On (irrational) health beliefs
Faced with declining vaccine uptake, or attacks on medics managing the Ebola crisis in DRC, it is tempting to rail against others’ irrationality. Why do people believe rumours or conspiracy theories? What has happened to faith in medical progress? But...
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Deployment and Diversity
The UK’s defence posture has changed fundamentally in recent years. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and conflicts in the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region have resulted in increased commitment to NATO, shaped in no small part by the...
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Why is Healthy Life Expectancy in decline?
Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE), according to a report published last month (April 2026) by the Health Foundation, demonstrates a stark and accelerating trend: healthy life expectancy across the United Kingdom has fallen by two years over the last decade. Healthy...
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Widening the focus on medical misogyny
In recent months there has been a renewed focus on ‘medical misogyny’ with numerous reports highlighting the routine dismissal of female patients seeking healthcare, particularly for reproductive health conditions. A report by the Women and Equalitiies Committee (UK) in 2024...
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Healing beyond borders: Digital mental health support for refugees
Looking around a refugee camp in Somaliland, I saw silent mental health battles everywhere. So I decided to help. My understanding of trauma did not begin with a textbook or a diagnosis. It grew little by little over many years;...
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Why Young Adult’s Loneliness is Political
In recent years, young adults (typically defined as age 16 – 25years) have become increasingly recognised as a group that are vulnerable to loneliness. Most research on young adult’s loneliness takes a psychological perspective and is concerned with individual and...
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Why women have to queue for the toilet
And what it says about how cities are designed Do you remember the last time you had to queue for a toilet? If several examples spring to mind, the chances are you were standing in the women’s line. Whether at theatres,...
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Outgunned Before Breakfast: Big Brand Advertising
Why Public Health Keeps Losing to Big Brand Advertising It’s 7:00 AM on a drizzly London morning. A seven-year-old sits at the breakfast table, eyes on the TV as he eats cereal. In minutes, he’s bombarded by cartoon mascots pushing...
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Developing skills pathways through community enrichment for disadvantaged children
Why we need a radical overhaul of our approach to the UK skills gap What is the UK skills gap? The recent announcement of the Government’s Youth Guarantee, ensuring all 18 to 21 year olds in England have access to...
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England now has a plan to end homelessness…
…here’s how to test whether it will work The UK has proved before that it can end homelessness. The Everyone In scheme during COVID lockdowns accommodated tens of thousands of people in emergency and supported housing, who would otherwise have continued...
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Shame, Stigma, and Self-Harm: Complicating Narratives
Over the last decade it’s been exciting to see a real groundswell in Sociology around the need to think carefully and critically about stigma. A brilliant example of this is the collection Recalibrating Stigma: Sociologies of Health and Illness edited...
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If plan A doesn’t work, move to plan B…