Promoting integration of the health and built environment agendas through a workforce development initiative

doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2008.03.004

Public Health

Volume 122, Issue 6, June 2008, Pages 545-551

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2008.03.004 Get rights and content

Summary

There is a renewed and growing recognition of the links between public health and the built environment, which has underlined the need for improved joint working between public health and built environment professionals. However, currently there is little engagement between these two sectors. This paper outlines a workforce development initiative that aims to increase capacity for such joint working, through shared learning and reflection between professionals from the built environment sector and those from the specialist public health workforce. This paper demonstrates how shared learning through facilitated learning sets and other activities has identified issues that both hinder and potentially help the greater integration of health into built environment thinking. It documents a number of responses to the issues that have arisen, as well as suggesting ways forward and future work that can help to bring public health and built environment professionals closer together for the benefit of society.

Introduction

There is a renewed and growing recognition of the links between public health and the built environment, which has underlined the need for improved joint working between public health and built environment professionals. However, currently there is little engagement between these two sectors. This paper outlines a workforce development initiative that aims to increase capacity for such joint working, through shared learning and reflection between professionals from the built environment sector and those from the specialist public health workforce. The work documented here offers examples of how built environment professionals can be engaged in the public health agenda, and vice versa. It suggests ways forward and outlines future work.

Section snippets

Background

Many of the most important advances in public health have come through improvement of the built environment, whether that be the sanitary reforms of the 18th century or air quality laws in the mid 1900s.1, 2 Built environment professionals, such as town planners, recognized the impact that they could have on health and were key stakeholders in the health improvement process.³ However, as cities became seemingly healthier, the link between the built environment and the health of the population

Aims and approach of the work programme

The primary goal of the programme of work is to increase capacity for joint working between the public health and the built environment sectors. The methodology takes the project beyond research or training. Through embedding an action learning paradigm at the heart of the approach, the project provides an immediate interface between research into professional practice and developing better practitioner awareness.

Recent years have seen a rise in the quantity of partnership working on public

Organizations involved

This programme is led by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Cities and Urban Policy, which is based in the Built and Natural Environment School at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol. It was designated by WHO in 1998 in order to better integrate public health and settlement planning, design and development. The WHO Collaborating Centre has planners, architects and landscape architects as core staff as well as colleagues drawn from the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Initial scoping activities

At the outset of the project, two events sought to shape the direction of the work: a workshop based at the UWE; and a national learning set involving lead members of the regional networks.

The initial workshop at the UWE brought together academics from public health and built environment backgrounds. The workshop was designed to support enquiry into the understanding and misunderstandings about each other's disciplines. Each group, public health and built environment professionals, was invited

Resulting activities

Following the initial scoping activities, the project planned two events in the South West of England. The structure and focus of these events was shaped by the scoping activities. The Bristol Planning Law and Policy Conference is a full-day annual event for planning and legal professionals across the South West of England. It is attended by key figures in the planning and law profession, from both the private and public sectors. In November 2007, assisted by funding from the SWTPHN, the

Discussion

The work reported here represents only the initial steps to bring together the built environment and public health workforce. This early work has been successful in identifying issues that both hinder and potentially help the greater integration of health into built environment thinking. This includes a lack of knowledge about health issues generally amongst built environment professionals, and a lack of easily available evidence, in the correct form, to advise built environment policy makers

Conclusions

The programme of work outlined above is only the beginning of a process that seeks to better integrate the public health and built environment agendas. The work programme aims to be part of a dynamic, reactive process. In practice, this means that in parallel with further workshops, learning sets and the development of training, the researchers and participants will continually explore and challenge the barriers to progress and respond to issues as they arise. Bringing public health and built

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Special focus—scaling up training and educationPromoting integration of the health and built environment agendas through a workforce development initiative

Summary

Introduction

Section snippets

Background

Aims and approach of the work programme

Organizations involved

Initial scoping activities

Resulting activities

Discussion

Conclusions

Lancet

A history of public health

Healthy urban planning: setting the scene

Built Environ

Urban sprawl and public health: designing, planning and building for healthy communities

Obesity and the built environment

J Am Diet Assoc

Environmental contributions to the obesity epidemic

Science

Special focus—scaling up training and education
Promoting integration of the health and built environment agendas through a workforce development initiative