This afternoon's Third Reading debate marks the end of the Tobacco & Vapes Bill's journey through the Lords. We're so close to creating a smokefree generation and a future free from the harms of tobacco. 🎉

OMG, it's never 40! Was just listening to it on Saturday... Still absolutely first class.

Children to be better protected from second-hand smoking & vaping The government is launching a consultation on extending smoke-free places and introducing vape-free and heated tobacco-free spaces

Today, the government has launched a 12-week public consultation, proposing smoke‑free playgrounds, school grounds & hospital areas, plus new vape‑free/heated‑tobacco‑free spaces.

This is a key step toward the Tobacco & Vapes Bill and a smoke‑free generation.

www.gov.uk/government/c...

‘What I see in clinic is never a set of labels’: are we in danger of overdiagnosing mental illness? Our current approach to mental health labelling and diagnosis has brought benefits. But as a practising doctor, I am concerned that it may be doing more harm than good

Excellent article on our current approach to medicalising mental distress - we have to think differently about this. www.theguardian.com/news/2026/fe...

What fresh hell is this?! 6 Nations ITV coverage showing adverts DURING THE MATCH PLAY???!!! Enough already!

Interestingly not that far from Hebden Bridge, which by one theory is actually England's second city (it's got a green heart and the well-known suburbs of Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield...)

Public Health Consultants x 2 posts
Cumberland Council
Carlisle
£81,049 - £83,932
Closes 24/11

recruitment.cumbria.gov.uk/trentl_webre...

I bet @jburnmurdoch.ft.com wouldn't have drawn that regression line...

I know Slaithwaite! However this is Cumbria's speciality. Brougham. Mirehouse. Even the"obvious" names are cunningly designed. P*en*rith or Penr*ith*? Careful now...

Fantastic to be at the launch of the Pears Cumbria Medical School this evening, welcoming the first cohort of students this week. An evening of celebration and optimism and a really good bunch of students. Really positive stuff!

It's worse than that...check the image on page 52: not sure how that got past editorial review...

That looks like a very fair and balanced assessment.

Do it... Not sure even you'll be heard though!

@felly500.bsky.social - time to update your graphic perhaps - make it fit for the future?

Er...really? I thought we were making a shift to prevention... How did that get through the editorial design process?!

Zoom in a bit...

So... this is a screen grab from page 52 of the new NHS 10 year plan.

Director of Public Health Annual Report YouTube video by Cumberland Council

youtube.com/watch?v=t_BX...

This week I presented the latest Public Health Annual Report, "Stronger With Age", to Cumberland Council. Watch here and follow the link to the full report.

How do we talk about overdiagnosis of mental health conditions without dismissing people’s suffering? On 16 March the health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, made headlines by declaring in an interview that there was an “overdiagnosis” of mental health conditions. The comment was made in the ...

The medicalisation of distress, and possible overdiagnosis of MH conditions needs discussion focused on how best to help people, rather than as route to cut the benefits bill.
Elspeth Davies and me in @bmj.com
www.bmj.com/content/389/...

Health and Wellbeing Officer
Cumberland Council
Carlisle or Workington
£31,067 to £31,586
Closes 28/04

recruitment.cumbria.gov.uk/trentl_webre...

Exciting opportunities to join the Public Heath team in Cumberland! Now recruiting to two Public Health Consultant roles ⬇️

recruitment.cumbria.gov.uk/trentl_webre...

Cumbria started local contact tracing before the national system was set up... We used EHOs and sexual health staff in the first instance and scaled up really quickly when resources started to flow.

Are mental health conditions overdiagnosed in the UK? Two experts go head to head Experts challenge Streeting’s claim about ‘over-diagnosis’, and bring some nuance to the debate.

Mental health conditions are over diagnosed theconversation.com/are-mental-h...

⬇️ Yes to every word of this. Sounds like a must-read book and very much along the theme of my last annual report www.cumberland.gov.uk/publications...

OMG, 99 rules, I am *so* going down that rabbit hole... Just had to check that "never use 3D graphs" was in there, it is, we're all good 👍

From Symptoms to Stories: Reframing Mental Health Treatment A new approach that reframes mental health struggles not as defects but as understandable responses to stress and trauma shows promise for patient outcomes, new research finds.

Article in Psychology Today about the successful project to introduce the Power Threat Meaning Framework approach into London AMH inpatient wards, and the encouraging results. #PTFramework #PTMF

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-...

How to halve obesity And why we shouldn't fear the politics

For anyone wondering what public health actually *is* - it's this: ravigurumurthy.substack.com/p/how-to-hal... Great article that really shows how focusing on social and commercial change makes more difference than obsessing about individual choices.

It's never been *more* important!

Tobacco and Vapes Bill (First sitting) - Hansard - UK Parliament Hansard record of the item : 'Tobacco and Vapes Bill (First sitting)' on Tuesday 7 January 2025.

Chris Whitty: "Historically, the cigarette industry, despite what it claims, has always targeted children. It always deplores it in public, but if you look at its internal documents you discover that that is what it has been aiming to do"
hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2025...
@ashorguk.bsky.social