Health as a Social Movement

#PeoplePoweredHealth

Social movements are one of the

most effective forms of pressure on

health and care systems

“What does the NHS expect? For people

to camp outside of hospital?”

One way to get social movements

wrong is to see them everywhereCharles Tilly, preeminent sociologist

What can we learn from social

movements that have scaled?

“We cannot understand social

movements unless we understand

how they spread”

Vision: what change do you want to SEE?

Actions: what can people DO?

Diffusion of social movements

Diffusion of social movements

CU

LT

UR

AL

CH

AS

M

Diffusion of social movements

CU

LT

UR

AL

CH

AS

M

OpenNotes movement

A small change in how we manage notes

can bring about a cultural change in how

health care is delivered and experienced

Impact to date

1. Adoption by 7 million patients internationally

2. Cultural change in medical practice

3. Clinically relevant benefits: improved patient

safety, medication adherence, patient recall

4. Potential to save healthcare costs

Adverse Childhood Experiences

(ACEs) movement

“My patient said,

being overweight is

SAFE.”- Dr. Vincent Felitti

10 adverse childhood experiences

NEGLECTABUSE HOUSEHOLD DYSFUNCTION

Health issues

Unhealthy behaviours

The correlations

86%of U.S. healthcare costs

spent on people with >1

chronic condition

$5.8 Testimated impact of the

social costs and lost

earnings associated

with child maltreatment in

US alone

The economics of prevention

Training teachers and students about

ACEs and toxic stress over 10 years

66% decrease in youth arrests for violent

crime, saving more than $1.4 billion

Growing leaders and recruiting spokespeople

Resolving conflicting approaches within movements

Crafting a unified message

Institutions ‘getting in our way’

Applying pressure to current institutions and systems

People starting too many movements

Limited funding for movement activity

Ensuring the right ‘voices’ within a movement

Incorporating evaluation methods for social movements

“People in power are people.”

“Don’t start a social movement, join one.”

“You need to get to the point where you are

so exhausted by a problem that you are

willing to dedicate everything to a solution”

30+ movement leaders

10+ social movements

10+ countries

Dr. Nadine Burke,Founder of Center for

Youth Wellness

#PeoplePoweredHealth

“Remember, people in power are people.”

ACEs are common

PREVENTION SOCIAL

MOVEMENTS

HIV/AIDS

Disability rights

Tobacco control

Breast cancer

Rare disease

End-of-life/palliative care

Global mental health

Open data movement

Adverse childhood experiences

Complementary & alternative medicine

Alzheimer’s disease

“If you think this is anything less than a

human rights movement, think again…

the smoking fight took 60 years.”

A HEALTH SOCIAL MOVEMENT IS:

promote resist

or

Why is this issue ripe for a movement?

1. Childhood trauma is stigmatised

2. There are deep cognitive biases to break

amongst medical practitioners

3. Research uptake has been low, especially in

healthcare

4. Pathways to solutions now exist

5. People are mobilizing around the issue

Empathises with people and communities

Mobilises people and resources

Pressures systems to change

Orbits existing systems

Waves in intensity over time

Experiments with new ideas

Rages and roars for issues that matter

Self-governs its own activities

A social movement EMPOWERS

A new model of engagement

Social

Movements

The NHS,

Health & Care

Organisations

A healthy tension: How might the NHS engage

with social movements most productively?

One path to institutionalisation