Writing
My writing is largely based on my projects in community health, and is emailed as a newsletter called Community & Health
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A conversation with Tony Iton on how death helped him understand life, and some news on our work linking power and dying
The Path to Liberation and Social Change
A conversation with Katherine Zappone, an educator and feminist, and one of the architects of same-sex marriage in Ireland
It’s About Justice, Not Charity
A conversation with three community organisers, Olivia Masoja, Marzena Zukowska, and Stephanie Wong, on power, relationships and justice
The Necessity of Struggle
A conversation with Leigh Carroll and Lynn Weidner on how unions can help create the kind of society we want to live in
Lighting Fires and Staying Accountable
A conversation with Martha Mackenzie on community organising, repairing democracy and holding philanthropy to account
Our Article in Health Affairs on Community Power
Building on theoretical and empirical research, we describe what community power is and why it’s fundamental to structural change and health equity
Understanding Power Through Stories of Change
A conversation with Paul W. Speer on the role of relationships, conversations and mediating institutions in building community power
Without Rigour It’s Just Ideology
A conversation with Jennie Popay on the need to truly understand how communities with power can pursue social justice
Creating Practices to Shift Power in Society
A conversation with Jonathan Heller, one of the most innovative practitioners in the journey to health equity
A New Podcast Series on Community Power
In collaboration with Ratio, I’m exploring what community power is, how it’s linked to better outcomes and what its limitations are
A Model Linking Community Engagement, Health Improvement and Community Power
How the health sector can foster the individual and social outcomes that are key to a community having power
How the Experts Think about Power and Belonging
From middle-class prejudice and John Henryism to how power works and what exactly is change
Mapping Empirical Research to the Theories
Knowing which theories linking community power and health are backed by empirical research may inform your theory of change
Observations on the Research into Community Power
The things that stood out from the 81 articles classified as medium or low quality
How Community Power Influences Health
Beyond health outcomes, there are changes in the community members involved and the social fabric between them
The Theories Connecting Community Power to Health
A synthesis of the many theories on how community power can reduce inequities in health
The Evidence Linking Community Power to Health
The research I’ve been doing since February 2020 and how Popay’s 2006 model on community engagement helped
Understanding the True Cost of Pharma R&D
As drugs and other therapies get more and more expensive, it’s time to take a closer look at the cost of research and development
The Evidence Linking Community Agency & Health
It's messy, some of it is good, and there is an encouraging uniformity to the findings
What I’m Doing in 2020
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
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)
Changing the Dynamic
A conversation with Emily Yu on how The BUILD Health Challenge is potentiating system change by putting CBOs in the lead role and investing in collaboration
Solving Through Relationships, Not Transaction
A conversation with Chris Dabbs on how Unlimited Potential has walked the line between serving community residents and serving commissioners
Not Sentimentalizing Community
How understanding the flow of care made possible by social cohesion is fundamental – and may need more ruthless employers
The Unseen Infrastructures of Care
A conversation with Andrew Binet about how the process of care can be mapped like any other form of infrastructure, and what planners should do with it
Exploring the Nuance Under the Buzz
How looking underneath buzz terms like ‘deaths of despair’ and ‘asset-based community development’ is key to finding solutions
When Trust Is Not Enough
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
How co-production, self-management and health promotion all have the potential to increase social inequity, and what you can do about it
The ‘Power Elephant’ In The Room
A conversation with Lauren Weinstein about how power differences are intrinsically present in co-production and what she’s doing to overcome them
The New Version of Our Application Tool
To help you understand, embrace and apply the lessons from over 100 community-oriented practitioners
Why Provision is not Enough
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
How other sectors are learning that the key to responding to social circumstances is deeper relationships with the citizens they serve
Being Overwhelmed by the Health Challenges in Rural America
How I struggle to get my urbanista head around the size of the challenge
Effective Housing Goes Beyond a Home
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
Three articles have reminded me that the core challenge to bridging health and community is healthcare-centricity
Europe Is Heading For War
A cheerful thought for the new year but one that I am increasingly coming round to as I converse with friends
Community Power & Public Health
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
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?
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
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
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)
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)
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 Intentionality of Finding Meaning
How the folks at Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services in Hawaii bake intentionality into their every day practice, and how I struggled with it
The Risk of Sharing
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)
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
Versions of Ourselves
Some reflections as I head back from an eight-day holiday on the Greek Island of Amorgos
What Next: The Search for A New Dialog (Part 2 of 5)
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
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)
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
The need to share experiential knowledge and applaud one former CEO for doing that through 'six tensions'
Me on the Speaking Business Podcast
My UK speaking agent, Maria Franzoni interviewed me for her podcast, 'Speaking Business'
A Webinar and an eBook
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
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
Announcing the second version of our implementation tool, including some photographs of the previous version in use and how that informed the new version
The Finalists: 2018 FIFA World Cup
My thoughts on the two finalists, including all of my tweets on the games that they played
Semi Finals: 2018 FIFA World Cup
My tweets on the teams and the games, as well as a tweet on the play-off for third place
The Tyranny and Beauty of a Grant Application Form
How completing grant application forms is an art all its own
The Conundrum of Sustainability
How ultimately you might need to accept that you’re part of the extractive forces acting on communities, while working out how to leverage your privilege for others
The Need for Editorial Strategy
Whether foundations truly understand the importance of content and editorial strategy as a way to grow a field of practice
How Change Begins
How the Democracy Collaborative is denting the universe, proving themselves to be way more important than most other think tanks
The Connectional and The Tedious
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
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?
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
Announcing the developing of our concept note, which we intend to send to funders to gauge interest in our plans
Why Relying on Advocacy May Mean Losing in the Long Term
Because it’s fire fighting rather than winning the battle of ideas
Our New Report: Bringing Purpose to Community Engagement
Why we've positioned the 12 Principles as a framework for reconceiving health care's relationship with communities
The Jumble of Non Conformity
A mess of a post reflecting where my head is right now - or at least how it’s not really anywhere concrete...
The Inside Game
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!
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
Catalina A. Denman, Elsa Cornejo and Rodrigo Cornejo describe how fostering agency has improved social participation and health, specifically in diabetes and through Wikipolítica
Some Rambling Existential Thoughts
On how things are going well and not going well, scribbled on the way back from a week in the US
A Webinar on the Bronx Healthy Buildings Program
Announcing a free webinar featuring an in-depth conversation about how lessons from the Bronx Healthy Buildings Program can be applied in other contexts
The Challenge of Saying It Like It Is
How it's so hard to question the narrative that conflates health care and health
Fostering Agency Through Local Public Health
Chris Aldridge, Peter Holtgrave and Andrea Grenadier explore how local public health can encourage people in communities to determine their own futures
Carbon Off-Setting
My slow-and-fast decision to become carbon neutral and the odd feeling that it’s not as satisfying as I thought it would be
Community Health. Healthy Community. Semantics?
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
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?
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
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
The Lies We Tell Ourselves (in Health)
A morning’s reading and three examples of the kind of lies we tell ourselves in health
Reflections on Othering, Oppression, and Why Inclusion Matters
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
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
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
Flu, Crisis & Conflation
Through my flu-hazed brain I try to respond to the calls for more funding for the NHS in response to the annual, winter crisis
My Community Tells It Straight
How my cousin and uncle help illustrate why health systems fail - with a bluntness typical of England’s East Midlands
My Hypocritical Drive Home for Christmas
How my instinctual reaction to a homeless person illustrated to me how inauthentic my behaviour has become
The Healing of Exploitation
Carl Baty, a presenter at our May 2017 symposium, shares why he got emotional during his talk and explores whether he was being exploited
Looking Ahead While Tending To The Now
Yet another thing I’m crap at and why it matters five years into doing the thing I’ve been doing
Our ‘View’ To Grantmakers In Health
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
Polarised Debates Stop Me Getting Involved
When I look at who’s voicing the same concerns as I would, I find myself stopping
Making the ROI case for community work
Weaving together three recent experiences to urge more creativity in encouraging investment
Mastering the Distractions
Why they’re essential for moving from the what to the how. But, seriously, they’re so distracting...
What Am I Doing, Again?
Apparently it’s research but I’m self-conscious about that term and perhaps I shouldn’t be
Doing Something Awesome Across the UK
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
Reflecting on Interviewing the CEO of NHS England
I enjoyed it, even though the form didn’t really lend itself to get into the topics that I think matter
Thoughts Ahead of Interviewing the CEO of NHS England
How the lack of preparation time is bad for everyone and makes me part of the problem
The Cost of Learning
Board Member, Leigh Carroll, reflects on our May 2017 symposium and whether we understood who was doing the learning
Don’t Call Me A Social Innovator
Why I bristle at that term (and the need for more discipline around business model discovery)
Declarations, Immigrants, Rights & Responsibilities
Just some thoughts weaving together rights, responsibilities and agency, with an anecdote related to an illegal immigrant
The Paralysis of Neatness
Why well-presented arguments and citing of 'the evidence is getting in the way
Collaborative Consulting Announces Our Partnership
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
We want to coach local entities and learn what it really takes to make the shift
Announcing our Partnership with Collaborative Consulting
A strategic relationship to bring the importance of ‘community agency’ within reach of health systems embracing new approaches to health
Othering the Deep South
How the idiocy of my thinking leads me to 'other' the people of the Deep South
Announcing our Chief Learning Officer, Maggie Hawthorne
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
A Death and Existential Reflections
Some musings spurred by a friend's death and me being on an island staring at the sea
Struggling with Spain
I can't quite put my finger on it but there something - something! - that I struggle with in the country
Announcing Our Tool to Apply the 12 Principles
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
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
No, seriously, this is work
Some thoughts on doing keynotes at corporate retreats and whether they lead to any doing
Taking What We’ve Learned on the Road
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
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
Building Healthy Communities, South Kern
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
America, Racism & Health Care
A post I've been holding myself back from writing but one that asks whether the attraction of my company is divisible from the racism that seems endemic in the country
Practicing Agency: The ‘Art’ of the How (Symposium 2017)
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
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
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
In this post, Bridget B Kelly, Co-Founder of Bridging Health & Community, describes how we’ll be helping symposium participants connect with each other
On Meaninglessness
A reflection on how the broken effort-to-value relationship is driving the sense of meaninglessness that many people are enduring
Think, Link and Do – Building Just Communities through Collaboration
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
There’s Little Comfort Out Of The Box
The difference between innovation and entrepreneurialism, and why the former needs more support than it gets
The Bronx Healthy Buildings Program
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 is it that I’m here again?
Six years after disc surgery it's time for knee surgery. I find the resolve to fight. This one last time. Somehow
How One Foundation Hopes to Help Local Leaders Listen
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
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
My Threshold Space
How my current uncertainty is corrosive, especially when it comes to whether I'll play football again
Symposium 2017: The ‘Setting the Stage’ Session
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
Crisis as Entertainment
Are we too busy consuming information about the problems we're dealing with to do anything about them?
Symposium 2017: Who Are You, Really?
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
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
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
Announcing a US$300 ticket for community-based organizations, community residents & students, a US$500 ticket for government, nonprofit & universities, and options for supporters
Leadership and Self Doubt
How my confidence oscillated through our last Board meeting and what that does or doesn't mean for the work
Symposium 2017: A Candid Conversation About Failure: Part II
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
The Impossibility of Being Right
How in socially-mindful innovation you can spend too long being right to the detriment of ever achieving anything
Symposium 2017: A Candid Conversation About Failure: Part I
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
Racism, Reparations and My Shameful Naivety
Sometimes you read something that makes you realise just how little you understand aspects of modern life
Using Participatory Research & Evaluation
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
Why It’s So Hard To Take A Punt
A scramble of inter-related thoughts on why it's so hard to take a punt these days
Creating Leadership Capacity for Long Term Change
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
Systems Change, in a Scribble
A scribble that, at the time, beautifully described how to change systems - and why classic approaches fail
What is an Authentic Voice? The Key Question for 2017
How Dylan was the voice of his generation, how the Left have stopped listening, and how populist politicians will always win if we don't re-learn how to listen
Liberation
How the launching of Bridging Health & Community has liberated this blog, and hence my voice, and how the change seems to be part of a wider trend in my life as I liberate myself from Facebook and question the value of Gmail
Introducing Bridget B Kelly, our Co-Founder
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.
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
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
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
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’
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
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
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
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?
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
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
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
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
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
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”
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
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
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
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
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
A Tale of Two Zip Codes
How Building Healthy Communities' recent animation goes beyond the usual rhetoric on 'social circumstances' to focus on 'opportunity' as key to health, and not just for the poor, but for all
Announcing Our New Report
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
How a project in Brazil focusses on promoting self-sufficiency as a pathway to enable people to change their lives
Why I Am Doing What I Am Doing
Because there’s a disconnect between the health care system and the people it purports to serve
Sharing The ‘Burden’ Of Creating Health
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
An interview of Maggie Super Church about the Healthy Neighborhood Equity Fund
Knocking on the Door to the Future of Health
A reflection on the first UK-based meeting inspired by the Creating Health Collaborative
It Takes Time, Money And Beer
An interview of Hans Wijnands of The Rainbow Group in Amsterdam about its radical idea to help alcoholics by paying them with alcohol
Discovering Health Care, Not Sick Care
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Some thoughts from an evening's discussion amongst a small group in the Netherlands trying to rethink health
How Evaluation Can Strengthen Communities
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
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
Three principles for solving complex, systemic problems like improving community health
Undercover Solutions
Solutions to social problems are often hidden in the most obvious places, masquerading as problems
Cultivating and Sustaining Generative Teams
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
How a “lean startup” approach can help create an effective community-based program
Emerging Tools for Community-Driven Evaluations
Eight tools for building inclusive, community programs to address health and other social issues
Connecting Big-Picture Theories with Community Experience
Blending practices and theory to improve health outcomes outside the clinical setting
Building Trust with Communities of Color
Strategies for engaging communities of color in local health initiatives
Giving Communities a Role to Play in Health
When people have a real voice in the decisions affecting their lives and health, they thrive in ways beyond measure
What Is Community Anyway?
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
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
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
We'll explore what it means to work 'with' communities as opposed to just 'on' them
Re-Aligning Revenue With Care
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
Fraggl: Nudging You To Think Differently
Introducing a tool that may help you think differently by encouraging you to read things that probably wouldn't have
Surfacing Stories To Change Culture
An interview of Andres Marquez-Lara on how he's using performance techniques to bring communities together
Transforming Disadvantaged Communities
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
Why wanting local interventions to scale is naïve
Creating Health: The Emerging Principles
A report from the first meeting of the Creating Health Collaborative, including the principles that seemed to resonate across people's work
Moustaches, fund-raising and independence from the current health care system
How independent campaigns like Movember have more potential to shift how we approach health than the health care system does
OCK + Wellthcare = pstamber.com
Why I am focussing more on the future of health than on my initial focus as a consultant, which was to optimise clinical knowledge
Understanding What Communities Really Value
Why I have got involved with an IOM-hosted meeting on designing evaluations for what communities really want
Wellthcare is Joined by Nine Organisations
And we decided to call ourselves the 'Creating Health Incubation Group'
The Future of Health: Complex, Plural and a Constant Struggle
By accepting that health is socially constructed we need to understand that creating will always be local and fraught
How Doctors’ Failures Will Lead to Social Unrest
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
Re-publishing Jamie Harvie's excellent foreword to the Democracy Collaborative's report, Hospitals Building Healthier Communities
Creating a Parallel System to Health Care
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
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
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?
To bring together the ideas that we've discussed in Wellthcare into a brief, accessible format
Pernicious Moralising: When Public Health Fails
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
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
An attempt to understand what 'health creation' is and how it might come about
How a Talking Pet Can Keep Us Healthy
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
Some thoughts (and scribbles) on the health debate in 2013
Despatch 3: Building Resilience – Understanding People’s Context and Assets
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
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
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”
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)
Consumerism and empowerment were the terms they used
“A poem for your enterprise” – The Unprofessionals
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
A report on the Wellthcare Explorers' second debate, this time about the idea of the 'wantified self'
The Wantified Self
Why I walked away from the quantified self movement because it afforded little space for me to express what mattered to me
Can Health Return to Being a Civic Value?
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
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
How a group of strangers started to take care of each other
Realising the Need for Wellthcare
There is value in community that keeps us healthy; it's time to explore how to nurture it
Health 2.0 and Academia: Reconciling Experimentation and Protectionism
Exploring the disconnect between digital health and academic medicine
My TEDMED Talk, and Introducing “We2C”
Why I see a 'web of trust' in what makes health care work, and how that trust needs to move beyond clinicians and include citizens
And So, It’s Time for TEDMED…
A brief look at some of the themes we considered for the 2013 stage programme
Innovation, Lazy Commentators and Data Darwinism
Why the only 'next big thing' is what it has always been - perseverance and adaptability
We Don’t Know What the NHS is For
Is it about the delivery of clinical services or the collective ego of a place?
How Digital Health Will Humanise Care
Through real world, real-time feedback on the realities of being sick and consuming care
The Fallacy of User Interfaces and Big Data
Business ideas are all very well but we first need to understand the messy world of being sick
Why “Paperless” is Meaningless
Because it means we pursue an idea without understanding what's really needed
It’s Time for a Few Good Punch-Ups in the NHS
Some reflections on the speakers at the Cambridge Health Network's Christmas event
There is a New World that Needs New Leaders
Health care has prioritised self-interest and secrecy for too long
NHS England Leader Believes the Time is Right to Put Patients at the Heart of Health Care
Some inspiring rhetoric from the recently appointed National Director for Patients and Information
Why TEDMED Might Be the Only Health Conference Worth Going To
Because it's high time we had some new thinking and ideas on the future of health
How My Local CCG Disrespects its Patients
By not working harder to have all sectors of the community represented and by not creating a level, information-based playing field
Only Trust Will Make the Future Model of Care Work
How increasingly complicated knowledge requires us to have better coordination between different types of clinicians - and the role of trust within that
GP Ratings: Why All Doctors Must Have This App
Because it's a glimpse into a choice-based future of health care
Can We Trust the Reports from the Global Health Policy Summit?
How the self-appointed elite of health care failed to understand the importance of conflicts of interest
A Picture (With Words) is Worth a Thousand Words
A photo that says it all about the amount of talk in health care
To Inform, We Need to Enable
Why information is not enough to change practice - change also needs to be proactively 'enabled'
Brave IOM Starts Defining the Knowledge-to-Practice Chasm
My reflections on a Roundtable meeting hosted by the Institute of Medicine on using knowledge to influence practice
Doctors Only Trust Doctors
My understanding of trust and knowledge and what it means for using information to change practice
Err, so what are we talking about again?
How some people use confusion as a cover for the fact that they don't know what they're talking about
Evidence and the Real World
How the randomised controlled trial is preventing us from establishing knowledge fit for the real world
Soft-Wiring Knowledge
An exploration of how we apply knowledge to IT systems in a way that makes it possible to update it as new evidence emerges