Health for a Green New Deal: April Action Planning Meeting
2024-04-10 18:30 - 19:45 (Europe/London)
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 April meeting
2024-04-15 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

Securitisation of Health group meeting: April
2024-04-17 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. (Note: This page previously said you could join online or in-person, but it has been moved to online-only.)

Medact North East group meeting: April
2024-04-17 20:00 - 21:00
Medact North East is an active local group based around Newcastle, Sunderland, Tynemouth and across the North East.

The group meets monthly. Each meeting is facilitated by a different person and they welcome new members! The time is used to discuss current campaigns and anything else relevant. The North East group are currently involved in a campaign against waste incinerators in local communities. For more information or to join a meeting in-person, get in touch at northeast@medact.org.

To attend online, register to receive the Zoom link!

Harrow Healthy Homes Assembly
2024-04-20 14:00 - 17:00 | Harrow Baptist Church, College Rd (Harrow on the Hill station), Harrow, HA1 1BA
All Harrow tenants and residents who want to fight for a better housing system are welcome to this meeting.

We will be discussing the state of housing in the borough and agreeing on a set of demands for Harrow Council.

These demands will form the basis of a grassroots campaign to make rented housing in Harrow more decent, secure and affordable.

The venue is wheelchair-accessible. Tea, coffee and snacks will be provided.

This meeting is organised by Harrow Law Centre and Medact.

Harrow has a housing crisis. Buying a home here is out of reach for most people, and the borough has some of the smallest council housing stock in London. Ordinary people are more dependent than ever on the overpriced and insecure private rented sector. Conditions in rented properties are often poor, with consequences for tenants’ physical and mental health. Meanwhile, rates of homelessness and rough sleeping continue to rise. It’s time to fight back!

The Harrow Healthy Homes Assembly is a chance for Harrow residents to share their experiences of housing and agree on a set of demands for Harrow Council. These demands will form the basis of a grassroots campaign to make rented housing in Harrow more decent, secure and affordable.

Harrow Healthy Homes is a tenants’ group facilitated by local charity Harrow Law Centre. It brings together private and social tenants, those in temporary accommodation and anyone who wants to fight for a fairer housing system to campaign for change. At our monthly meetings, tenants talk through their housing issues and develop collective solutions together.

Subscribe here to receive news from Harrow Healthy Homes.

Criminalising Distress report launch
2024-04-26 19:00 - 20:30
We’re excited to invite you to the launch of our latest report Criminalising Distress.

This is the culmination of an eighteen month primary research project conducted by Research Manager Hil Aked and the members of the Medact Research Network exploring the Serenity Integrated Mentoring (SIM) model — and exposing ongoing SIM-like practices.

Speakers will include Dr Jay Watts, former members of the Stop SIM coalition, Medact Research Network member Avani Ela and others to be confirmed. This event is taking place on Zoom, not hybrid as previously advertised.

Read and download the report

What was SIM? Has the criminalisation of distress ended?

SIM was a model which embedded police officers into community mental health teams, purportedly to “mentor” so-called “high intensity users” — often women who had experienced trauma, were at high risk of self harm or suicide, and had been diagnosed with BPD.

Following a campaign by lived experienced-led group StopSIM in 2021, NHS England told trusts to review the model. In March 2023, it said the model should end, but did not publish a policy it co-produced with StopSIM or apologise for its own role promoting SIM originally.

Our report amplifies the voices of those most impacted by SIM and SIM-like practices. Former members of the StopSIM coalition acted as a steering committee for the project, which sheds new light on the origins and impacts of SIM, highlights the dire lack of institutional accountability and examines a range of possible alternatives.

Critically, we also expose ongoing practices which continue to criminalise distress in similar ways, albeit under different names. Come and learn about our findings, and what panellists believe needs to happen to challenge the criminalisation of distress and the securitisation of mental health.

The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust has supported this work in recognition of the importance of the issue. The facts presented and the views expressed in this report are, however, those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Trust. www.jrrt.org.uk

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

London Housing & Health New Joiners meeting
2024-05-02 18:45 - 20:30 | Pelican House, 144 Cambridge Heath Road, London, London, E1 5QJ, United Kingdom
Medact’s London Housing & Health Group is organising to improve policies for better access to secure and sustainable housing.

This includes working alongside local groups to support local campaigns, as well as demanding policy change on a national level for better support for social housing, community-owned housing stock and protections for renters.

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

What Medact is

History and function of the London Housing and Health Group

Our housing and health justice analysis

Current campaign and organising work

How to get involved.

If you’re looking for ways to contribute to affect meaningful change to the UK’s housing system to win equal access to good quality housing that doesn’t compromise on people’s health, this is a great way to do it. You don’t have to be a regular member of the EJ&H group or a health worker to get involved—everyone is welcome!

Background

The housing system in the UK is broken. Currently, 1.6 million households are on social housing waiting lists and millions more are struggling to meet unaffordable rents in the private sector. One in five dwellings in England fail to meet decent standards for living, with disregard for basic health and safety measures all too common. Housing is not equitably distributed in the UK: poorer households, ethnic minority groups, the elderly and adults with disabilities are all more likely to live in low-quality, unsafe, insecure housing. Despite all of this, social and private rents are growing faster than the cost of living. Social housing stock is dwindling, yet there are around five times more empty homes in the country than households in need of housing.

As part of the health community, we see and care for the symptoms of an unjust economic system. We are united in struggle with friends and colleagues within and beyond the NHS in organising to end housing-related health inequalities. You can read more in our booklet The Public Health Case for Secure Housing

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.

Medact Leeds group meeting: May
2024-05-06 20:00 - 21:00
The Leeds group come together monthly for meetings on the 6th of the month. Meetings are online mostly and sometimes in person! Medact Leeds are organising locally for climate and health justice as part of the Health for a Green New Deal network, and also taking action to end the hostile environment, campaigning for Patients Not Passports. All are welcome. Please sign up to the mailing list to join the group.

Medact Sheffield group meeting: May
2024-05-07 19:00 - 20:30
The Sheffield group come together monthly, alternating between the first Tuesday or Thursday of the month. Meetings are hybrid. Medact Sheffield are organising locally on the Patients Not Passports campaign, seeking to end the Hostile Environment in the NHS. The group are also organising for climate and health justice as part of the Health for a Green New Deal network. All are welcome. Please sign up to the mailing list to join the group and get the details for the next meeting.

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

Concert for Peace: Music by Les Six
2024-05-09 19:30 - 21:00
Eminent pianist Julian Jacobson is joined by some of the country’s finest wind players at Lauderdale House, in a concert of French music by the group of composers known as ‘Les Six’.

This title was coined in 1920 by the critic Henri Collet, in recognition of their shared aim of writing music that showed no influence of earlier musical giants like Wagner or Debussy. Even so, each of the six possessed strong individuality, and they often pursued very different paths.

Since 1983, Musicians for Peace (formerly named Musicians Against Nuclear Arms) have been organising events which raise funds for the peace movement. The famous guitarist John Williams OBE is MPD’s President, and many leading figures from different areas of music make up the list of Patrons.

The programme encompasses a huge range of styles, and includes works for different combinations of instruments, ending with Poulenc’s ebullient Sextet. Along the way, we will hear solos for several instruments; duos including Poulenc’s Élégie for horn and piano, written in memory of Denis Brain, and providing a darker, more serious foil to the generally lighter style of the other works; a trio by Louis Durey – one of the lesser known names – and Milhaud’s popular wind quintet La cheminée du roi René, which evokes the atmosphere of the court of René 1 in the 15th century.

Buy tickets

Medact North East group meeting: May
2024-05-15 20:00 - 21:00

Nuclear Weapons Group May meeting
2024-05-20 18:00 - 19:30

London Housing & Health meeting
2024-05-30 18:45 - 20:30, 2024-06-27 18:45 - 20:30 | Medact, Pelican House, 144 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E1 5QJ
Medact’s Housing & Health Group is organising to improve policies for better access to secure and sustainable housing.

This includes working alongside local groups to support local campaigns, as well as demanding policy change on a national level for better support for social housing, community-owned housing stock and protections for renters.

In this meeting, you will be hearing from the members involved in our work, get updates on our local organising, and help us develop the next steps and identify potential campaigns in other boroughs.

You don’t have to be a regular member of the Economic Justice &Health group or a health worker to get involved – everyone is welcome.

Sign up to the Medact London email list to hear about all Housing & Health London Meetings! If you’re unable to attend meetings but keen to get involved or develop a local campaign, you can contact Jordi: jordilopezbotey@medact.org.

Register to attend!

Background

The housing system in the UK is broken. Currently, 1.6 million households are on social housing waiting lists and millions more are struggling to meet unaffordable rents in the private sector. One in five dwellings in England fail to meet decent standards for living, with disregard for basic health and safety measures all too common. Housing is not equitably distributed in the UK: poorer households, ethnic minority groups, the elderly and adults with disabilities are all more likely to live in low-quality, unsafe, insecure housing. Despite all of this, social and private rents are growing faster than the cost of living. Social housing stock is dwindling, yet there are around five times more empty homes in the country than households in need of housing.

As part of the health community, we see and care for the symptoms of an unjust economic system. We are united in struggle with friends and colleagues within and beyond the NHS in organising to end housing-related health inequalities.

You can read more in our booklet, The Public Health Case for Secure Housing.

Medact Bristol June group meeting
2024-06-03 18:00 - 19:00

Securitisation of Health group meeting: June
2024-06-05 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.

Medact Sheffield group meeting: June
2024-06-06 19:00 - 20:30

Medact Leeds group meeting: June
2024-06-06 19:30 - 20:30

Securitisation of Health group: strategy day & social
2024-06-01 10:30 - 16:00 | Pelican House, 144 Cambridge Heath Road, London, London, E1 5QJ, United Kingdom
The Securitisation of Health group is meeting to prepare campaign strategy and actions for the next twelve months of continued resistance to the Prevent Duty in the NHS. We’ll be building a clear strategy for the coming year, and explore actions and events that will form milestones for this work. We’ll also have a social afterwards! This is an in-person event, so for those of you who are unable to join in-person, please indicate in this form your interest in joining online sessions at a later date.

Register your interest

About the group:

Through research and campaigns, the Securitisation of Health Group 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.

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

Medact Glasgow group meeting: June
2024-06-11 18:30 - 19:30
Medact Glasgow is a collective of healthcare workers, students and people from other related social disciplines. We organise around, learn about and share information on campaigns related to health justice.

Our current focus is on fighting fuel poverty. We are working alongside Fuel Poverty Action, who organise for affordable and sustainable energy and against the inadequate living conditions which are making people sick.

Our main meeting is in person (or you can join on Zoom) on the second Tuesday of each month – all are welcome! Please get in touch with us on glasgow@medact.org if you want to join our meetings or find out more, or subscribe to the mailing list:

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

Medact Bristol group meeting: July
2024-07-01 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.

From Fuel Poverty to the Just Transition: How Health Workers Can Join the Fight to Win
2024-07-03 18:30 - 19:45
Our homes are making us sick, shortening lives and stealing children’s futures. Join us this July for two online gatherings, where we will learn about how and why our homes have become sites of illness, and the political solutions towards reclaiming the relationship between homes and health.

Millions of people in the UK live in homes that are cold, damp, and mouldy. We can’t afford our energy bills, our houses are poorly insulated, and our government continues to rely on dirty, expensive fossil fuels. While people get sick, energy and fossil fuel companies are raking in record profits.

Cold and damp homes cost thousands of lives every year. This is the direct result of political choices—putting profit for shareholders and landlords above everyone’s right to live in a safe, warm home.

We know the solutions. As our Public Health Case for a Green New Deal stated loud and clear: we need quality homes for all, fair access to energy, and a rapid just transition to cheap, renewable energy.

At this online gathering, we’ll hear from speakers on how fossil fuels are powering the crisis of cold and damp homes, how mass insulation of homes and reform of our energy system is central to a just transition, and how organising in solidarity with tenants and communities builds power to force change.

We’ll share the tools that you need to learn, pressure decision makers, and build the health voice alongside communities—fighting to win healthy homes for all.

Speakers at the event will include:

Simon from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition & Warm This Winter campaign—EFPC is a broad group of anti-poverty, environmental, health and housing charities, trade unions and campaigners

Stuart Bretherton from Fuel Poverty Action—which campaigns to protect people from fuel poverty. We challenge rip-off energy companies and unfair policies that leave people to endure cold homes. We take action for warm, well-insulated homes and clean and affordable energy, under the control of people and communities, not private companies

Representative from Living Rent—based in Scotland, Living Rent is a mass-membership organisation of low-middle income renters, working and fighting together to win concrete improvements to our daily lives and put political and economic power back where it belongs

Scott McAulay from Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) and Anthropocene Architecture School

Dr Isobel Braithwaite, Medact member Public Health Doctor—currently doing research on Housing and Health, Isobel has worked as a medical doctor and on public health issues including climate change and extreme weather, air pollution and mental health

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.

Cold, unaffordable and insecure homes are no accident. They are the symptoms of a political system that produces mass illness and deepens inequalities in both health and wealth. The root causes are political—and this means the solutions are too.

At these online gatherings, together we will gain the tools we need to take action as health workers. Join the fight to win healthy homes for all, as part of the wider struggles for climate, housing and economic justice.

In the run up to the general election & beyond we intend to get organised, fight for healthy homes, and win.

Medact Leeds group meeting: July
2024-07-04 19:30 - 20:30

Securitisation of Health group meeting: July
2024-07-08 18:00 - 19:30
