3 minute read
HOW WHIS SUPPORTS SDG CITIES TO IMPLEMENT GOOD HEALTH & WELLBEING
World Health Innovation Summit (WHIS) aims to relieve the pressures on health services by giving our communities the tools to take care of their own physical and mental wellbeing... from childhood through to old age.
Ultimately, WHIS hopes to change the way people think about their health, physically and emotionally, giving them the ownership and the tools to make a difference.
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Through inspiring and informing people in their communities, we can empower them to implement change to improve their own health and wellbeing.
WHIS is a platform that brings patients, clinicians, managers, voluntary sector, education and the business community together to create value while supporting our health and social care services.
Based in the heart of Cumbria (UK), WHIS identified that people in the community would be better supported if they had more access to holistic solutions in their locality. Taking a personcentred health approach (prevention), WHIS recognised that there are four key cornerstones - all of which need to be supported at the same time by the same people: Economy, Education, Environment and Ecosystems.
Some statistics as to WHY we need a new platform to support people’s health and wellbeing:
• The cost of dementia globally is at $1 trillion dollars and will double to $2 trillion by 2030.
• 18 million healthcare staff shortage worldwide by 2030 (BMJ) $8.7 Trillion Global Healthcare Costs (Deloitte 2018)
• Cancer, diabetes, mental illness, heart disease, and respiratory diseases (Non Communicable Diseases - NCDs) will cost $47 Trillion in the next 20 years - Ref: World Economic Forum Report, The Global Economic Burden of NCDs
• The global population will jump from 7.6 billion to 9.7 billion by 2050, according to the United Nations
• Number of people over the age of 60 should reach roughly 2 billion. The world is currently ill-equipped to respond to these trends, and the global health system will have to undergo a major transformation in order to provide an environment in which people live healthier and longer lives without Cancer, Mental Health, Obesity, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Alzheimer’s (Non Communicable Diseases) etc. More than one in two adults and nearly one in six children are overweight or obese in OECD countries - Ref: Obesity Update OECD
Mental ill health is the largest single cause of disability in the UK, contributing almost 23% of the overall burden of disease compared to about 16% each for cancer and cardiovascular disease. The economic and social costs of mental health problems in England are estimated at around £105 billion each year - it’s estimated that the economic costs of a suicide are £1.7 million. Ref: Knapp, Martin and McDaid, David and Parsonage, Michael (2011) Mental health promotion and mental illness prevention: the economic case. 15972. Department of Health, London, UK.
The WHIS model provides opportunities to address these challenges while creating new jobs with direct and indirect benefits for local communities. We’ve seen emotional wellbeing and resilience in young people, decreased isolation and improved motivation amongst healthcare, social care and community based professionals. -
67% SAID “I HAVE IMPROVED MY PROFESSIONAL NETWORK.”
63% SAID “I HAVE BETTER ACCESS TO NEW AND INNOVATIVE IDEAS THROUGH WHIS” Shaping the Future for a Better Tomorrow
Cautious calculation = £1 : £36 (SROI Lynchpin Report 2018)
• INVEST £100 = SOCIAL RETURN £3,600
• INVEST £1000 = SOCIAL RETURN £36,000
• INVEST £10,000 = SOCIAL RETURN £360,000
• INVEST £100,000 = SOCIAL RETURN £3,600,000
• INVEST £1,000,000 = SOCIAL RETURN £36,000,000
Each City will become a hub for health and social care innovation that will attract opportunities to develop new businesses, research grants and support their local health services with recruitment and retention of existing staff.
