PHA National Conference Begins Today

Public Health Association Media Release
Embargoed until 7 am, 22 September 2010

Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: PHA National Conference Begins Today

Delegates and speakers from overseas and around New Zealand are gathering at historic Turangawaewae Marae in Ngaruawahia for the annual Public Health Association conference.

The theme of the conference is ‘Tomorrow for Tomorrow’s People”. The conference will highlight how current public health initiatives are laying the foundation of what is hoped will be a healthier New Zealand in the future.

Presenters have taken the theme and come up with diverse interpretations.

For example:

• the mental health of four year olds

• the extraordinary difference in the incidence of rheumatic fever and associated heart disease between Maori and European New Zealand children

• what lies ahead for the health sector (and therefore all New Zealanders) in a post carbon world

• what lies ahead for New Zealand with an ageing population and an ageing health workforce

• intervening with drink drivers under 20 years old.

Keynote speakers include Dr Camara Jones from the US Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, an expert on the impact of racism on health and wellbeing, and Professor Fran Baum from Flinders University in Adelaide, one of Australia’s leading researchers on the social and economic determinants of health.

The conference is the biggest event on the 2010 public health calendar and will provide a stimulating examination of current public health practice and where it may be heading in the future.

ENDS

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