Working with public health policy, law and regulation for prevention
DATE
TYPE Prevention Centre News
Workshop presenters took attendees through the policy cycle with examples from the preventive health field to highlight different strategies that can be used to effectively influence policy and public health law. A recording of the presentations is available here.
An overview of ‘public health law 101’ by Dr Jenny Kaldor looked at the evolution of public health law from a scholarly point of view to that of a policy maker.
Law can improve health equity and help to address the social determinants of health, although often those determinants lie far outside health sector.
Dr Jenny Kaldor
She outlined the tools of public health law and how policy instruments and analysis fit into the theory of a policy cycle.
Professor Janet Hoek from the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago shared a case study of public health policy in practice with the Smokefree Aortearoa 2025 action plan and shift in focus from incremental to structural change. Australian researchers working for a tobacco-free future are also setting their sights on this type of public health reform.
CRE Tobacco Endgame’s Tess Rooney shared practical tips for influencing policy in her presentation covering policy briefs and submissions to the importance of stories, and the power of charts and graphs!
Politicians love qualitative evidence. If you have a story, and if you have a face to that story, then that becomes really powerful.
Tess Rooney
The CERI User Guide offers additional advice on many of these areas including writing policy briefs and the power of storytelling here.
The Emerging Leaders Symposium was presented by the Prevention Centre and associated Centres of Research Excellence, through the Collaboration for Enhanced Research Impact (CERI).
About CERI
The Collaboration for Enhanced Research Impact (CERI) is a joint initiative between the Prevention Centre and several NHMRC Centres of Research Excellence, established in June 2020 to enhance the profile and impact of chronic disease prevention in Australia. We are working together to find alignment in the policy and practice implications of our work and to develop shared communications across our various projects and participating centres.
About the Emerging Leaders Network
The Emerging Leaders Network (ELN) offers networking and capability building opportunities for early and mid-career researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in prevention across Australia. ELN members work across universities, research institutes, government departments and agencies, and non-government organisations. The network offers access to webinars, workshops, networking events and symposia.
