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Solvents issue
highlighted during Agency's annual report launch
The
Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland today launched
its annual
report focusing on many aspects of the organisation's
work during the year. The report highlights a successful year
with the positive outcome of the Agency's second five-year
review and its commitment to working collaboratively to support
the Government's new public health strategy Investing
for health.
The
report illustrates how the Agency continues to provide regional
leadership and direction for health promotion in Northern
Ireland through policy advice to government and a variety
of organisations, information based on current research for
both the public and professionals and specialist training
and active support for a wide range of individuals in the
implementation of health promotion programmes.
Speaking
during the launch Dr Brian Gaffney, Chief Executive of the
Health Promotion Agency, said: "Northern Ireland's biggest
killers continue to be coronary heart disease and smoking-related
illnesses so tackling the risk factors including smoking,
alcohol misuse, unhealthy nutrition and physical inactivity
are top of the Agency's agenda."
This
year the Agency worked hard to meet regional health priorities
on drugs and alcohol, tobacco, nutrition, physical activity,
mental health and sexual health. The Agency also continued
to promote alliances for health in order to maximise effectiveness
of health promotion initiatives and reduce health inequalities.
"The
Agency continued to collaborate on cross-border work with
the Department of Health and Children in Dublin and both organisations
are currently working to organise the forthcoming all-island
physical activity conference
later this year."
The
Agency is well known for its public information work and this
year led a number of high profile campaigns promoting awareness
of lifestyle choices for better health. For example, the hard-hitting
television and radio campaign 'Every
cigarette is doing you damage' made smokers aware of the
link between smoking and heart disease and encouraged them
to think about quitting.
The
latter part of the launch focused on the issue of volatile
substance abuse - a subject which may have dropped out of
the public eye in recent years but is still a major problem
here.
Dr
Gaffney said: "Volatile substance abuse is an issue that never
really goes away, instead it tends to peak over a number of
years and continues in cycles. Volatile substance abuse, sometimes
termed 'the adolescent epidemic', is common among young people
aged 10-12 years. It is often the first substance young people
experiment with which is very risky to health and in some
cases can lead to chronic use in later life.
"The
Agency commissioned research
with parents, professionals, retailers and environmental health
officers throughout Northern Ireland to assess their knowledge
of solvents and their future information needs. This report
formed the basis of the Agency's strategic thinking, the first
result of which is this publication. The Agency is currently
developing further projects tackling this issue which are
likely to be forthcoming early next year", he said.
Copies
of the Annual report and Volatile
substance abuse are available from the Health Promotion
Agency for Northern Ireland.
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