Co-producing a story book for children who experience parental substance use: ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Arti’ By: Cassey Muir

This presentation will focus on the co-production of a story book that aims to support the emotional and social wellbeing of children whose parents use alcohol and/or drugs. We have collaboratively worked with children, parents, teachers, practitioners, an author, illustrator, and film club to develop a story book and story time video. The book translates findings from two linked studies and is a tool to facilitate conversations between trusted adults and children. The presentation will cover: 1) details on how and why the book was developed; 2) a showcase of the finished book/video and the themes presented within it (with a limited number of copies to share with interested colleagues); and 3)feedback on usability and impact.

Engaging Citizen Partners within a Rapid Review Process By: Emily Clark, Robyn Traynor, Susan Snelling, Maureen Dobbins, Farnaz Azarmju

To make rapid reviews more responsive and relevant to priority issues, the National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools’ (NCCMT) Rapid Evidence Service (RES) meaningfully engages citizen partners with lived experience in the development of rapid reviews on various public health topics. The NCCMT’s RES has successfully engaged 21 public partners across 19 rapid reviews, bringing unique insights and perspectives that enhance the relevance of the reviews. This session will explore formally incorporating public engagement in the rapid review process to address a major gap in the evidence synthesis and decision-making process.

Co-designing a Mobile Application with Immigrant Adolescents for better sexual and Reproductive Health By: Salima Meherali, Saba Nish

In my presentation, I will share how we can actively engage end-users, such as adolescents, in designing and developing knowledge translation interventions or strategies. Co-designing and tailoring KT interventions according to young people’s needs, preferences, and context will ultimately lead to more impactful utilization of health information and in healthcare decision-making.

Advancing Inclusive Public Health Monitoring: The Case of the Dutch Youth Monitor By: Mariëlle Cloin, Lisa van den Brekel 

Public health monitoring is essential for understanding societal trends, but inclusivity challenges exist. This is also the case in the Dutch youth health monitor, which only surveys mainstream secondary school students, excluding those in special or practical education. Our project aims to improve the inclusivity of the youth health monitor, focusing on the 2021 monitor (n=166,252) to study COVID-19’s impact on young people’s health. The goal is to incorporate diverse stakeholders, including students and parents, input throughout the monitoring process. 

Round ‘Ere: Engaging the public on designing community wellbeing data hubs By: Emily Rempe, Gianfranco Polizzi, Simeon Yates & Emma Lord 

Data used to track community health and wellbeing are often top-down measures focused on ill health. We present an evaluation of a peer research and public engagement method to build bottom-up community wellbeing data hubs. Using appreciative inquiry we look at how to support a community to ask itself how to measure wellbeing.

Relational Systems Evaluation for Public Health Programs By: Jennifer Urban, Jane Buckley, Monica Hargraves 

Relational Systems Evaluation (RSE) is an empirically tested framework for program evaluation and planning that integrates principles associated with systems theories in order to develop evaluation capacity, enhance evaluation quality, integrate research and practice, and ultimately improve programs. RSE provides a practical way to bridge theory and practice in evaluation by working through evaluator-practitioner partnerships to integrate diverse sources of expertise and build evaluation capacity. RSE is operationalized using the Systems Evaluation Protocol (SEP), a step-by-step protocol for planning, implementing and utilizing an evaluation of programs or interventions. The talk will describe the structured process for working with programs on evaluation planning using the SEP and the Netway, a publicly available online evaluation tool. 

Relational Systems Evaluation for Public Health Programs By: Jennifer Urban, Jane Buckley, Monica Hargraves 

Relational Systems Evaluation (RSE) is an empirically tested framework for program evaluation and planning that integrates principles associated with systems theories in order to develop evaluation capacity, enhance evaluation quality, integrate research and practice, and ultimately improve programs. RSE provides a practical way to bridge theory and practice in evaluation by working through evaluator-practitioner partnerships to integrate diverse sources of expertise and build evaluation capacity. RSE is operationalized using the Systems Evaluation Protocol (SEP), a step-by-step protocol for planning, implementing and utilizing an evaluation of programs or interventions. The talk will describe the structured process for working with programs on evaluation planning using the SEP and the Netway, a publicly available online evaluation tool. 

The Voices of Stakeholders Within Free School Meal (FSM) Research By: Connie Dalton, Dr. Pamela L Graham, & Dr. Richard Lee

Free School Meals (FSM) have been a longstanding feature of the educational landscape of the UK as an intervention to address malnourishment, they are available to school aged children who come from households which meet a varied list of criteria. However, research has shown that children are less likely to be invited to participate in research into FSM. Children, parents and school staff from across the UK were invited to participate in a research project on FSM utilising photovoice, interviews and focus groups to share their experiences on the FSM system. This gallery space will mainly look at the potential of involving children and young people in research on public health, focusing on FSM from a human rights based perspective, in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’s Article 12.

Transitioning Power: Health Education as a Conduit Toward Health Equity By: William Chambers, Rhiannon John 

This presentation will highlight the role of health education as an innovative method of engaging the public in public health. Providing diverse populations with health education helps individuals make informed decisions regarding their healthcare and equips them with the necessary tools to relay that education to others. To this end, our presentation will explore practical ways to use health education as an engagement tool for any population being served—utilizing the multifaceted experiences and expertise of current sexual health educators. 

Public Health Ambassadors: public engagement in practice during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond By: Shannon Alvord, Samantha Hillson 

With the launch of COVID-19 vaccination efforts in 2021, the Tompkins County Health Department took a unique approach to promote vaccination among hesitant groups. Hiring individuals from within target populations, our Public Health Ambassadors (PHA) took public health directly into the community, to be physically present and visible. The success of our PHA pilot allowed us launch a Community Health Worker program, an initiative rooted in building self-advocacy and agency among those most impacted by structural and systemic issues that contribute to health disparities and negative health outcomes. 

Public health research as an extractive industry: towards a moral economy of knowledge co-creation By: Lisa Garnham, Cat Tabbner

We face a number of obstacles in moving towards non-extractive research praxis in our work on poverty and public health in Glasgow, Scotland. Others, in other settings, are experiencing the same. Challenges have primarily stemmed from the demands of research institutions on us and our collaborators. We wonder: can we create a ‘moral economy’ of knowledge co-creation within this system? How?

Leveraging partnerships with practitioners and policy makers to support action-oriented public health research in homeless populations By: Sheena Ramsay, Emma Adams, Neha Jain

In this presentation, we will present case studies of research projects where policy makers and practitioners have been involved resulting in actionable findings. The case studies are based on research projects providing different examples and reflections on engaging with relevant stakeholders, and how that shaped and informed our research. The research projects were related to the health of populations experiencing homelessness, and related disadvantages. Learnings shared in this presentation would be applicable to public health and inequalities research, more widely.

“I can see my life in that diagram”: reflections on the challenge and necessity of bringing lived experience insights into systems science and policy modelling By: Lisa Garnham, Ellen Stewart, Kat Smith

We present an innovative attempt to use systems maps to combine evidence synthesis with lived experience narratives about the housing-health system. We reflect on the crucial insights offered by lived experience contributions and what this reveals about the limitations of the ‘evidence cultures’ currently dominating health research and policy work in the UK.

Setting up a national learning community for Public Health professionals. And how to involve the public? By: Tamara van Waardenburg 

In the Netherlands, municipalities, health insurers and the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport are jointly committed to healthy and active living (Healthy and Active Living Agreement) and to appropriate care (Integral Care Agreement). Both agreements pursue an integrated and cross-domain policy to achieve these goals, consisting of the implementation of preventive approaches at local level. To optimally advise local governments, public health (PH) professionals need knowledge and skills on how to implement cross-domain preventive approaches successfully. Therefore, a learning community for PH professionals is initiated in 2023 on a national level, financed by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. During this presentation I will explain how we set up the learning community and how we try to involve the public.

Flourishing at the frontlines of healthcare delivery: Strengthening character virtues among frontline health workers delivering care to underserved communities in Sindh, Pakistan By: Danya Arif Siddiqi 

Our work addresses the challenges faced by Frontline Health Workers (FHWs) in Low Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), particularly in Pakistan, focusing on issues such as burnout, training gaps, and safety concerns. We propose an innovative solution—a tailored humanities-based curriculum leveraging local arts and literature to reconnect FHWs with their sense of purpose, fostering empathy and improving patient care. We present findings from our study that employs a multi-phase mixed-methods approach, to evaluate the feasibility and impact of the humanities-based curriculum piloted with 100 vaccinators and lady health workers and evaluated using an adapted purpose scale and in depth interviews with participants. We will share lessons learned from the study and present policy implications of our work.

Attitudes Towards Telehealth Among Rural Georgians By: Tyler Collette, Akanksha Manna 

In rural Georgia, many residents face chronic health issues and a lack of local healthcare providers. Telehealth services are a solution to this major access gap. This study examines attitudes toward telehealth usage in rural Georgia to explore factors for engagement. The analysis revealed that prior telehealth experience influenced current positive attitudes. 

Reducing loneliness through culturally appropriate, faith-based activities in older Chinese and South Asian communities By: Zeb Sattar, L. Geddes, S. Ahmed, L. Lochhead, & S. M. Carr  

Minority ethnic older South Asian (SA) people suffer persistent health inequalities. Addressing cultural barriers to access health and social care services should therefore be a public health priority.  Experiences of older SA people engaging in culturally appropriate social activities and one-to-one support services were explored to understand how they reduce loneliness and social isolation. A three-year mixed methods evaluation study (2021-2024) was conducted in a Northern part of England. 

Life-Space Mobility: Unraveling the Impact of Osteoarthritis on Mobility Patterns among Older Immigrant Women in Canada By: Saba Nisa, Jordana Salma

Introduction: Osteoarthritis primarily affects the hips and knees, leading to pain and stiffness, and reducing the quality of life among the aging population worldwide. This study aims to understand the experiences of these women, particularly exploring the impact of osteoarthritis on their life-space mobility.

Methodology: For this study, purposive and snowball sampling was used. For data collection, a combination of walk-along interviews and home-based interviews were completed. Thematic analysis helped explore patterns and themes within participants’ responses.

Results: This study reveals the significant challenges faced by older South Asian immigrant women with osteoarthritis. The findings highlight their struggles with physical limitations, including pain, restricted mobility, and stiffness. Participants’ beliefs around health management underscore diverse perspectives on diet, traditional remedies, exercise, reluctance toward medical interventions, and perceptions of surgical options. The study also illuminates the broader impact of osteoarthritis on daily life, influencing household activities, religious practices, and social interactions. Furthermore, participants highlighted challenges such as lack of health literacy, making it difficult for individuals to navigate their health effectively. Additionally, participants encountered prolonged wait times for medical assistance, contributing to delays in addressing their health concerns. The burden of high medical costs further compounded their challenges, creating barriers to accessing necessary healthcare services.

Conclusion: Our study findings align with the conference theme by shedding light on health disparities within immigrant populations, emphasizing the need for tailored healthcare interventions, and advocating for the active engagement of the public in shaping health policies. The insights from our study aim to empower healthcare professionals, policymakers, and the public to collectively address the