urban health
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Insights on the assets and risks of urban environment, diversity and deprivation
This report builds on existing research about urban health, to understand the wider determinants of health, how diversity affects the way in which services are accessed and how people often rely on informal networks to support health. It also investigates the cumulative effect of urban living, deprivation and high levels of diversity on people’s health. We do this in part by looking at the variance between Lambeth and Southwark and a selection of urban, diverse and deprived statistical neighbours: Haringey, Nottingham and Leicester.
Like much of London, the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark are vibrant places to live and work. They’re changing all the time. They are densely populated (twice the average in the capital) and have a high level of population churn. There is also a complex ethnic and social mix, including large Black and LGBT+ communities and over 300 different languages spoken.
Like many London boroughs, affluence and poverty exists side by side. The health challenges facing the boroughs are complex and significant, and mirror many of the same challenges facing cities across the UK and around the world.
This research builds on a large body of work studying the impact of urban, diverse and deprived characteristics on people’s health, and confirms much of what the health sector already understands to be the best way to create place-based health strategies.
What is different about it is that it:
“ If I lived anywhere other than London, I would be much less independent. Isobel, 28
If I lived anywhere other than London, I would be much less independent.
The research identified a set of themes which add valuable context and insight into the lived experience of health through an urban, diverse and deprived lens.
“ You need to know the process. Where to call to get attention. People can’t do that and they get lost in the system. Kim, 62
You need to know the process. Where to call to get attention. People can’t do that and they get lost in the system.
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