Securitisation of Health group meeting: April
2024-04-17 18:00 - 19:30 (Europe/London)
What is the securitisation of health?

A number of policing and counter-extremism measures are embedded by the government into UK health services, which at times require health workers to work closely with the police and other security agencies.

These measures risk undermining therapeutic relationships, confidentiality and trust in practitioners – as well as drawing health services and workers into becoming an arm of policing and counter-terror agencies.

Through research and campaigns, Medact aims to shift understandings of ‘security’, from typically “hard” measures (border enforcement, a punitive criminal justice system, counter-terror measures) and advocate for collective and human security, health and wellbeing. Read more about our work on Securitisation here.

About the group

The Securitisation of Health group is for health workers interested in working on these issues through campaigning, lobbying and research. New members are welcome!

If you have any questions or concerns about attending, please email our Campaign Lead Sarah Lasoye at sarahlasoye@medact.org.

This event will be held online on Zoom. (Note: This page previously said you could join online or in-person, but it has been moved to online-only.)

Medact New Joiners Meeting
2024-04-30 19:30 - 20:30
Have you joined Medact any time in the last twelve months? Are you not yet involved in your closest local group or one of our central campaigns or research network?

Welcome to our movement of health workers for health justice! We’d love to meet you at our next New Joiners meeting. This will be a friendly, informal and interactive session and an opportunity to get to know us and let us get to know you.

Some of the things that we’ll be discussing include:

What is Medact?

What do we mean by health justice?

How do we believe change happens?

What can it look like to organise together in the Medact movement?

Whether you’ve just joined or joined a while ago but are yet to find your place, please do come along and share this welcoming space with us.

If you have any questions about attending, drop Kate, one of our Movement Organisers, an email at katebernard@medact.org

Medact Bristol group meeting: May
2024-05-06 18:00 - 19:00
Medact Bristol is interested and engaged in local, national and international issues that affect public health. Since its creation, Medact Bristol has focused its efforts on campaigns on climate, environment and sustainability, divestment, and migrant access to healthcare. The group’s current focus is supporting Reclaim our Buses, a campaign in Bristol to bring buses back into public control. New members are welcome. Join the email list to get involved.

Securitisation of Health group meeting
2024-05-08 18:00 - 19:30
What is the securitisation of health?

A number of policing and counter-extremism measures are embedded by the government into UK health services, which at times require health workers to work closely with the police and other security agencies.

These measures risk undermining therapeutic relationships, confidentiality and trust in practitioners – as well as drawing health services and workers into becoming an arm of policing and counter-terror agencies.

Through research and campaigns, Medact aims to shift understandings of ‘security’, from typically “hard” measures (border enforcement, a punitive criminal justice system, counter-terror measures) and advocate for collective and human security, health and wellbeing. Read more about our work on Securitisation here.

About the group

The Securitisation of Health group is for health workers interested in working on these issues through campaigning, lobbying and research. New members are welcome!

If you have any questions or concerns about attending, please email our Campaign Lead Sarah Lasoye at sarahlasoye@medact.org.

Health for a Green New Deal: May Action Planning Meeting
2024-05-08 18:30 - 20:00
Want to join a movement of health workers fighting for climate justice? Join the next Health for a Green New Deal campaign Action Planning Meeting!

The Health for a Green New Deal Action Planning group organises national activity and supports our Health for a Green New Deal network. We meet monthly, on the second Wednesday of the month, to discuss the current climate & health justice landscape and strategise how we can contribute to the wider movement.

You don’t have to have been involved before to get involved now—everyone is welcome! If you’re unable to attend any of the meetings but are keen to get involved or develop a local campaign, get in touch. For more info or any questions, email Maria: mariacarvalho@medact.org.

Register below to receive the meeting link.

Nuclear Weapons Group May meeting
2024-05-20 18:00 - 19:30
Medact’s Nuclear Weapons Group represents the longest standing aspect of Medact’s work towards nuclear abolition, and to address war, armed violence and conflict as global threats to health.

We will meet to provide an update on our ongoing work, and discuss the current global political landscape as related to nuclear weapons and disarmament. Register below to receive the meeting link!

For more info or with questions, email Sarah: sarahlasoye@medact.org

Nuclear Weapons Group meeting: June
2024-06-17 18:00 - 19:30

Medact Movement Assembly
2024-06-18 18:30 - 20:00
Movement Assemblies (formerly “Group Check-in”) are a space for people active in Medact local or issue groups to connect, to share collective learning from our organising—the challenges and successes and how we can support each other to win in our struggle for health justice.

This Assembly will take place ONLINE on Zoom. The first part of the assembly will focus on sharing updates and learnings from across the Medact network. We will hear national campaign updates from:

Patients Not Passports

Peace and Security

Climate and Health

Economic Justice

We will then share updates from across local Medact groups—all are welcome! Each group being represented will spend two minutes sharing a few highlights and any challenges you’ve had over the last few months, and any plans you have coming up.

In the second half of the assembly, we will have a skill-share on organising. We’ll be exploring an example together; how we can apply these learnings in our contexts; and the skills, knowledge and resources we need to put them into practice.

If you have any questions or would like to chat through anything, do get in touch with Ben Eder: beneder@medact.org

Nuclear Weapons Group July meeting
2024-07-15 18:00 - 19:30

Nuclear Weapons Group August meeting
2024-08-12 18:00 - 19:30

Climate & Health: Energy Justice campaign New Joiners meeting
2024-09-03 18:30 - 19:30
Medact’s Climate & Health Group is organising to improve policies to end the crisis of cold & damp homes and fuel poverty, and ensure our homes are not sites of illness.

This includes working alongside local groups to support local campaigns, as well as demanding policy change on a national level for better support for quality homes for all, energy justice & a rapid just transition away from fossil fuels.

The New Joiners meeting is a space to meet other Medact members and health workers interested in the intersections of climate, housing and energy justice. You have the opportunity to hear about:

Medact’s structure, mission and goals

History and function of the group

An overview of how we understand the roots causes of cold & damp homes & possible solutions

Current campaign and organising work

How to get involved!

If you’re looking for ways to contribute to affect meaningful change to one of the key climate justice issues in the UK. this is a great way to do it. You don’t have to be a regular member or a health worker to get involved—everyone is welcome

If you have any questions about attending, drop Maria, Climate Campaign lead, an email at mariacarvalho@medact.org

Join the fight for Healthy Homes: New joiners meeting
2024-09-12 18:30 - 19:45
The so-called housing crisis makes the spaces in which we live damp, mouldy, insecure and impossible to afford. The housing system prevents vast numbers of families from simply feeling at home, and calling the place they live a place of safety. Austerity and the commodification of housing has turned the domestic into a site of illness, violence, precarity, insecurity, and in some cases death.

We need urgent political action to respond to the public health crisis that health workers are witnessing. This requires rethinking housing beyond commodification and taking action to reclaim it as a public health asset. We need to reclaim housing for health.

It will take a movement, with tenants, health workers and all sectors of society working together to shift the narrative and end the public health crisis in housing. Join us to get involved with the fight for healthy homes!

In this meeting you’ll:

Find out about the group and our Housing and Health campaign

Understand what we understand by economic and health inequality,

Hear about ongoing projects and campaigns,

Learn how we can fight for housing justice

Hear from some of the people working in our different campaign areas, and

Explore the ways you can get involved

Nuclear Weapons Group September meeting
2024-09-16 18:00 - 19:30

AGM 2024 & Panel Discussion - Building solidarity movements and demanding health justice amid poly-crisis
2024-09-24 18:00 - 20:30
The AGM is our yearly opportunity to come together and explore the overall running of Medact and to bring together members old and new from the UK and beyond. In addition to essential governance matters, we’re excited this year to be hosting a panel discisson:

Panel

The panel discussion will be followed by our AGM, where you’ll hear about successes and reflections from the last year of work across the Medact movement, an update on our organisational finances, and have a chance to vote in Trustee elections.

Everyone is welcome to join the meeting, but you must be a member to vote. If you would like to get involved in running Medact, why not join as a member today?

Submitting motions

The deadline for motion submissions has passed.

Election of Trustees

The deadline for Trustee applications has passed.

Logistics

We are hosting this year’s AGM online via Zoom. Register to let us know you are coming below, and provide any access requirements you may have. We will share the agenda as soon as it is finalised.

Speaker bios

Chairs:

Anuj Kapilashrami is an interdisciplinary social scientist, academic activist, and Professor in Global Health Policy and Equity in the School of Health & Social Care, and chair of Medact’s Board. Her current work focuses on advancing an intersectional approach to examining health inequalities and structural determinants of health and well-being. She has long been involved in People’s Health Movement (PHM) in India and the UK, formerly as Chair of PHM Scotland where she led the first public hearing on social determination of mental health and the development of people’s health manifesto for Scotland.

Kamran Abbasi is a doctor, journalist, editor and broadcaster. Following five years in hospital medicine, working in various medical specialties such as psychiatry and cardiology, he moved into senior editorial roles at the British Medical Journal from 1997 to 2005. He returned to The BMJ in his role as executive editor for content, leading the journal’s strategic growth internationally, digitally, and in print. Kamran was made Editor in chief of the BMJ in December 2021.

Panelists:

Guppi Bola is a senior economic strategist, previous Interim-Director of Medact and formerly Chair of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. In 2020 she explored themes of planetary dysregulation, illness and oppression, and their intersections with the economy for Common Wealth using her 15 years of experience in climate and public health organising. More recently, she has spent the past five years establishing Decolonising Economics, alongside her partner in crime Noni Makuyana.

Rhiannon Mihranian is doctor, organiser, and researcher focused on health justice as a tool for radical systems change. Her work focuses on environmental justice, anti-colonialism, and re-imagining health systems.

Martin Drewry is CEO of Health Poverty Action (HPA) – an international NGO part of the People’s Health Movement, and ally of Medact. HPA works in 15 countries, with 400 staff mostly from the marginalised communities they serve. A background in Peace Studies, Martin played key roles in several large coalition campaigns.

Dr. Inga Blum is a neurologist from Hamburg, Germany currently specializing in family medicine. She joined IPPNW as a medical student with an interest in global health and justice and got involved in ICAN at its founding at the IPPNW World Congress in Helsinki in 2006. In her view the abolition of nuclear weapons is not only an urgent necessity because of the acute danger nuclear weapons pose for global survival but likewise a great chance to shift international security policies from being based on the threat of mutual annihilation to a human security system based on cooperation. Having witnessed the constant failure of disarmament conferences as a member of IPPNW Delegations she initiated a study on attitudes towards nuclear weapons among political decision-makers at the University of Hamburg. She has conducted numerous workshops and delivered speeches with a special focus on motivating the next generation to get active for nuclear disarmament and is active in promoting the Ban Treaty in Germany. She served on the board of the German section of IPPNW from 2013 to 2021 and has started the annual IPPNW Summer Camp to protest against the stationing of NATO nuclear weapons in Büchel, Rhineland-Palatinate.

Economic Justice National Organising Group Meeting
2024-10-02 19:00 - 20:00, 2024-10-30 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
The Medact Economic Justice & Health group meets regularly to discuss current and future campaigns, plan events, work on strategy and share knowledge. The group is open to all and welcomes new members.

The main focus of this meeting will be to discuss the strategy of our housing and health lobbying and advocacy campaign focusing on Royal Colleges. We will also provide updates on our work as part of the Homes for Us alliance.

If you have any questions please contact jordilopezbotey@medact.org!

Securitisation of Health group meeting: October
2024-10-16 18:00 - 19:30
What is the securitisation of health?

A number of policing and counter-extremism measures are embedded by the government into UK health services, which at times require health workers to work closely with the police and other security agencies.

These measures risk undermining therapeutic relationships, confidentiality and trust in practitioners – as well as drawing health services and workers into becoming an arm of policing and counter-terror agencies.

Through research and campaigns, Medact aims to shift understandings of ‘security’, from typically “hard” measures (border enforcement, a punitive criminal justice system, counter-terror measures) and advocate for collective and human security, health and wellbeing. Read more about our work on Securitisation here.

About the group

The Securitisation of Health group is for health workers interested in working on these issues through campaigning, lobbying and research. New members are welcome!

If you have any questions or concerns about attending, please email our Campaign Lead Sarah Lasoye at sarahlasoye@medact.org.

This event will be held online on Zoom.

Nuclear Weapons Group meeting: October
2024-10-17 18:00 - 19:30

Making the Case for Social Homes: Messaging workshop with NEON
2024-10-21 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom
Join us for an online messaging workshop in collaboration with NEON! Learn how to communicate the public health case for social homes to a wider audience, for use in broadcast media and campaigning.

Homes should be a place of comfort, health and security. Instead, across the UK, homes have become sites of illness. They are rendered cold and damp by poor insulation and sky-high energy prices. They are insecure due to unaffordable rents, evictions, and poor-quality housing.

We need to rethink housing beyond commodification and take action to reclaim housing for our health and as a public health asset.

With a new government in place, new opportunities will emerge to cut through the political and media narrative on homes and communicate our vision of the public health case for social homes.

This workshop is for health workers and campaigners who want to use health framing in their campaigns.

Join us for a workshop on how campaigners can effectively advocate for social homes!

We will cover:

Messaging guidance on how to use health framing to draw the links between the housing system and our physical and mental health

How to use case studies from your experience as health workers

Solutions that lead to a better health and housing for everyone

Get the messaging guide here!

Nuclear Weapons Group meeting: November
2024-11-14 18:00 - 19:30

Securitisation of Health group meeting: November
2024-11-20 18:00 - 19:30
Note this meeting is POSTPONED! Please join us at our next meeting on December 18th: sign up here!

What is the securitisation of health?

A number of policing and counter-extremism measures are embedded by the government into UK health services, which at times require health workers to work closely with the police and other security agencies.

These measures risk undermining therapeutic relationships, confidentiality and trust in practitioners – as well as drawing health services and workers into becoming an arm of policing and counter-terror agencies.

Through research and campaigns, Medact aims to shift understandings of ‘security’, from typically “hard” measures (border enforcement, a punitive criminal justice system, counter-terror measures) and advocate for collective and human security, health and wellbeing. Read more about our work on Securitisation here.

About the group

The Securitisation of Health group is for health workers interested in working on these issues through campaigning, lobbying and research. New members are welcome!

If you have any questions or concerns about attending, please email our Campaign Lead Sarah Lasoye at sarahlasoye@medact.org.

This event will be held online on Zoom.

Medact New Joiners
2024-12-02 19:30 - 20:30 | Zoom
Have you joined Medact any time in the last twelve months? Are you not yet involved in your closest local group or one of our central campaigns or research network?

Welcome to our movement of health workers for health justice! We’d love to meet you at our next New Joiners meeting. This will be a friendly, informal and interactive session and an opportunity to get to know us and let us get to know you.

Some of the things that we’ll be discussing include:

What is Medact?

What do we mean by health justice?

How do we believe change happens?

What can it look like to organise together in the Medact movement?

Whether you’ve just joined or joined a while ago but are yet to find your place, please do come along and share this welcoming space with us.

If you have any questions about attending, drop Cal, one of our Movement Organisers, an email at calumbarnes@medact.org.

CANCELLED: Nuclear Weapons Group meeting: December
2024-12-16 18:00 - 19:30
Please note this meeting has been cancelled. See you in the New Year!

Medact’s Nuclear Weapons Group represents the longest standing aspect of Medact’s work towards nuclear abolition, and to address war, armed violence and conflict as global threats to health.

We will meet to provide an update on our ongoing work, and discuss the current global political landscape as related to nuclear weapons and disarmament. Register below to receive the meeting link!

For more info or with questions, email Sarah: sarahlasoye@medact.org

Climate & Health National Working Group meeting: January
2025-01-13 18:00 - 19:15
Our Climate & Health Group is campaigning for “Homes for Health” highlighting the links between fuel poverty, poor housing, and the climate crisis. By joining national coalitions like the Warm the Winter Campaign and working with grassroots groups such as Fuel Poverty Action, we have recognised the unique role of health workers in advocating for energy justice, better housing, and a just energy transition. For more information, see our briefing on the public health case to warm our homes, not the planet.

We meet monthly, online. If you’re interested in getting involved please email Maria (mariacarvalho@medact.org) or Cal (calumbarnes@medact.org)

Email to get involved

Sign up to the Climate and Health group email list to be kept up to date with our work:

Medact New Joiners – Jan 2025
2025-01-27 19:30 - 20:30
Have you joined Medact any time in the last twelve months? Are you not yet involved in your closest local group or one of our central campaigns or research network?

Welcome to our movement of health workers for health justice! We’d love to meet you at our next New Joiners meeting. This will be a friendly, informal and interactive session and an opportunity to get to know us and let us get to know you.

Some of the things that we’ll be discussing include:

What is Medact?

What do we mean by health justice?

How do we believe change happens?

What can it look like to organise together in the Medact movement?

Whether you’ve just joined or joined a while ago but are yet to find your place, please do come along and share this welcoming space with us.

If you have any questions about attending, drop our Movement Organiser Calum an email at calumbarnes@medact.org.

Nuclear Weapons Group meeting: January
2025-01-30 18:00 - 19:30
Note: The date of this meeting has changed from 16th January to 30th January.

Medact’s Nuclear Weapons Group represents the longest standing aspect of Medact’s work towards nuclear abolition, and to address war, armed violence and conflict as global threats to health.

We will meet to provide an update on our ongoing work, and discuss the current global political landscape as related to nuclear weapons and disarmament. Register below to receive the meeting link!

For more info or with questions, email Sarah: sarahlasoye@medact.org

Securitisation of Health Group Meeting February
2025-02-06 18:00 - 19:30 | Zoom

Nuclear Weapons Group meeting: February
2025-02-19 18:00 - 19:30

Homes for Health Network meeting
2025-02-19 18:30 - 20:00
Medact’s Climate & Health and Economic Justice & Health campaigns are joining forces with our local working groups to fight for healthy homes as part of the broader struggles for climate, housing, and economic justice.

Our network meetings are opportunities to come together as a movement, to share our learning and to plan and strategise together.

In this meeting we will be discussing the next steps in our national and local work and we will be thinking about what resources we need to continue to build our movement of people power.

These network meetings are designed for people who are already embedded in our work streams. If you are new to our Homes for Health work and would like to get involved email: calumbarnes@medact.org.

Come and build the movement for healthy homes!

Don't Bank on The Bomb - National Network Meeting
2025-02-25 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom
In a world ablaze with escalating conflicts, global instability, and worsening humanitarian crises, the threat of nuclear weapons to human life is mounting. And yet, every year, billions of pounds flow through UK banks, pension funds, and other financial institutions that invest in companies producing nuclear weapons, making the threat of nuclear war even more real.

At Don’t Bank on the Bomb UK, we are building a nationwide movement to pressure banks and financial institutions to withdraw their support for the nuclear weapons industry, by demanding they move their money away from companies that manufacture and trade in weapons of mass destruction.

Whether you’re an experienced activist or just learning about the issue, Don’t Bank on the Bomb UK is the perfect place to join others committed to building a safer, nuclear-free world.

Join our first network meeting on Tuesday 25th February 2025. We are excited to welcome guests who will be speaking about their work on nuclear disarmament, and the incredible organising that has happened on nuclear divestment.
