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PHA to investigate the case of crime and public health

Crime and primary care form the focus of two new projects which have recently got under way at the Public Health Alliance.

Most victims of crime know all too well the impact that crime has had upon their health. From their experience, general practitioners and other neighbourhood-based professionals probably also have a strong sense of how crime and fear of it affect the public health of the communities which they serve. Yet surprisingly little has been written about the relationship between crime and health and the subject has certainly received little media attention.

The Crime and Public Health project focuses on this relationship with a literature review, and a mapping exercise to identify what activity is happening where and by whom. This will be followed by field work and case studies which will try to establish how health is affected by crime in two or three contrasting communities. John Raine of Birmingham University and Andrew McCabe of Birmingham Settlement form the project team.

The assumption underlying the second PHA project - Developing a Public Health Model of Primary Care - is that a new interpretation of primary care is required if modern challenges to health are to be met. A recent PHA conference showed that a new model is needed that takes account of those factors which are beyond the scope of health professionals alone to tackle. The new model, to be developed through a series of multi-agency focus groups, will encompass the impact of the physical, social and economic environment on health, and the inequalities in health which result. It will take the concept of primary care beyond the individual patient or family to the community in which they live. The project team consists of Stephen Peckham of Southampton University, with Pat Taylor and John Macdonald from Bristol University.

PHA projects manager Maggie Winters said: ‘These projects have the potential to affect the practice of thousands of health and welfare workers, within and outside the NHS and through them to benefit users of their services throughout the UK. We will be disseminating the results of both the projects through a series of workshops in 1997.’

Further details from Maggie Winters, PHA 138 Digbeth, Birmingham BS 6DR 0121 643 7628.