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Director of Public Health Annual Report

Each year the Director of Public Health publishes a report on their chosen topic. This year’s report, is a review of year four of the Thrive Plymouth programme alongside a report on the changes in life expectancy which have been noted in recent data. Thrive Plymouth is the Council’s 10-year programme to improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities in the city.  Each year of the campaign has a different focus. Year four (which ran from October 2017 to October 2018) focused on the implementation of the Five Ways to Wellbeing in Plymouth.  

The report makes the following recommendations for action:

Recommendation 1

Reduce stigma and discrimination by increasing mental health wellbeing literacy across the whole population.

Recommendation 2

Work to improve understanding of the impact stigma and discrimination have on the lives of people with mental health problems.

Recommendation 3

Make it easier for people to seek support around mental health problems.

Recommendation 4

Adopt a life course approach. The foundations of mental health are laid down in infancy in the context of family relationships. Place-based intervention in settings such as schools, workplaces, and communities complement the life course approach and makes the most of existing opportunities.

Recommendation 5

Help the population to build resilience through initiatives to build self-esteem and connection with others.

Recommendation 6

Create an environment where people can be their best self and be resilient to setbacks

Recommendation 7

Close monitoring of emerging evidence base around reducing life expectancy and increasing infant mortality, both nationally and within Plymouth, to detect any intelligence that can lead to actions.

Recommendation 8

Embed the approach that we are taking in Plymouth, working together as partners to deliver the Plymouth Plan, including our approach to the wider determinants of health as well as integrated health and wellbeing. Whilst we have made good progress, we need to increase the speed that services are transformed.

Recommendation 9

Continued lobbying for appropriate funding for public sector services for the residents of Plymouth, to enable the services that they need to be accessible and effective, and tailored to their needs.

Recommendation 10

Use this additional funding to support and develop the interventions that we have in place, scaling them up, refining them and spreading good practice, and continue to develop new ways to get people the support that they need.