Community & Health
A newsletter on the realities of bridging the health sector and communities, usually based on my current projects. The newsletter is not regular; it comes out when projects and consulting allow.
My projects are based on three observations: health care in high-income countries is increasingly unsustainable; none of the ‘big ideas’ that I was seeing when working with TEDMED were likely to remedy this; and the burden of ill-health falls disproportionately on those lower down the socioeconomic ladder but they tend to have bigger priorities than health. I blog about my projects (when time allows) and email the posts as newsletters.
Newsletters
- All
- Increasing the Uptake of Power Building for Health
- Agency, Belonging & Health
- A Practice-Based Framework for Working with Communities
- Beyond Systems
- National Symposium 2017: Community Agency & Health
- Creating Health Collaborative
- Communities Creating Health
- Bridging Health & Community, Inc.
- Being Well by Believing We Can
- Wellthcare
The Evidence Linking Community Power to Health
By Pritpal S Tamber |
The research I’ve been doing since February 2020 and how Popay’s 2006 model on community engagement helped
The Evidence Linking Community Agency & Health
By Pritpal S Tamber |
It's messy, some of it is good, and there is an encouraging uniformity to the findings
What I’m Doing in 2020
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Looking at the medical literature to see whether having agency (A) and a sense of belonging (B) can change (C) the odds on health
Pay Attention to the Surprises
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How unearthing and unleashing the surprises in ‘community health’ work is crucial to the field – but rarely done well or systematically (and goodbye for now)
Solving Through Relationships, Not Transaction
By Chris Dabbs and Pritpal S Tamber |
A conversation with Chris Dabbs on how Unlimited Potential has walked the line between serving community residents and serving commissioners
Not Sentimentalizing Community
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How understanding the flow of care made possible by social cohesion is fundamental – and may need more ruthless employers
Exploring the Nuance Under the Buzz
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How looking underneath buzz terms like ‘deaths of despair’ and ‘asset-based community development’ is key to finding solutions
When Trust Is Not Enough
By Graham Duncan and Pritpal S Tamber |
A conversation with Graham Duncan about building confidence and hope amongst marginalised populations – and the psychological processes underpinning it
On Power, Co-Production and Feeling Overwhelmed
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How co-production, self-management and health promotion all have the potential to increase social inequity, and what you can do about it
The New Version of Our Application Tool
By Pritpal S Tamber |
To help you understand, embrace and apply the lessons from over 100 community-oriented practitioners
Why Provision is not Enough
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How atomising problems and providing programmes ignores what really matters in enabling people to turn their lives around
Halfway Between a Stranger and a Friend
By Maff Potts and Pritpal S Tamber |
A conversation with Maff Potts on how 20 years working at the sharp end of society has taught it him that only two things matter, and what he’s doing about it
Sectors, Partnering and Place
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How cross-sector partnering demands thinking about place, and why thinking about place means thinking about people’s choices and freedom
Lessons from the Frontline of Cross-Sector Partnering
By David Relph and Pritpal S Tamber |
A conversation with David Relph, formerly of Bristol Health Partners, on why collaboration has to be the core purpose of institutions concerned with health
On Absurdity, Collusion and Silence
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How our failure to effectively respond to non-communicable diseases may be because our science needs updating – if only our politics would get out of the way
The Need for Human Learning Systems
By Toby Lowe and Pritpal S Tamber |
A conversation with Toby Lowe on his journey from baffled Chief Executive to a key figure in the movement to find more effective ways to work in complex social environments
The Politics of Measurement
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How eliciting social definitions of value may make emerging partnerships between health care and CBOs more effective
The Challenge of Going Beyond the Usual Metrics
By Andrew Harrison and Pritpal S Tamber |
A conversation with Andrew Harrison of Revaluation and The Learning Studio on the promise and complexity of surfacing new types of value
The Social Determinants of Relationships
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How other sectors are learning that the key to responding to social circumstances is deeper relationships with the citizens they serve
Effective Housing Goes Beyond a Home
By Paul Taylor and Pritpal S Tamber |
Paul Taylor, Innovation Coach at Bromford, a housing association in the UK, describes why building homes is not enough
Seeing the Challenges as They Are
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Three articles have reminded me that the core challenge to bridging health and community is healthcare-centricity
Community Power & Public Health
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, we share the findings of our research into what it will take for public health to embrace community power building as a strategy
Why This Work Is On Ice
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In this ‘final’ post, I share some of the reasons why we failed to get funders to support us; some are about how we worked, some are about funders, and some are about the wider culture in the UK
Do Funders Silence New Voices?
By Pritpal S Tamber |
A little update on where we’ve got to in trying to get our work off the ground and what it’s teaching us about funders
Community Power & Public Health: A Webinar
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Announcing our December 4th webinar at which we’ll share our findings into what it’ll take for public health to adopt strategies that strengthen a community’s collective ability to improve population health
Space For Lived Realities
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How the leader of Glasgow Council seems to have failed to understand the lived realities of thousands of council workers
What BH&C Will Do Next (Part 5 of 5)
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In part five of this five-part series, I share how we intend to keep learning from courageous practitioners while building a learning environment for those that want to follow
What Next: Getting Beyond A List (Part 4 of 5)
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In part four of this five-part series, I share how we tried to make the Principles into a product and find a market, and what we learned through the process
The Risk of Sharing
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How writing about one’s work likely means criticising systems —a risky strategy given that they’re often the source of funding
What Next: Control and Health (Part 3 of 5)
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In part three of this five-part series, I share how I learned that the 12 Principles are about control – a way to foster it amongst communities and enable health care to share it
What Next: The Search for A New Dialog (Part 2 of 5)
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In part two of this five-part series, I share how my search for a new dialog led to ‘discovering’ social capital and made me want to ‘de-fluff’ community-building work
Monopolising What Is Valued
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How research and medical journals further the disconnect between health care systems and the people they purport to serve
What Next: Health Care’s Three Biases (Part 1 of 5)
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In part one of this five-part series, I share the three biases that I think health care has and how they prevent us from having a proper conversation about the future of health
HBR, Q Health & The Tensions of Change
By Pritpal S Tamber |
The need to share experiential knowledge and applaud one former CEO for doing that through 'six tensions'
A Webinar and an eBook
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Announcing our webinar hosted by the Root Cause Coalition on how to truly engage your community and the re-issue of our eBook, 'Communities Creating Health'
We May Need More Zero’s
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How sharing knowledge from work based on parity between systems and people is likely more expensive than sharing knowledge from formal academia
Our New Implementation Tool
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Announcing the second version of our implementation tool, including some photographs of the previous version in use and how that informed the new version
Underwriting Collaborative Thinking
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How you keep the energy up in volunteer-reliant work
The Tyranny and Beauty of a Grant Application Form
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How completing grant application forms is an art all its own
Can Only The Privileged Play?
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How in 'social innovation', it seems that only the privileged can play
The Need for Editorial Strategy
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Whether foundations truly understand the importance of content and editorial strategy as a way to grow a field of practice
The Connectional and The Tedious
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Some words of support from Ewan Aitken of Cyrenians, an Edinburgh-based charity that for 50 years has served the homeless and vulnerable transform their lives by helping them believe that they can
We’re Taking A Break
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Because we’re not a proper company, never want to be, and think we need to separate the needs of the work from the needs of an organization
Is There An Enemy?
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Whether broadening the issues facing health care beyond the limitations of the bio-medical model has, in fact, taken the edge off our work
Concept Note Sent to Potential Funding Partners
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Announcing the developing of our concept note, which we intend to send to funders to gauge interest in our plans
Our New Report: Bringing Purpose to Community Engagement
By Pritpal S Tamber and Bridget B. Kelly |
Why we've positioned the 12 Principles as a framework for reconceiving health care's relationship with communities
The Inside Game
By Erin Hagan |
Erin Hagan offers some straight-talking feedback on how our May 2017 symposium did not quite hit the mark and how we need to shift our approach
The Website is Up!
By Pritpal S Tamber |
We promise our updates won’t always be obvious (!) but the main thing to tell you right now is that we’ve finally got the website up. We’ve had a single-page …
Fostering Agency to Improve Health and Social Participation in Mexico
By Catalina A. Denman, Elsa Cornejo and Rodrigo Cornejo |
Catalina A. Denman, Elsa Cornejo and Rodrigo Cornejo describe how fostering agency has improved social participation and health, specifically in diabetes and through Wikipolítica
A Webinar on the Bronx Healthy Buildings Program
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Announcing a free webinar featuring an in-depth conversation about how lessons from the Bronx Healthy Buildings Program can be applied in other contexts
Fostering Agency Through Local Public Health
By Chris Aldridge, Peter L. Holtgrave and Andrea Grenadier |
Chris Aldridge, Peter Holtgrave and Andrea Grenadier explore how local public health can encourage people in communities to determine their own futures
Community Health. Healthy Community. Semantics?
By Dina Newman |
Dina Newman reflects on how organizing communities around a culture of health is years old, and how it’s not the same as being a ‘community health worker’
Healing Through Research
By Shannon Simpson |
Shannon Simpson reflects on how the idea of healing needs to be deeply ingrained in the methods of participatory action research, if not all forms of research
We Are Losing, So What Are We Protecting?
By Rebecca Brothers |
Rebecca Brothers asks what is behind health care’s reluctance to bring community to the table. Uncertainty? The loss power?
Webinar: How One Health Care System Applied the Principles to Practice
By Bridget B. Kelly |
Announcing a free webinar in which Jefferson Healthcare, WA, share how they used our tool to take stock of how they're working with communities
Reflections on Othering, Oppression, and Why Inclusion Matters
By Katherine Mella and Lawrence Barriner II |
Katherine Mella and Lawrence Barriner II of MIT CoLab share three reflections on BH&C’s symposium, each with a proposal for how to make improvements
Connecting the Dots
By Diane Wellman |
Diane Wellman draws out the biggest themes from her 215 pages of notes on our symposium, Community Agency & Health
Listening As A Radically Obvious Act
By Elizabeth Slade |
Elizabeth Slade reflects on how health care often focuses on the latest, shiniest technology, and doesn’t leave much space for the basic human needs of our stories being acknowledged
The Healing of Exploitation
By Carl Baty |
Carl Baty, a presenter at our May 2017 symposium, shares why he got emotional during his talk and explores whether he was being exploited
Our ‘View’ To Grantmakers In Health
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In GIH’s monthly bulletin, we make the case that it’s time for its members to place an explicit focus on agency, including examining their own governance structures and accountability frameworks
Mastering the Distractions
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Why they’re essential for moving from the what to the how. But, seriously, they’re so distracting...
Doing Something Awesome Across the UK
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Our plans to help build a learning environment, followed by an enabling environment, for practitioners in the UK exploring why the health care system fails to reach those most in need
The Cost of Learning
By Leigh Carroll |
Board Member, Leigh Carroll, reflects on our May 2017 symposium and whether we understood who was doing the learning
Collaborative Consulting Announces Our Partnership
By Lori Peterson and Pritpal S Tamber |
First published on Collaborative Consulting, in this post Lori Peterson and Pritpal S Tamber discuss why - and how - health care can go further to better serve their communities
Recruiting Five Organizations to put the Principles into Practice
By Pritpal S Tamber |
We want to coach local entities and learn what it really takes to make the shift
Announcing our Partnership with Collaborative Consulting
By Lori Peterson and Pritpal S Tamber |
A strategic relationship to bring the importance of ‘community agency’ within reach of health systems embracing new approaches to health
Announcing our Chief Learning Officer, Maggie Hawthorne
By Maggie Hawthorne and Pritpal S Tamber |
We intend to grow the field of practice through learning, which is why we've recruited Maggie, the former Director of Strategy and Innovation of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers
Announcing Our Tool to Apply the 12 Principles
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, Pritpal S Tamber shares our new tool to apply the 12 principles for fostering community agency to your community health work
Looking for the Like-Minded in the UK
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, Pritpal S Tamber, describes BH&C’s work in the UK and shares the ‘invitation’ that’s being used to engage fellow practitioners and funders
Taking What We’ve Learned on the Road
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, Pritpal S Tamber, shares the gatherings to which Bridging Health & Community has been invited to share what it has learned
Reflecting on our Symposium, Community Agency & Health
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, our CEO & Co-Founder, Pritpal S Tamber, reflects on the recent symposium and shares some early thinking on what we’ll do next
The White Working Class
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Why I feel "emotionally responsible" to the white working class
Building Healthy Communities, South Kern
By Annalisa Robles and Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, Annalisa Robles illustrates how policies can bias against rural communities and how the people of South Kern, CA, are organizing – often to achieve the basics
Practicing Agency: The ‘Art’ of the How (Symposium 2017)
By Nicole Bennett |
In this post, Nicolle Bennett looks at the role of the arts in fostering individual and community agency, and explains her role as a documentarian at the 2017 symposium
Navigating Power in Health and Community Partnerships
By Jeanne Ayers and Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, Jeanne Ayers of the Minnesota Department of Health describes her journey from frustrated public health practitioner to establishing the Triple Aim of Health Equity
Symposium 2017: Announcing our 40 Presenters
By Bridget B. Kelly and Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, we announce the 40 people who’ll be sharing their experiences and perspectives through two case examples and six breakouts
Symposium 2017: Facilitating Connections
By Bridget B. Kelly |
In this post, Bridget B Kelly, Co-Founder of Bridging Health & Community, describes how we’ll be helping symposium participants connect with each other
Think, Link and Do – Building Just Communities through Collaboration
By Katherine Mella, Alyssa Bryson and Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, Alyssa Bryson and Katherine Mella of MIT CoLab describe how wellness-based development is a cornerstone of a just economy, and how it requires a ‘think, link and do’ approach
The Bronx Healthy Buildings Program
By Maggie Tishman and Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, Maggie Tishman of the Bronx Healthy Buildings Program shares the sheer complexity of going ‘upstream’ as a taste of what we’ll hear at the May symposium
How One Foundation Hopes to Help Local Leaders Listen
By Tiffany Donelson and Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, Tiffany Donelson of the Connecticut Health Foundation talks about state-level innovation, health equity and why they’re sending a delegation to our May symposium
New Report: Fostering Agency to Improve Health
By Pritpal S Tamber and Bridget B. Kelly |
Bringing together what we have learned over the last four years into 12 principles that describes an inclusive, participatory and responsive process key to the future of health
Symposium 2017: The ‘Setting the Stage’ Session
By Bridget B. Kelly |
In this post, Bridget Kelly, Co-Founder of Bridging Health & Community, describes the ‘setting the stage’ session at the forthcoming symposium, and how its themes will resonate through the two days
Symposium 2017: Who Are You, Really?
By Leigh Carroll |
In this post, Leigh Carroll, a member of the Planning Committee of the forthcoming symposium, describes some of the relationship-building activities that we’ll be weaving into the agenda, and why
How UnitedHealthcare is Connecting Federal to Local
By Michael B Roaldi and Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, we hear from Michael B Roaldi of UnitedHealthcare Community and State on how they’re using Federal money for innovation to create new community collaborations
The California Endowment, Kaiser Permanente & RWJF: Announcing our Symposium Sponsors
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post we hear from Tony Iton of The California Endowment, Bechara N Choucair of Kaiser Permanente, and Alonzo Plough of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Symposium 2017: New Pricing Reflecting What We’ve Learned
By Pritpal S Tamber and Bridget B. Kelly |
Announcing a US$300 ticket for community-based organizations, community residents & students, a US$500 ticket for government, nonprofit & universities, and options for supporters
Symposium 2017: A Candid Conversation About Failure: Part II
By Carl Baty |
Carl Baty, Executive Director of Rounding The Bases, describes how healing is about being able to express yourself, about people listening, and about acknowledging that what happened to you was not right
Symposium 2017: A Candid Conversation About Failure: Part I
By S. Leonard Syme |
S Leonard Syme, Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology and Community Health at the Berkeley School of Public Health, describes how his profession has failed to apply what it has learned about social risk factors
Using Participatory Research & Evaluation
By Mark L. Wieland and Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post we hear from Mark L Wieland of Mayo Clinic and Rochester Healthy Community Partnership about how they use community-based participatory research to inform interventions, build community capacity, and create authentic relationships with community residents
Creating Leadership Capacity for Long Term Change
By Risa Wilkerson and Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post we interview Risa Wilkerson of Active Living By Design about how they inspire community-led change, the link to health equity, and what they’ll present at our May symposium
Introducing Bridget B Kelly, our Co-Founder
By Bridget B. Kelly and Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, our CEO, Pritpal S Tamber, introduces our Chief Delivery Officer (and Co-Founder), Bridget B Kelly. The process was not without pain
Introducing Bridging Health & Community, Inc.
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Our new organization dedicated to strengthening the field of practice that connects the health sector to local communities (and how it relates to the Creating Health Collaborative)
Symposium Speakers, Case Studies and Breakouts
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Registration for the symposium is now open so it’s time to announce the speakers, case studies and breakouts
How We’ve Designed the Symposium’s Agenda
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Penciled for May 15-16 in Oakland, CA, in this post I describe how the symposium’s Planning Committee has fashioned an agenda designed to create the conditions required for genuine collaboration
Our Inaugural Symposium: Bridging Health and Community
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In spring 2017 we’ll be holding our first symposium. Through this post we’re reaching out to place-based funders to help local ‘delegations’ to participate
Wrapping Up the Commentaries on ‘Eleven Principles for Creating Health’
By Pritpal S Tamber |
In this post, Pritpal S Tamber wraps up the twelve commentaries that were commissioned to comment on the Collaborative’s last report, 'Eleven Principles for Creating Health' (and apologises in advance for its length)
Look Back When Reaching Forward
By Geoffrey W. Wilkinson |
Geoffrey W. Wilkinson reminds us that much of it has been said – and done – before; just because the goals are yet to be won does not mean we can ignore the lessons of the past or get away with being less brave and less inclusive than others have been
A Brief Recap of CHC 2016
By Pritpal S Tamber |
An overview of the 18 presentations from the 24 participants of 'CHC 2016', this year's meeting of the Creating Health Collaborative, a growing community of innovators trying to understand – and create – health from the perspective of people and communities. The meeting was held July 28-29 in New York
Be Plain, Inspire and Include
By John Craig |
John Craig describes how the Collaborative’s principles for creating health provoke him to demand a clearer critique of health care today, as well as an inclusive and inspiring vision of tomorrow
Why Can It Be So Hard to Make Stuff Happen?
By Ian Burbidge |
In this invited commentary Ian Burbidge argues that putting people at the heart of their health requires existing systems to change in ways they seem unprepared to do, despite their rhetoric
An Update on the Creating Health Collaborative
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Announcing the participants of CHC 2016, the annual meeting of the Creating Health Collaborative, a larger gathering pencilled for October, and the desire to find like-minded funders
Making What Matters, Matter
By Nancy Adler and Erin Hagan |
Nancy Adler and Erin Hagan share how their work with Evidence for Action is aligned with two of the Collaborative’s principles for creating health, measuring what matters and sharing power
Listen To Your Patient
By Megan Sandel |
Megan Sandel, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine, argues that it’s only through listening to community members can we begin to achieve health equity
[Co]-Creating Health
By Pritpal S Tamber and David Derauf |
David D Derauf argues that it is not the role of health professionals to reconceive health but to ask people and communities how we can rightfully participate in a process of resurfacing and clarifying what health is
When Problems Become Assets
By Julian Corner |
Julian Corner reflects on how the Collaborative’s eleven principles for creating health suggest new ‘terms of exchange’ between service providers and service users that is at the heart of true co-production
Achieving Health – How We Can “Just Start”
By Brian Castrucci and Lloyd Michener |
Brian Castrucci and Lloyd Michener map the Collaborative’s eleven principles for creating health with a suite of free online resources to help you “just start”
The Artist, The Cook and The Pang of Work Incomplete
By Peter R. Doliber, MPH, MHSA |
Peter R. Doliber describes the Collaborative’s recent report as an important and vital platform for changing the delivery of healthcare but encourages it to seek the perspective of the individuals it purports to serve
Returning Health To The People
By Richard Smith |
Richard Smith reflects on the difficulty of defining ‘health’ and ’community’, two parts of the complex task of ‘returning health to the people’, while supporting the Collaborative’s efforts to learn by experimenting and reporting back
A List Is Precisely How We Climb This Mountain
By Alex Twigg |
Alex Twigg of Ko Awatea, New Zealand, reflects on how, from a systems perspective, having a list of principles is key to change, and how that change might be expedited by a 'missing' twelfth principle, that of sense-making
It’ll Take More Than A List To Climb This Mountain
By Ollie Smith |
Ollie Smith reflects on how just refining principles, as was done at the 2015 meeting of the Creating Health Collaborative, is not enough to catalyze practice
Announcing Our New Report
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Based on the experiences of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs trying to approach health ‘beyond the lens of health care’, we present our new report with eleven principles for creating health and five key questions that need to be answered next
Cement and Citizenship: Critical Pathways to Health
By Vera Cordeiro and Pritpal S Tamber |
How a project in Brazil focusses on promoting self-sufficiency as a pathway to enable people to change their lives
Sharing The ‘Burden’ Of Creating Health
By Pritpal S Tamber |
The Creating Health Collaborative now has an Executive, a subgroup of its members who have agreed to help me think through what we need to do, and to help me do it
Walking, Real Estate And Truly Valuing Health
By Maggie Super Church and Pritpal S Tamber |
An interview of Maggie Super Church about the Healthy Neighborhood Equity Fund
Knocking on the Door to the Future of Health
By Ollie Smith |
A reflection on the first UK-based meeting inspired by the Creating Health Collaborative
Discovering Health Care, Not Sick Care
By Chantal Walg and Pritpal S Tamber |
An interview of Chantal Walg about how they're trying to operationalise the idea of 'positive health' across the Nijmegen Area of the Netherlands
‘Agency’: Exploring The Evidence
By Ollie Smith and Pritpal S Tamber |
An interview of Ollie Smith, Director of Strategy and Innovation at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity in London, about their hypothesis to improve health through increasing individual agency
A Book And A Webinar
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Announcing the first edition of our book, Communities Creating Health, and a webinar with Stanford Social Innovation Review called Organizing Communities to Create Health
The Time And Money To Find Health
By Amy Heydlauff and Pritpal S Tamber |
An interview of Amy Heydlauff of the Chelsea-Area Wellness Foundation on how they've devised and are implementing their strategy
Finding Family Well-Being In Texas
By Leigh Anne Cappello and Pritpal S Tamber |
An interview of Leigh Anne Cappello on how the Business Innovation Factory is trying to understand the social issues that affect child health and what can be done about them
As the SSIR Series Ends, New Work Begins
By Pritpal S Tamber |
We'll turn the series into an eBook while beginning work on the next meeting of the Creating Health Collaborative
Creating Health in the 21st Century
By Leigh Carroll and Bridget B. Kelly |
Five principles to guide how communities can develop new pathways to health, plus concrete steps toward contributing to a culture that values connections and relationships as much as treatments and health campaigns
Time to Return to the Whole
By Jamie Harvie |
Only by finding a new narrative that embraces the whole, rather than the parts, can we build the health-creating systems we need
Tomorrow’s Health Relies on New Relationships
By Prabhjot Singh |
Imagining a healthier future doesn’t start with how to pay for it. Communities must first develop a shared view of what a healthier life could be
Investing in Community-led Health
By Ollie Smith |
The case for investing in the long-term health and well-being of communities, based on what those communities value
An Evening With The Future of Health In Holland
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Some thoughts from an evening's discussion amongst a small group in the Netherlands trying to rethink health
How Evaluation Can Strengthen Communities
By Kien Lee and David M. Chavis |
Including community members in decisions about evaluation can improve the community’s capacity to effectively manage and control change
The Promise and Peril of Community Evaluation
By Kimberley Sims |
Four ways to improve community evaluation so that it helps build, rather than erode, social progress
Operating When You Can’t See the Full Picture
By Jeff Cohen |
Three principles for solving complex, systemic problems like improving community health
Undercover Solutions
By Meghan Williamson |
Solutions to social problems are often hidden in the most obvious places, masquerading as problems
Cultivating and Sustaining Generative Teams
By Margaret A. Hawthorne |
Four practices that can help people establish common intent; sense emerging needs and solutions; and collectively prototype, create, and evolve innovative health models and relationships
Health Services and Designing for Uncertainty
By Onil Bhattacharyya, Leigh Hayden and Jennifer Hensel |
How a “lean startup” approach can help create an effective community-based program
Emerging Tools for Community-Driven Evaluations
By Deepthi Welaratna |
Eight tools for building inclusive, community programs to address health and other social issues
Connecting Big-Picture Theories with Community Experience
By Nancy Knopf |
Blending practices and theory to improve health outcomes outside the clinical setting
Building Trust with Communities of Color
By Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas and Hector Y. Adames |
Strategies for engaging communities of color in local health initiatives
Between Listening and Doing
By Phillip Sambol |
A “whole health” approach to improving access to food and food education
Giving Communities a Role to Play in Health
By Tony Thomas |
When people have a real voice in the decisions affecting their lives and health, they thrive in ways beyond measure
What Is Community Anyway?
By David M. Chavis and Kien Lee |
Our understanding of community can help funders and evaluators identify, understand, and strengthen the communities they work with
The Future of Health Is Giving Communities a Voice
By Pritpal S Tamber |
The role of community in well-being has always been a part of life, but the health sector’s efforts to support that role needs work
Communities Creating Health: An Introduction
By Pritpal S Tamber, Leigh Carroll and Bridget B. Kelly |
It’s time we looked beyond health care for insights on how to build community-based, health-creating systems
Announcing Our New Series In SSIR
By Pritpal S Tamber |
We'll explore what it means to work 'with' communities as opposed to just 'on' them
Re-Aligning Revenue With Care
By David Citrin and Pritpal S Tamber |
An interview of David Citrin of Possible on how they're trying to create an approach to health in Nepal that doesn't just replicate the unsustainable systems in high-income countries
Surfacing Stories To Change Culture
By Andres Marquez-Lara and Pritpal S Tamber |
An interview of Andres Marquez-Lara on how he's using performance techniques to bring communities together
Transforming Disadvantaged Communities
By Jonathan Stead and Pritpal S Tamber |
An interview of Dr Jonathan Stead of C2 Connecting Communities on how their work is based on the ethos that residents can be part of the solution
Community, Movements, and Spread: It’s the Process That Matters
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Why wanting local interventions to scale is naïve
Creating Health: The Emerging Principles
By Pritpal S Tamber |
A report from the first meeting of the Creating Health Collaborative, including the principles that seemed to resonate across people's work
The End Of Wellthcare
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Why I decided to stop using the term 'Wellthcare' and what I am doing next
Understanding What Communities Really Value
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Why I have got involved with an IOM-hosted meeting on designing evaluations for what communities really want
Wellthcare is Joined by Nine Organisations
By Pritpal S Tamber |
And we decided to call ourselves the 'Creating Health Incubation Group'
How Doctors’ Failures Will Lead to Social Unrest
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Reflecting on talks by Pippa Malmgren, an economist, and Des Gorman, the Executive Chair of Health Workforce New Zealand
Seeing Beyond the Bio-Medical Model
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Re-publishing Jamie Harvie's excellent foreword to the Democracy Collaborative's report, Hospitals Building Healthier Communities
Creating a Parallel System to Health Care
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Reflecting on the work of Dr Lim Boon Keng of the late 1800s in Singapore to improve people's health by improving their social conditions - and what it tells us for today
Medicaid as a Catalyst for Community
By Lori Peterson and Pritpal S Tamber |
An overview of the extraordinary work of Alex Briscoe, Director of Alameda County’s Health Care Services Agency
Frugal Innovation: Learning from the Developing World
By Pritpal S Tamber |
A re-posting of Charles Leadbeater's chapter in The Alpine Review that tomorrow's health systems require us to learn from the developing world
Why Have a Manifesto?
By Pritpal S Tamber |
To bring together the ideas that we've discussed in Wellthcare into a brief, accessible format
Pernicious Moralising: When Public Health Fails
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How number-crunching at a population level cannot create an understanding of people's lives, and how Wellthcare is fundamentally different
Wellthcare Receives its First Grant
By Pritpal S Tamber |
To understand health in ways other than the deficit model, to find real-world examples of health creation, and to hear the perspective of funders in this space
It’s Time to Prioritise Health Creation – Not Just Care and Prevention
By Pritpal S Tamber |
An attempt to understand what 'health creation' is and how it might come about
How a Talking Pet Can Keep Us Healthy
By Victor Wang and Pritpal S Tamber |
An interview of Victor Wang, CEO of GeriJoy, the app that seeks to leverage the global supply of compassion
Angelina Jolie, the end of standard, confused value, and not enough failure: why 2013 mattered
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Some thoughts (and scribbles) on the health debate in 2013
Despatch 3: Building Resilience – Understanding People’s Context and Assets
By Pritpal S Tamber |
A report on the recent discussion amongst the Wellthcare Explorers on the importance of context and assets
Prospecting for Wellth in the US of A
By Pritpal S Tamber |
A look at some of the health projects I came across in the US that consider the importance of community
How a Postal System Can Keep Us Healthy
By Joe Dickinson and Pritpal S Tamber |
An interview of Joe Dickinson of Jersey Post, the postal system that checks in on its elderly community as part of its rounds
“Health and social care: lots of activity, little value”
By Pritpal S Tamber |
I’m writing this Log post from Las Vegas, USA, where I have come to experience the Downtown Project, an attempt to transform the downtown area into the most community-focused large …
“Health and social care: lots of activity, little value” Read More »
Harvard and NEJM Speak the Wantified Self (Almost)
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Consumerism and empowerment were the terms they used
“A poem for your enterprise” – The Unprofessionals
By Pritpal S Tamber |
A friend of mine sent me an email with the above subject line and the following poem
Despatch 2: Fragmenting Communities and the Wantified Self
By Pritpal S Tamber |
A report on the Wellthcare Explorers' second debate, this time about the idea of the 'wantified self'
Bravery, Agility and Uncertainty
By Pritpal S Tamber |
And how I have been told that Europe is not the place for big ideas
The Wantified Self
By Pritpal S Tamber |
Why I walked away from the quantified self movement because it afforded little space for me to express what mattered to me
Despatch 1: Discovering Wellth
By Pritpal S Tamber |
A report on the first discussion between the Wellthcare Explorers
Can Health Return to Being a Civic Value?
By Pritpal S Tamber |
If so it becomes more likely that we'll work with broader understandings of health and potentially unlock our thinking
Wellthcare and My Ongoing Blogging
By Pritpal S Tamber |
A quick post that I'm going to spend more time writing about Wellth than what it takes to optimise clinical knowledge
What an Emergency Landing Tells Us About Wellth
By Pritpal S Tamber |
How a group of strangers started to take care of each other
Realising the Need for Wellthcare
By Pritpal S Tamber |
There is value in community that keeps us healthy; it's time to explore how to nurture it