The challenge
With an ageing population, chronic diseases are reaching epidemic proportions. More people are living with multiple conditions, such as cancer, heart disease and dementia, which significantly affect their lives and reduce their life expectancy.
The size of the challenge is huge. Our role is to help find an integrated response to the physical, mental and social needs of these patients and their families, and also to the way that ill health disproportionately affects deprived sectors of the community.
We address the factors that influence disease, such as poverty, obesity, smoking, alcohol and physical inactivity, as well as tackling lifelong health issues from teenage pregnancy to diabetes, and from breathlessness to arthritis.