Health

Jim McManus, Director of Public Health in Hertfordshire, UK, gives this insightful guest lecture to University of Hertfordshire public health students. To find out more about studying Master of Public Health by online distance learning visit: go.herts.ac.uk/mph

As General Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing the world's largest professional union of nurses and health care support workers, Peter is a hugely influential figure in the national healthcare agenda.

Emotional state can affect eating behaviours. It is not unusual to find appetites lessen after a shock or bereavement or to eat more at celebratory events. But some people consistently associate food with emotional feelings which can lead to eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia or to the other extreme, obesity. Professor Julia Buckroyd, Emeritus Professor at the University of Hertfordshire has been interested in why we eat what we eat for over twenty years. She started work as a counsellor in a dance school and found many students had problems with food and everything that goes with it, weight, shape and size. She was motivated to understand why many of us seem unable to eat the way we know we should. She has been practising in this same area ever since and has spent the last decade writing and researching overeating and obesity.

Many GPs who care for people with chronic (long-term) conditions such as diabetes say that the patient understands the condition better than they do. This is not surprising as many patients become ‘experts’ as they learn to cope with their chronic condition. Many patients take the lead in managing their condition, which often helps to improve their health and quality of life. In today’s health services, patient involvement is not limited just to care, with service users and carers playing a role in the planning, commissioning and review of services. However, the realities of being an expert patient are often challenging, not least because of barriers they may face in becoming involved in decisions that have previously been in the sole remit of health care professionals. Dr Patricia Wilson from the University of Hertfordshire will deliver this lecture ‘The Expert Patient. Medical nemesis or ally?’

This video introduces motivational interviewing, which is a strategy used to help people who are sceptical about the processes of change and motivate them to make changes.

The 2010 Healthcare Forum series commenced on 11th March with a lecture on the topic of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, delivered by Henck van Bilsen. Henck van Bilsen is a consultant in CBT and consultant Clinical Psychologist, specialising in complex and long-standing problems. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is the psychological treatment of choice for many mental health problems, the NHS National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends CBT as the best treatment for anxiety and depression.

A video presentation about the lack of motivation people have in trying to make changes through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

A video which goes through the differences between explicit and implicit memories.

Jane Asher, Patron of TRACKS autism and President of the National Autistic Society and Professor Dautenhahn, University of Hertfordshire discuss the issues affecting children with autism and how the KASPAR research project could provide an alternative therapeutic tool.

The lecture goes into depth about the many different constituents of speech, including phonemes and speech sounds.

The second part of a lecture given by Dr Mike Page's lecture on speech perception.

A presentation about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and how people go through stages of behavioural and other changes through CBT.

This video goes through how a cognitive behavioural therapy session is structured.

A video about Socratic dialogue, often used by therapists in motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioural therapy.

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Coeliac disease (from the Greek for belly) occurs in up to 1 in 100 of the population but very few with the condition are diagnosed. Sufferers are frequently misdiagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome or dismissed as neurotic. The disease can occur in children and the elderly but is most common in the 45-65 age group. Coeliac disease is caused by an allergic response in the intestine to gluten, a protein found in wheat and some other cereals such as rye, which produces symptoms such as bloating, cramping, nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea and weight loss. The treatment is to have a totally gluten-free diet. This is not easy as wheat and its extracts are present in many foods where they are not expected; for example, sauces, biscuits, some chocolate and ice-cream. The preparation of a satisfying, well-balanced diet using gluten-free basic products is a major undertaking. The NHS allows the prescription of gluten-free bread and flour as well as some other essential products but generally gluten-free foods are very expensive.