Our first Prevention in Partnership workshop

We hosted our first Prevention in Partnership workshop on Friday 10 July.

More than 40 Health Integration Team (HIT) members, public health and prevention leaders, and public partners joined us at The Station (Creative Youth Network) in Bristol for a productive morning of ideas-sharing and problem-solving, focused on the question ‘How can HITs support prevention initiatives in our regions?’

Eight partner organisations were represented: the University of Bristol, University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, Sirona, Bristol City Council, North Somerset Council and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (BNSSG ICB).

Our Chair, Professor Tim Whittlestone, welcomed delegates and introduced the session, showing how preventative activity is required at scale, with HITs as vehicles for change.

Dr Jo Williams, Public Health Consultant at Bristol City Council, grounded delegates in the core concepts of prevention, and introduced frameworks and principles to guide collaborative working.

Three of our HITs then presented ways they are working on prevention:

• Dr Sanni Norweg (Eating Disorders) outlined the potential of The Body Project to prevent eating disorders and promote body acceptance
• Dr Rajeka Lazarus and David Cousins (BNSSG Immunisation Group) shared a novel approach to quantifying community organisations’ role in vaccine messaging
• Drs Jo Copping and Tom May (Sexual Health) discussed approaches to optimising sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention in Bristol, including plans to ‘crowd-source’ relevant public health messages about STIs.

Thank you to all our presenters for their insights, and for answering questions from delegates.

Inspired by these talks, roundtable discussions considered where to focus attention in supporting prevention and how Bristol Health Partners can best contribute.  

Our next Partnership workshop will take place in 2027. Please look out for invitations early in the new year.