Inequalities must be tackled if health is to improve
John Reid: It is important to gain control over your own health |
Tackling health inequalities is central to Government plans to see public health improve in England.
Health Secretary John Reid last week spelt out the thinking behind the
public health White Paper, which is due to be published this autumn.
The simple philosophy is that individual health can only be improved
if health inequality is tackled first. But health inequality will only
diminish if the disadvantaged feel empowered and motivated to take steps
themselves to improve their own health.
Empowerment can be achieved by improving access to education and helping
people get back to work and in full employment, Dr Reid said. It is then
up to the government to provide them with the services they need to help
them improve their health.
Speaking at a Health Development
Agency conference in London on 23 September,
Dr Reid said: “Government policies to reduce inequality must give
you more power over your life. The government that achieves this will
enable people rather than just instruct them, hector them or try to dictate
to them.”
Government policies have helped more 11-year-olds to read and write and
the literacy and numeracy skills of children from poorer schools have
been improving at twice the rate of children from better off schools,
since Labour came to power seven years ago, he told the conference.
At the same time its employment policies, particularly the New Deal initiative,
have put hundreds of thousands of people in work, he said.
Dr Reid told the conference what the Government’s next steps were
to help improve public health.
He said: “First we need to provide clear leadership to our whole
society about what are health choices and how important it is to struggle
to gain control of your health.
“Second, while this whole struggle depends upon individual motivation,
governments need to provide the support for people to improve their health.”
This meant providing accessible and convenient smoking cessation clinics
and, for example, making sure that there was no shame attached to attending
a sexually transmitted infections clinic.
He said: “ Our philosophy is clear. Without people’s motivation
very little health improvement will happen, but people have a right not
to do this hard work on their own. They have a right to look to government
for practical support and we aim to provide it.” |
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