Public Health is about helping people to stay healthy and protecting them from threats to their health.
Sometimes public health activities involve helping individuals, at other times they involve dealing with wider factors that have an impact on the health of many people (for example an age-group, an ethnic group, a locality, or a country).
While medicine and nursing are vital for helping and supporting people when they fall ill, public health contributes to reducing the causes of ill-health and improving people's health and wellbeing.
Each local authority has a public health department and you can find out more about what Birmingham's Public Health teams are doing and their work on their dedicated webpages (opens a new window).
Below are some of Birmingham's Public Health offers that you may be interested in.
Many people struggle with addiction of one sort or another. Public Health have pulled together resources provide support to help people with different additions such as smoking, alcohol, drug use and gambling.
Public Health's Addiction Support webpages
To support you to stop smoking, Public Health has a range of services and programmes that help you to stop.
Giving up smoking is one of the best things you can do to improve your health - and the health of the people around you.
Evidence shows you are 3 times more likely to successfully quit with specialist support than by trying just on your own.
Across Birmingham there are over 100 GP and local Pharmacies that can help support you to stop smoking. To help you find your local service, a directory of all of services is available.
Help and support around food including those having difficulty affording food. Additional information and support around healthy eating. There is also information about the "Food Revolution" strategy. More information can be found at:
Food and health eating - https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50351/food_and_healthy_eating
Food Revolution - https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50279/food_revolution
Healthy Start is a national scheme providing food vouchers and vitamins for pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under 4 years old. The support provided is £4.25 a week (or £8.50 if a child under 1years old) and vitamins (folic acid, vitamin C & D for women; A, C & D drops for children). For full details and how to apply go to:
Information about health checks and screening programmes run by the NHS. These include health checks for those aged 40-74, cancer screening programmes and pregnancy screening
Public Health have a range of commissioned services for sexual and reproductive health. They includes the provision of access to testing for sexually transmitted disease and HIV testing, but doesn’t include infertility treatment or HIV treatment and care.
Support and resources available to help improve wellbeing and support your mental health. Alongside advice and general support, this includes NHS services, as well as information & resources for coping different crises - bereavement, financial, housing insecurity, severe weather.
In additional to these, there is also a section on suicide prevention and support.
Details on the full range of services are available on the Public Health's Mental Health and Wellbeing pages as well as Connect to Supports mental health page and community directory of local support groups.
The peer mentoring service is a free confidential support service for young people (aged 16-25) who are from:
What’s offered:
Self-referral by
Online: http://referral.ourplacesupport.org/peermentoring
Email: peermentoring@ourplacesupport.org
Telephone: 0121 354 4080
Information and resources to help you look after your health and wellbeing. Specific section covering those aged 50 to 65 and those aged 65 and over. Additional sections on aging well and your brain health.
Public Health's Health at Different Ages webpages
The benefits of being active every day are huge and being active benefits both physical and mental health and wellbeing at every age and not just that it can be a lot of fun too!
Pubic Health's Staying and Being Active webpages provide information on the benefits of staying active, along with resources to help you too to be active.
You can also find more activities across Birmingham using the Active Birmingham Activity Finder.
One-mile marked tracks in 8 Birmingham parks encourage 15 minutes of daily activity (walk, jog, wheel, run) at your own pace. Tracks are safe, accessible, and remain in place to promote active lifestyles. This is part of the Commonwealth Games legacy fund. You can find out more about the legacy from Legacy-WM.
The parks are:
Free 12-week programme for people with long-term health conditions, focusing on:
Delivered by trained professionals to boost confidence and wellbeing. Includes 12 months free access to Be Active facilities after completion.
If you have a long-term health condition and would like to be considered, speak to your GP.
Public Health has a range of support to help families and children. These include:
Delivered by Birmingham Forward Steps, this national early help programme supports children’s health and development through:
For more information and to find your local Health Visiting teams and Children’s Centres go to http://bhamforwardsteps.co.uk/.
Funded by Public Health, this support from Beezee Families is a free, award-winning healthy lifestyle programme for the whole family
Sessions are In-person or online sessions. Self-referral at:
Delivered by Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, this confidential service supports school-aged children and families with:
The service can be used by children:
There is extra support available for children aged 11 or over through the Chat Health Text Service. This provides confidential help on mental health, relationships, bullying, drugs, healthy eating and more. Text 07480 635 485
You can access on:
