COVID presented public health with many challenges, which included vaccinating the population and balancing the social, economic and mental health outcomes arising from the restrictions on activities. It also offered opportunities for collaborations across systems, places and neighbourhoods.
During this time, PHIRST was established and many of the initial evaluations looked at local interventions, designed to respond to the pandemic context. These include the move to digitally driven ways of delivering services. e.g., such as smoking, drugs and alcohol, and new ways of working with communities, to reach those who were isolated, faced barriers in accessing vaccination or testing sites, or found central government communications confusing.
This seminar will focus on what public health has learned from these initiatives and how local teams have built on PHIRST evaluations to do things differently.
Chaired by Professor Susie Sykes, lead for PHIRST South Bank, the session will feature input from PHIRST members who have worked on Covid-19 related evaluations.
