On a mission to tackle Derby’s health inequalities

In the latest edition of Marketing Derby’s Innovate Magazine, we look at the efforts being made to overcome the health inequalities that exist in Derby.

For a number of years, the city has struggled to overcome significant levels of inequality.

But the challenge, particularly when it comes to health, has never been greater and has been exacerbated by the impact of Covid and the cost-of-living crisis.

In this edition of Innovate, we talk to Alison Martin, Derby City Council’s recently appointed cabinet member for integrated health and adult care and Robyn Dewis, Derby’s director of public health, about the city’s health inequality challenge.

Alison tells Innovate she in no doubt about the size of the task she faces in her new role.

She said: “We have had health inequality for a long time in Derby but it’s getting worse.

“There is a strong correlation between socio-economic inequality and deprivation and health inequality and poor health outcomes, so the poorer the area in the city, on almost every issue you might look at there are poorer health outcomes.

“Clearly the problem of socioeconomic inequality leads to different levels of opportunity, different lifestyles, different cultural habits and health habits and they, obviously, compound lots of other problems which make the health outcomes worse.”

According to Alison, education has a key role to play, ensuring young people, particularly from deprived areas, are aware of, and take advantage of the opportunities which could lead them to secure a better paid job – and a pathway to better health.

Robyn said: “We know that inequality in life expectancy relates to cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and cancer.

“And we know the biggest driver of those is smoking and coming hot on the heels is obesity and poor diet.

“When you are living within a city, it is really important that people have access to all of the things that give us good health – so education, employment, housing, green spaces and physical activity, feeling safe, all of these are really fundamental.

“There’s a lot we need to think through about how we make the city more equal in terms of those health outcomes.”

To read the feature in full visit https://heyzine.com/flip-book/428478c2ea.html#page/16 .