This event is being run by the People’s Health Movement. For more information about PHM, please visit www.phm-uk.org.uk. The People´s Health Movement (PHM) has its roots deep in the grassroots people’s movement and owes its genesis to many health networks and activists who have been concerned by the growing inequities in health over the last 25 years.
Background and Context
The word ‘austerity’ has recently gained prominence. It is used to describe a wide range of cuts to public spending across services including welfare support, education, health and social care. What is often overlooked is how ‘austerity’ is a deliberate policy by the government to redistribute resources from the poor to the rich through bailout of banks, corporate tax evasion and private finance initiatives. Austerity and its’ effects are being imposed selectively, unevenly and unfairly across society with devastating impacts on disadvantaged groups pushing them further into poverty, deprivation and poor health. It is also being used to justify a further expansion of privatisation, corporate welfare and excessive profiteering – not least of all in the NHS. Whilst this is happening in various ways and at different speeds in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, it is a crisis affecting the whole of the UK. Therefore, the political, economic and ideological underpinnings of austerity need to be questioned and challenged. This is a priority for those working in the health sector, and for those seeking to reverse the trend of widening health inequalities.
Why attend?
– Learn more about the background to austerity measures and their impact on local and global determinants of health, on health and related services and on health inequity in different parts of the UK. – Learn skills for movement building and activism with community and campaign groups; and strategies for challenging austerity – Dialogue and Network with organisations and individuals involved in health and social activism. – Take part in developing a People’s Health Manifesto and help build a progressive health movement to challenge austerity and exclusion throughout the UK