Lucy Westerman

Australia showed up for #HLM4 on #NCDs & #MentalHealth.
Hayley Jones (McCabe Centre for Law & Cancer) & I shared a recap with @croakeynews.bsky.social
Want to hear more?
Join our webinar cohosted w The George Institute on 15 October: georgehub.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
#ActOnNCDs #LeadOnNCDs #UNGA80

Australia’s Role in Global NCD Action highlighted at Parliamentary Event Get a closer look at how Australia is stepping up to support global action on NCDs, with highlights from a major event at Parliament House. This blog shares inspiring stories, practical strategies, an...

#UNGA80 is underway, the #NCDs & #MentalHealth High Level Mtg is tomorrow & it’s #NCDAlliance’s Global Week for Action.
Hayley Jones, Diane Shelton (McCabe) & Veronica LeNevez (TGI) & recapped our recent event on what it looks like to #ActOnNCDs #LeadOnNCDs in Australia
actonncds.org/stories/blog...

Australia may be far from the UN, but chronic disease & mental health are shared global challenges.

40+ orgs have backed a call to the Australian Government to act with ambition, ahead of (& beyond) the UN #HLM4 on #NCDs in 3 weeks.

🔗 www.georgeinstitute.org/our-impact/p... #ActOnNCDs #LeadOnNCDs

Parliamentary Breakfast: Australia's Role in Tackling Global Health Threats A parliamentary breakfast, hosted by The George Institute for Global Health and the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer, will be held on Tuesday, 29th July 2025...

With < 2 months to the 4th #UNHLM on #NCDs & #MentalHealth, I’m pleased to be in Canberra as part of the TGI & McCabe team hosting tomorrow’s parliamentary breakfast on Australian leadership to elevate ambition & accelerate action to #ActOnNCDs & #LeadOnNCDs www.georgeinstitute.org/news-and-med...

Why Retiring the Word "Lifestyle" Would Improve How We Talk About Health Words matter. And when it comes to discussing health, illness, and risk, one word is particularly problematic: "lifestyle".

To improve health, we need to stop using the word #lifestyle when discussing disease and risk factors. It oversimplifies complex #health isues, and distracts from broader causes that must be addressed for meaningful change.
#ActOnNCDs #LeadOnNCDs #NCDs #UNHLM www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-re...

A crucial #4Corners examination of #cancer diagnoses in young people.
What is behind it?
Understanding can help reduce the impact of #NCDs like cancer for current and future generations, but requires looking beyond 'health' to our environments.
Best wishes to those sharing their stories. #ActOnNCDs

During #WHA78 discussions countries incl Australia expressed high ambitions for the 2025 UN #HLM4 on #NCDs & #MentalHealth. With political declaration negotiations underway, Veronica Le Nevez, Hayley Jones & I share some improvements we hope to see: @croakeynews.bsky.social #LeadOnNCDs #ActOnNCDs

One of the highlights & most human moments of @australianlabor.bsky.social swearing in ceremony - watching the Governor General Sam Mostyn usher in Anika Well’s three children to see their mum take up comms & sport portfolios. (🤞 for unhealthy marketing & social media reforms!) @albomp.bsky.social

Screenshot showing Prof Fiona Bull from WHO describing the seven policy action areas in the toolkit: 1. Integrate walking and cycling into all relevant policies Embed walking and cycling objectives across transport, health, environment, education, and tourism policies. Establish clear, measurable targets and crossgovernment coordination mechanisms. 2. Provide safe and connected walking and cycling networks Develop well-connected, well-maintained infrastructure that links homes to key destinations (e.g. schools, transit, workplaces). Integrate green spaces and apply inclusive and sustainable urban design principles. 3. Design inclusive and safe streets for all Use human-centred design principles to create streets that accommodate all users, including pedestrians and cyclists of all ages and abilities. Implement safe system approach to improve road safety including best practice legislation to reduce speed limits where necessary. 4. Improve safe road user behaviour Enforce speed limits, tackle distracted and impaired driving, and promote safe use by all road users. 5. Protect and prioritize walking and cycling Create, maintain and protect allocation of road space to walking and cycling, implement pedestrian zones, and enforce parking regulations. 6. Facilitate integrated transport options Ensure walking and cycling are part of a seamless transport experience through integration with public transport and shared mobility services. 7. Promote and incentivize walking and cycling Create a culture of walking and cycling through communication campaigns, events, financial incentives, and workplace and school programmes.

Excellent @who.int webinar launching their impressive new toolkit for promoting walking and cycling.
www.who.int/publications...

Great to hear mention of the WHO HEAT tool during the discussion.
www.who.int/tools/heat-f...

Always curious to see who sponsors @politico.com London Playbook dispatches according to what is politically salient, usually used to slip tailored messages to political audiences. This one is that they are global & local, economically important & helping British people to reduce sugar consumption 🤔

Concluded #Prevention2025 watching the sun set on Parliament House. Thanks @publichealthaus.bsky.social & conference committee for coordinating an interesting program & so many allies to explore how health is political & how that may require alternative approaches to securing solutions to problems.

In what world would anyone ‘recommend’ any type of alcohol to reduce the risk of one disease knowing it would simultaneously increase the risk of others (like cancer).

It’s like tobacco in the 1920s again.

A dangerous inference that will be irresponsibly repeated over & over.

We can’t fix online marketing overnight but we know what needs to be done & have a tobacco act as a model that could be emulated for other sectors (not voluntary). We should also fix an online ad model that thrives in a evolving harmful information ecosystem. #Prevention2025 @kbackholer.bsky.social

💡 In public health we often consider power in the sense of power ‘over’ but as a sector we have enormous potential if we lean into the concepts of power ‘with’, power ‘to’ and power ‘despite’. - Anne Marie Thow

💪 🤝⚡️Read more: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#Prevention2025

We have a window of opportunity for public health actors to engage in international trade & investment debates, eg around food. To do this we need to understand & navigate alternative policy paradigms incl through knowledge, legitimacy & public priorities. - Anne Marie Thow
#Prevention2025

Commercial determinants of health #CDOH are broader than naming products that harm, it’s also less visible ways they operate, incl. through trade & investment policy, incl. at international level, using tactics to ‘chill’ & lobby for specific policy. Anne Marie Thow @sydney.edu.au #Prevention2025

Gambling operators aren’t the only ones benefiting in the gambling ecosystem.
Charles Livingstone encourages everyone to think broader when mapping stakeholders, to better understand why and how they interact and influence problem definitions and (enable/obstruct) policy responses. #Prevention2025

The ‘responsible gambling’ mantra does nothing to prevent harm. It probably makes things worse ‘Responsible gambling’ depicts gambling harm as an issue for a small minority of people: so-called problem gamblers.

We must fix a distorting #gambling paradigm - ‘problem gambling’ & ‘problem gamblers’ are closely linked to the flawed concept of ‘responsible gambling’ - which blames victims, delays & dilutes regulatory responses.
#Prevention2025
Read by Charles Livingstone: theconversation.com/the-responsi...

In declaring funding and affiliations before presenting, Charles Livingstone @monashuniversity.bsky.social notes that gambling is nowhere near the list and that:

“We need to stop taking money from the people contaminating the evidence.”

(Same goes for alcohol, UPFs, etc)

#Prevention2025 #CDOH

What does potassium enriched salt look and taste like?
Ask Terry Slevin, @publichealthaus.bsky.social who received a jar of a faux-Himalayan version from Bruce Neal @georgeinstitute.bsky.social.
Updates requested.
#Prevention2025

Most discretionary salt (~50%) consumed around the world is from salt *added during cooking & at the table*.

Ultra processed food is only one part the wider picture.

Sodium discussions & solutions must take a wide view of dietary sources.

Bruce Neal, @georgeinstitute.bsky.social #Prevention2025

A practical & pragmatic way to reduce sodium intake is replacing table salt with low sodium, potassium enriched salt, says Bruce Neal, @georgeinstitute.bsky.social.

It’s a very promising intervention, but needs to be navigated carefully.
#Prevention2025

Bruce Neal from @georgeinstitute.bsky.social:
The world eats too much salt.

Why does it matter?

High sodium diets contribute to high blood pressure.

Hypertension is a risk factor for NCDs incl. stroke, cardiovascular & kidney diseases.

But reducing sodium intake is proving hard.

#Prevention2025

On grappling with resistance to change, Fiona Cornworth, ANU, suggests:

“slow down to speed up”.

Take time to lay the groundwork, gat ducks in order, then move forward.

#Prevention2025

💯: If you don’t innovate, and look at changing the way you are doing things, you will never change the outcome.

- Renee Williams, TorresHealth.

#Prevention2025

Thanks to the community leadership embedded in the development & implementation of the Tackling Indigenous Smoking initiative, since 2004 23,000 lives have been saved & there are almost 50,000 fewer daily smokers. It’s a demonstrable success. - Prof Tom Calma. #Prevention2025

tacklingsmoking.org.au

How are the major parties tracking on commitments to First Nations’ priorities?

Tom Calma points to @croakeynews.bsky.social article on 2025 Federal Election scorecards: www.croakey.org/before-votin...

Including from ANTAR: antar.org.au/resources/20...

#Prevention2025 #AusPol #AustraliaVotes

Despite Australia’s health system being renowned as being one of the better ones in the world,

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has *still* not been achieved for Aboriginal and a Torres Strait Islander People. #CloseTheGap

- Prof Tom Calma.

#Prevention2025

Renee williams, TorresHealth prompts delegates to contemplate:

What are we willing to give up to move Australia forward?

- Renee Williams, Torres Health
#Prevention2025