Blogs
Sharing thoughts and eureka moments
Reflecting on our work, what we’re learning and the latest about the health challenges we focus on
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A message for our partners and supporters
19 December, 2018
2018 has been a year of deepening our understanding of urban health, of learning and sharing, and of building the foundations to become a more effective funder and a stronger fundraising charity.
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Social prescribing – from the margins to the mainstream
02 November, 2018
Social prescribing has gone from the margins to the mainstream over the last few years. Our Programme Manager, Kate Langford, explores the key shifts in culture and practice needed to help scale social prescribing to something that every healthcare professional has in their toolbox.
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Working with businesses to create healthier high streets
22 October, 2018
We partnered on the Healthy High Streets programme, which challenged three London high streets in Haringey, Lambeth and Southwark to try new ideas to make our high streets healthier for children and families.
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What we’ve learned developing our programmes
07 August, 2018
Last year we launched two long-term programmes of work – on childhood obesity and multiple long-term conditions. Our development phase had a profound impact on the way we designed, and are now delivering, them.
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The long-term impacts on our health we don’t think enough about
26 July, 2018
I have some connection with this interesting new research; not only is the Richmond Group of Charities, of which Age UK is a member, working with Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity on a new taskforce on multiple conditions, I have lived in Lambeth for most of my life.
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Multiple long-term conditions: the inter-relationship between physical and mental health
17 July, 2018
Over the years, we have become more and more familiar with messages about how we take care of our physical health – encouragement to think about what we eat, take regular exercise and to be aware of the signs of developing a major health condition.
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People’s journeys to multimorbidity start early – and so should care
09 July, 2018
The impact of multiple long-term conditions on the lives of individuals, their families, the communities in which they live and the wider health and care system, is ever-growing.
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From one to many report: View from our Chief Executive
09 July, 2018
At some point in our lives most of us will develop a long-term health condition. Many of us will develop more than one. But how we each get to that point varies hugely.
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Happy 70th: Our role in the NHS is as exciting as ever
04 July, 2018
I grew up caring for my mother. During those years, I was in contact with the NHS often. Earlier this year, I saw the life of a close family member saved by a team across two hospitals in Yorkshire.
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Chapter two – getting going
29 June, 2018
There’s a lot to be optimistic about in the government’s new childhood obesity strategy. The thing we need more than anything to beat this challenge is leadership – and a call to halve childhood obesity levels by 2030 provides exactly that.
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Families and Food: how can we help families swim against the current?
22 June, 2018
Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity and Shift have been working together, as part of the Charity’s new childhood obesity programme. We’re interested in how food environments help or hinder people to live well. Why? To improve the availability and access to nutritious diets for families living in the more deprived areas of Lambeth and Southwark.
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What listening to communities in Southwark told us about child obesity
12 June, 2018
We have developed a transformative partnership between our communities and local statutory services in these two disadvantaged areas in Southwark. The collaboration puts local parents in the lead to improve their and their children’s health and developmental outcomes.
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Supporting our mission with impact investing
09 May, 2018
Our Director of Finance and Investment David Renton writes a blog that explores our impact investment journey and looks at how we contribute to better health outcomes.
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A new Taskforce to impact on multiple long-term conditions
16 April, 2018
Our Director of Funding, Jon Siddall discusses our new Taskforce on multiple long-term conditions and the impact it will have on people living with this complex issue.
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Protecting children from junk food marketing
27 February, 2018
Caroline Cerny from the Obesity Health Alliance on the vulnerabilities of current rules meant to protect children from junk food adverts.
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Balancing priorities for a healthy school
27 February, 2018
Liz Robinson from Surrey Square School in Southwark, on schools’ unique position to influence childhood obesity and connect with families.
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Environmental influences on children's weight
27 February, 2018
Shirley Cramer of the Royal Society for Public Health addresses the factors contributing to the obesogenic environment and what it’ll take to prevent it.
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Towards the tipping point - no more permissiveness
27 February, 2018
Eric van der Burg, Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam approaches childhood obesity as an epidemic, sharing insights from how the city achieved a declining trend in rates.
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Protecting those at greatest risk
27 February, 2018
The Food Foundation’s Anna Taylor and Robin Hinks reflect on how great initiatives depend on investment and leadership.
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London's obesity lottery
27 February, 2018
Chef and campaigner Jamie Oliver on the opportunities for London to be a world leader in tackling childhood obesity.
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Can the voluntary and community sector lead the change we need in health and care?
19 February, 2018
To improve care for people with long-term conditions, our sectors must come together more often, listen better and learn from one another, write Jo Bibby and Kieron Boyle.
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A whole-system approach to health inequalities must start with being honest
15 February, 2018
Our Partnerships Manager Rowena Estwick attended the recent Health in All Policies (HiAP) 2018 conference and has written a blog on the important place honesty has in shaping a whole-system approach to health inequalities.
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Multiple long-term conditions – the price of success?
15 January, 2018
Dr Martin McShane, Chief Medical Officer Clinical Delivery at Optum has written a blog for us on how shifting approaches and the use of data science can improve care for people with multiple long-term conditions.
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What we are asking the Mayor to do about health inequalities
15 December, 2017
Our Partnerships Manager Rowena Estwick has written a blog on the Mayor of London's new draft Health Inequalities strategy and its welcomed focus on childhood obesity.
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A different approach to health for Portuguese speakers
21 November, 2017
Dr Vikesh Sharma on the insights from our partnership to engage with the local Portuguese speaking community around health.
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Creating a good food culture at school
20 November, 2017
Dela Foster and Stephanie Wood, from charity School Food Matters, on creating a better food culture in schools to help tackle child obesity.
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How do you hone your approach to tackling big health challenges? Test with others
20 November, 2017
Our Chief Executive Kieron Boyle, on how we're testing approaches as part of the development phase of our childhood obesity and multiple long-term conditions programmes.
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Helping people live their lives to the full
19 September, 2017
At the end of 2016, I was asked to lead the development of a programme on multiple long-term conditions here at the Charity. It has been a voyage of discovery for me. How do you get to grips with one of the greatest challenges facing medicine and society today?
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Our focus on multiple long-term conditions
19 September, 2017
In Lambeth, just one person out of every five people who has diabetes only has diabetes. That is to say, living with many long-term illnesses - chronic conditions like hypertension, coronary heart and kidney disease - is increasingly the norm.
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Five lessons from Australia on working with communities
07 September, 2017
Following his recent trip to Australia, our Chief Executive Kieron Boyle reflects on lessons learned and what it takes to work well with communities.
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Looking after patients includes looking after their environment
23 August, 2017
Our Collection Manager Imogen Gray writes a blog for supported project Breathe AHR detailing how we have embedded art into healthcare throughout our long history.
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Latest health stats remind us it is all about life lived well
16 August, 2017
Our Programme Director Mike Wright discusses the role we’ll play in helping to tackle the growing issue of multiple long-term conditions.
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What is behind the local childhood obesity corridor
03 August, 2017
Our Head of Evaluation Rob Parker shares patterns we've seen on what sits behind our high local child obesity rates.
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The importance of community engagement in tackling childhood obesity
26 July, 2017
Phil Veasey, Public Health, Community Engagement, and Sports Development Consultant explores the behavioural changes needed to involve residents in the issue of childhood obesity.
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Tackling childhood obesity in an urban, diverse and deprived setting
19 July, 2017
Sarah Hickey, Childhood Obesity Programme Director explains our ambition to make a step-change impact on local obesity, working with anyone who can help us achieve this goal.
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Behavioural science can help us fight childhood obesity
17 July, 2017
For a long time obesity was categorised as a problem of information and willpower. However, what food people eat, and how much of it, is profoundly influenced by simple cues in their surroundings.
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Growing the evidence base on place-based health
16 June, 2017
Our Chief Executive Kieron Boyle discusses the value of being place-based and the impact it has on the complex health issues of our time.
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Solving poverty
30 May, 2017
Dr Emma Stone, Director of Policy and Research at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, writes for us on the impact of poverty on people's health, reflecting on our latest report.
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People, place and partnerships in health
12 May, 2017
Health issues today are as complex as they have ever been. They relate not only to people’s physical and mental health, but also to what people perceive a healthy life to be in the context in which they live. This suggests to us two important points: that people and place matter.
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Three lessons from transforming mental health in Lambeth
12 May, 2017
In Lambeth we realised a few years ago that despite the big efforts and money we were putting into mental healthcare – particularly acute care – we weren’t getting great health outcomes.