Ejh stress summit

1. North East England Health Summit:
Inequalities-related stress
Tuesday 28 June 2016

2. Welcome to the Stress Summit
and aim of the event
Dr Emily Henderson
Fuse Lecturer in Knowledge Exchange in Public Health
Research Fellow in Complex Health Systems
Centre for Public Policy and Health
WHO Collaborating Centre Complex Health Systems
Research, Knowledge and Action
School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health
e.j.henderson@durham.ac.uk
2
Fuse
Complex Systems
Research Programme

3. ∂
Wolfson Special Interest Group
Stress, Health and Wellbeing
3
Themes
1) Experiences of stress and inequalities;
2) Biopsychosocial understandings of stress
(including health behaviours);
3) Mental health, public mental health and
wellbeing;
4) Precarious employment, neoliberal
labour market and welfare ‘reforms’ and
stress;
5) Socio-ecological effects on stress, health
and wellbeing.
https://www.dur.ac.uk/wolfson.institute/sig/stres
s

4. ∂
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To gather those in academia, policy, and
practice either working on or concerned
about inequalities-related life stress, in order
to collaborate on putting knowledge into
action.
Purpose of today’s health summit

5. ∂
• Nearly half of UK adults report feeling stressed every
day or every few days (Mental Health Foundation)
Why study stress and health?
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6. ∂
Acute stress: short-term, common, recover quickly
• muscle tensions, digestive problems, emotional
upset
Post-traumatic stress: anxiety disorder from traumatic
event/s, e.g. sexual assault, war, abuse
• Nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety
Chronic stress: long-term, detrimental to health, adjust
• Mental illnesses, suicide, violence, heart attack,
stroke, maybe cancer
Types of stress
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American Psychological Association

7. ∂
Demands and coping
7

8. ∂
• A biological reality, stress can be
studied as a mechanism of social
suffering
• Experience of illness varies
across culture
• Emotions are expressed through
cultural contexts
• Strong role here for
interdisciplinary, participatory
research
Stress as a universal experience

9. ∂
• Different experiences of stress by gender, ethnicity, socio-economic
status lead to inequalities in physical and mental health, including
discrimination stress.
• Stressors occur over the lifecourse and across generations, widening
health inequalities
• Policy and practice recommendations:
• Structural conditions that put people at risk of stressors at macro and
meso levels of intervention
• Focus on children who are at lifetime risk of ill health and distress due
to exposure to poverty and stressful family circumstances
• Coping and support interventions (micro levels)
• In the UK and north east: austerity, continued austerity, and
certainly uncertainty
Stress and health inequalities

10. ∂
Structure of the day
9.00 REGISTRATION, REFRESHMENTS AND NETWORKING
9.30 Welcome from Fuse
9.35 Welcome from Event Chair and Aim of the Event
9.45 Opening address
10.00-
10.40
Update on evidence
11.00 REFRESHMENTS AND NETWORKING
11.20-
12.00
Hearing from local practice
12.20 LUNCH AND NETWORKING
13.15 Stress-relieving activity
13.25 Keynote: Obesity, inequality and insecurity
14.05 Panel discussion: potential for collaborative work
14.50 Next Steps
15.00 CLOSE, REFRESHMENTS AND NETWORKING

11. Welcome
Fuse Knowledge Exchange Seminar
North East England Health Summit:
Inequalities-related Stress
Tweet during the event using the hashtags
#FuseKES and #inequalities
www.fuse.ac.uk