Kat Smith

Kat Smith

@profkatsmith.bsky.social

Professor of Public Health Policy at the University of Strathclyde. Co-Director of the Centre for Health Policy & Co-Lead of SHERU (the Scottish Health Equity Research Unit). Interested in research, advocacy and policy to reduce inequalities.

2,819 Followers 693 Following 80 Posts Joined Aug 2024
1 week ago

This article is bouncing around police social media to a 'round of applause.

It's almost as if the kinds of over-simplified ideas within it are not being played out and tested in a public inquiry where people died, isn't it?

Such attitudes and such outcomes are related -

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2 weeks ago
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Really honoured to speak with friends at Black Histories, and reflect on shared experiences. Full link below www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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1 month ago

This Herald piece summarises latest @scothealtheq.bsky.social analysis - there's a big issue with young men in Scotland experiencing poverty and they are often falling between policy support: www.heraldscotland.com/news/2584912...

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1 month ago
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Poverty among young adult men in Scotland - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit Our findings

New SHERU analysis highlights a concerning rise in poverty among young men in Scotland – a key group of interest from a health inequality perspective.

scothealthequity.org/poverty-amon...

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1 month ago
Our Community Research Cafe | University of Strathclyde

🎉 Free research support for third sector & community orgs!

Launching the Centre for Health Policy's new Community Research Cafes!

First cafe: Wed 25 Feb, 2-4pm at Townhead Village Hall, 60 St Mungo Ave, G4 0PL.

Drop in for tea, cake & expert advice on your research & evaluation ideas ☕ 🍰

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1 month ago
Housing, Health, and What Lived Experience Shows Us that the Evidence-base Misses | University of Strathclyde

New @centrehealthpolicy.bsky.social blog by @lisagarnham.bsky.social @profellenstu.bsky.social & @clemmiehilloconnor.bsky.social & me summarises what lived experience insights show us that traditional research evidence misses about housing and health: www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/c...

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1 month ago
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The incarceration of people for months and years without trial for offences that are in essence political has no place in a democracy like ours.

And in case it needed saying Greens oppose BOTH the increasing criminalisation of protest AND the removal of jury trials!

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1 month ago

It's rare to see how lobbyists operate. But the Epstein-Mandelson correspondence shows us what happens all the time: plutocrats and government ministers conspiring against the public interest. This is why all lobbying should be in the public domain, but despite Labour and Con promises, it's not. 🧵

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1 month ago

the Epstein files are revealing a lot about interest group influence and regulatory capture

because academics typically would never have access to this informal politics, it’s likely scholars working on business power have underestimated the extent to which public interests are being undermined

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1 month ago
Global Health Just Got a Plot Twist! | University of Strathclyde

New @centrehealthpolicy.bsky.social blog by Jackie Stewart reflects on how global health research has been shaped and skewed by historical funding power dynamics, and how new work on Health Research Prioritisation seeks to change this: www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/c...

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1 month ago
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Scotland’s public services are still “living within the lie” - Enlighten Mark Carney’s recent speech in Davos was framed as a geopolitical intervention. But its real power lay elsewhere. It was a warning about how systems persist not because they are effective, but because...

This blog captures so well the public sector challenge in Scotland - worth a read: "The language is impressive. The frameworks are sophisticated. The documents are polished. The conferences are busy. But beneath the rhetoric, the incentives tell a different story." www.enlighten.scot/scotlands-pu...

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1 month ago
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The Public Health Approach to Violence Reduction: Stories, Movements, and Hope Abstract. In recent years, the UK has seen the emergence of a new approach to violence reduction—the public health approach. This method prioritizes early

Looking forward to reading this new (open access) book on public health approaches to violence reduction by my lovely colleagues @crmnlgy.bsky.social Fern Gillon and others: academic.oup.com/book/61855

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1 month ago
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Global health burdens of plastics: a lifecycle assessment model from 2016 to 2040 Adverse health effects are associated with emissions throughout plastics lifecycles, particularly from production, though the non-disclosure of plastics chemical composition is severely limiting LCA c...

new paper in @thelancet.com estimating the global health burdens of plastics

I think this is one of the first analyses that quantifies the impacts of plastics across its entire lifecycle (from extraction to waste) and highlights the pretty staggering health effects of our current economic system

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1 month ago
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Prevention Watch January 2026 - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit Prevention Watch is a regular Scottish Health Equity Research Unit (SHERU) briefing that looks at prevention as a means of public service delivery to reduce health inequalities in Scotland.

Our January edition of Prevention Watch is out today.

In this edition, we look at prevention in the Scottish and UK budgets, a report on health and employment, links between wealth inequality and suicide, and England’s new youth strategy.

Check it out here: scothealthequity.org/prevention-w...

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1 month ago
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Creating Hope Together: Scotland's Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2026-2029 The second three year action plan of Creating Hope Together: Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Strategy (2022-2032)

The Scottish Government’s new suicide prevention plan, "Creating Hope Together: Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2026–2029", is now out: www.gov.scot/publications...

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1 month ago

Great to be part of this. Michael Lambert and I contributed a paper called “Articulating place: towards a conjunctural analysis of public health” on renewed interest in ‘place’ as a ‘common sense’ policy solution to improve health, wealth and wellbeing. Read for free here: miniurl.com/k85lq8iu

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1 month ago
Vol. 3 No. 1 (2026) | Journal of Critical Public Health

Now out! Special Issue 'Competing Narratives in Decentred Health Systems', guest edited by @profkatsmith.bsky.social, Justin Waring & Mark Bevir, and PACKED with great papers from leading authors applying decentred theory to key issues in #publichealth
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc...

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1 month ago

I have a paper on the post-politics of multistakeholder partnerships in a new special issue of @cphjournal.bsky.social on 'narratives, agency and resistance in critical public health'

great to be involved in an SI with so many brilliant colleagues and all papers are open access

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1 month ago
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Understanding the Problems of Medical Student Exposure to Pharmaceutical Marketing The chapter raises an important question regarding the motivation of the pharmaceutical industry to engage in the socialization process of future doctors during their academic education, even though t...

Understanding the Problems of Medical Student Exposure to Pharmaceutical Marketing

Marta Makowska

link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

#COI #CDoH #Pharma #MedEd

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1 month ago

& @lisagarnham.bsky.social for working with us to develop a housing-health system map that layers lived experience perspectives on top of other evidence (we had to develop new mapping tool to enable this so it was no small feat): sipher_housingandhealth.layeredsystemsmaps.com/view/housing... 3/3

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1 month ago
University of Glasgow - Research - Research units A-Z - SIPHER - Community Panels

For me, this paper really underlines the value of good public engagement. Without this, there's so much researchers & policymakers can miss or (mis)assume. Huge thanks to @profellenstu.bsky.social for leading SIPHER's community engagement so well www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/... 2/3

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1 month ago

More on SI paper with @lisagarnham.bsky.social @profellenstu.bsky.social @clemmiehilloconnor.bsky.social: creating housing-health maps, we found alignment btwn policy & research but different views frm those with lived experience of housing struggles: journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc... 1/3

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1 month ago
Journal of Critical Public Health

Charlotte Godziewski, Jenelle Clarke, Lisa Garnham, Tim Henrichsen, Michael Lambert, Simon Bishop, Bridget Roe, Lucy Wainwright, Sarah Senker, Paula Harriott, Krysia Canvin + Mark Bevir. 4/4

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1 month ago

Includes contributions from @eleanorbrooks.bsky.social @policyrelevant.bsky.social @justin-waring.bsky.social @laurasheard.bsky.social, @profellenstu.bsky.social @clemmiehilloconnor.bsky.social + others I can't find on here... 3/4

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1 month ago

'better regulation' & corporate influence all shape health policy, how NHS reform unfolds in practice, how place is articulated in local policy, how lived experience narratives of housing contrast with evidence & policy perspectives, & what happened to healthcare in prisons during covid pandemic 2/4

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1 month ago
Journal of Critical Public Health

New @cphjournal.bsky.social special issue on decentring health systems out: journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jcph featuring articles exploring how competing narratives, agency & resistance shape health policy & practice. Includes papers examining economic restructuring... 1/4

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1 month ago
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Zahawi defection pushes Reform’s vaccine scepticism into spotlight The views of the former Tory vaccines minister clash with those of high-profile members and the party faithful

To be clear richard Tice and Farage’s claim of mandatory vaccines in UK are false. We don’t have vaccine mandates. This line they take is wholly consistent with some of the anti vaccine and anti science opinions Reform leadership have stated not least inviting Malhotra to develop their health policy

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1 month ago
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Britain’s new border runs through its universities | British Politics and Policy at LSE Britain's universities are pausing their recruitment of students from Pakistan and Bangladesh, citing tighter immigration policy. This amounts to discrimination.

"If the price of keeping universities solvent is to tell whole national groups that their applications are unwelcome, then it is not the applicants who are undermining the reputation of UK higher education." New from me on @lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social ⬇️ blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

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2 months ago
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The Andrea Mitchell Center Podcast: Episode 7.13: Democracy as a Public Health Intervention Interviewer: JOSHUA ROSE. In this episode of the Andrea Mitchell Center podcast, Joshua Rose speaks with Penn Political Science Professor JULIA LYNCH about her book Getting Better: The Policy and Poli...

Had a great conversation about democracy and health and our new book GETTING BETTER: THE POLICY AND POLITICS OF REDUCING HEALTH INEQUALITIES (link in bio) for the Andrea Mitchell Center's podcast series. @profbambra.bsky.social @profkatsmith.bsky.social
Give it a listen!

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3 months ago
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The French version of this documentary is titled “The routes of annexation” with the caption “occupied territory”.

The German version of the same documentary is titled “Israel: new roads for the West Bank” with the caption “why is Israel building new roads?”

😐

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