Public Health Explored: 50 Stories to Change the World

An understanding of public health has never been more important! There has been a growing interest in public health, driven by concerns for social justice and sustainability, but it is currently in the headlines as never before. The failure of governments to get to grips with the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated widespread ignorance of the basics of a public health approach to threats to health and well-being. Relevant to all interested individuals but particularly students and professionals within nursing, medicine, social work and public health, this book encourages critical debate and reflection to develop a deep understanding of the complexities of public health issues. It offers 50 powerful stories and sayings around public health that could just change the world! Accompanied by searching questions for discussion and case studies that provide context and link each aphorism to a key event or theme, important messages around public health are extracted and explored.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Section 1: Concepts 1. Defining the problem 2. On forgetting your principles 3. The world is a fast flowing river 4. Elephants on a train in Africa 5. Elephants and the prevention of infant deaths 6. Eating an elephant 7. The age of Hygieia 8. William Morris on health 9. ‘Doing health’: reclaiming the ‘H’ word 10. Foreseeing and forestalling Section 2: Issues 11. A fish is the last one to see the water 12. Not invented here 13. Listen to the community 14. Beware of healthism 15. Go to the people 16. Conspiracies against the laity 17. We’re doing it already 18. Prophets are never recognised in their own country 19. Professionals should be on tap not on top 20. Primum non Nocere Section 3: Getting to go 21. Less is usually more 22. Starting where they are 23. Don’t follow the yellow brick road 24. Caveat emptor 25. Community organisers beware 26. Self fulfilling prophecy kills 27. Politics is medicine on a large scale 28. Columbus on the need for strategy 29. Starting a rumour 30. Edwin Chadwick and The Times Section 4: Making a difference 31. The half-life of evidence 32. Proof and evidence 33. The art and science of public health 34. On strategic underview 35. The hidden health care system 36. Be careful what you are selling 37. The conspiracy of silence 38. Achieving change 39. Let the dough rise slowly 40. A sense of place Section 5: Reflections 41. Public health is an investment 42. William Henry Duncan’s establishment 43. On growing potatoes 44. Life and risk 45. The importance of humour 46. Killing with kindness 47. Every silver lining has a cloud 48. Making things happen 49. Success and failure 50. The dilemma of capital cities

About the Author :
John Ashton is one of Britain’s foremost public health consultants whose footprint is to be found on many of the most innovative public health initiatives of the last 40 years. Born in Liverpool, John was educated at the University of Newcastle Medical School and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, before returning to the north west where he was a pioneer of the New Public Health. In the 1980s he led work on health promotion, reducing teenage pregnancy, establishing the first large-scale syringe exchange programme in the face of epidemics of heroin injection and the arrival of the HIV virus, and was one of the originators of the World Health Organisation Healthy Cities Project, now a global programme. John has always bridged the worlds of academia and practice. He is acknowledged as a first-class communicator and inspirational teacher. He has been adviser to the Crown Prince of Bahrain’s Covid-19 Taskforce and wrote a book on the pandemic. John was awarded the CBE in 2000 for contributions to the NHS.

Review :
“A fascinating and intriguing book, which has the potential to inspire and instigate debate and argument about the most pressing challenges we face as earthlings. Written with humour, seriousness and experience, it is an essential addition to public health learning and practice.” Richard LeeSenior Lecturer in Public Health, Northumbria University “John Ashton has always been a captivating storyteller, both through the power of the spoken and the written word. In this beautifully easy-to-read book, he has brought together some of the many stories that he and his dear friend and late colleague Lowell Levin, Emeritus Professor at Yale have shared with students and health professionals over the years. Both Lowell and John have been instrumental in broadening the public health agenda, promoting the importance of the role of social determinants on health and in particular, thinking creatively about the role of health promotion and the importance of community action in creating a healthy society...” Dr Debbi StanistreetInterim Head of Dept of Public Health and Epidemiology, RCSI “In this book, John Ashton and Lowell Levin take us on an enjoyable journey through different continents, countries and eras to demonstrate (with illustrative examples) how public health measures can make a tremendous difference to people’s lives and for the societies in which they live. A highly recommended reading of universal interest for a broad audience.” Dr Piroska ÖstlinDirector of the Division of Policy and Governance for Health and Well-being, WHO Regional Office for Europe John McKnight has often remarked that “Institutions learn from studies, but communities learn from stories”. So too can health professionals, as Lowell Levin and John Ashton demonstrated in their own careers and now in this book. Based on 50 favourite aphorisms published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the book illustrates each of them with case studies (stories) and points for discussion. As John says in the introduction, this book communicates abstract ideas in tangible ways, helping public health professionals to also learn from stories.“ Dr Trevor Hancock, Hon FFPHRetired Professor and Senior Scholar, School of Public Health and Social Policy, University of Victoria