Member blog: Julia Weldon

It’s been a strange few weeks for me as I move on from being Director of Public Health (DPH) in Hull. As an Alumni of ADPH and active member of the Faculty of Public Health, there is so much I still want to do, say, and contribute, and my intention is to do this as long as I can.  It’s also been a time of gratitude and reflection. It’s in the spirit of reflection that I write my piece. 

I had a brilliant social history teacher in the 70’s and even at the age of 15, hearing about social determinants of health, especially in relation to early years, education, employment, housing, and health gave me some insight into the avoidable impact of social and health inequalities. I didn’t know it then, but this was the beginning of a journey that would lead to me being a DPH. 

I started my career in public health way back when I was a student nurse in Wakefield in the 1980’s, it’s hard to believe now but patients smoked in the ward areas and day rooms in the early part of my career. I have a really strong memory of a patient who was at end of life with COPD, he was struggling to breathe, harmed by tobacco addiction, and smoking a cigarette. He talked about how he wanted everyone to stop smoking and no one to start. Even now I can remember how helpless I felt in terms of what I could offer him, apart from kindness, compassion, and care. 

It reignited my curiosity about upstream preventative interventions and my interest in public health. Later I became a specialist respiratory nurse, and a champion for reducing tobacco harm. I had the opportunity to meet and work with an amazing registrar in public health who put me on the road to undertake my master’s in public health (MPH). 

The road wasn’t always smooth though. It was the early days of those who had backgrounds other than medicine entering the profession and at the interview when I was offered an unconditional place on the MPH in Leeds, I was also warned that there wasn’t likely to be a career in public health for a nurse. Later in my career I was a Fellow of the University of Leeds and taught on the MPH and I became Training Programme Director.  At this time the registrars were from diverse backgrounds and experiences and many of these are now DsPH themselves. During those years I benefited from some exceptional mentors and coaches and have done my very best to support our future leaders in a similar way. 

Being a DPH is a job that’s difficult to describe. Each of us has a similar and yet varied and diverse experience depending on the setting, context, and culture of our place. I don’t need to tell you what skills and experience you need to be a DPH (the Faculty do that very well) but I can tell you that you need compassion, courage, and curiosity, you need to be a communicator, collaborator, and convenor. You need to be able to bring your community, elected members, partners, and co-champions along with you whatever the prevailing local government, NHS, and national policy landscape. And of course, you need to be prepared for anything, even a pandemic! 

So now as I step back, I become an ADPH Alumni- a graduate of ADPH. I am one of over 80 former DsPH who continue to participate and contribute to our profession.  

Being a DPH isn’t easy to describe in a 500-word blog especially after 13 years. However, if I had to sum it up in just a few words I would simply say it’s absolutely been the best job in the world. As I left my job in Hull the Chief Executive spoke of how Hull City Council was now a Public Health organisation with reducing social and health inequalities at the heart of everything we do. Not bad for someone who didn’t have a career in public health!