Category: World health

Making connections for climate change and mental health

Connecting Climate Minds Global Event recap

The Connecting Climate Minds (CCM) Global Event in Barbados involved 70 in-person participants and more than 600 virtual participants. Together, we celebrated the initiative’s first year of work led by seven regional communities, youth, Indigenous Nations and Peoples, and small farmers and fisher peoples.

At the Global Event:

  • The Connecting Climate Minds Hub was launched – an innovative digital platform designed as a collaborative space for researchers, policymakers, educators, and community groups to share their knowledge, resources, and experiences on the climate-mental health nexus including the CCM outputs. 
  • The global event featured keynote sessions delivered by prominent experts in climate change and mental health, along with the marketplace, regional spotlight sessions, and breakout sessions to discuss the Global Research and Action Agenda.

Inaugural IGHI Education Community event a success!

The first IGHI Education Community event took place on the evening of Thursday, 11 April 2024. Organised by the Student Wellbeing in IGHI Postgraduate Education (SWIPE) team, in collaboration with St John International, the event welcomed guests in the surrounds of the Museum of the Order of St John’s historic Chapter Hall.

IGHI students and staff, alongside guests from the Order of St John, had the privilege of hearing an engaging and eye-opening series of talks from esteemed speakers from both the International Order of St John and St John Ambulance England.

The evening began with a short presentation by Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque, Secretary-General of St John International, which provided a whistlestop tour of the history of the Order and its operations in the present day.

Julia Anderson Careers Event 2024: Inspiring sixth formers with career insights and opportunities to transform global health

In February we hosted the Julia Anderson Training Programme (JATP) Careers Event 2024 at Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI), a fantastic evening for sixth form students to learn more about our Julia Anderson programme and the IGHI, and get inspired for their future careers. 

Sixth formers from different London state-funded schools travelled to The Invention Rooms, at Imperial College London’s White City Campus, to participate in the event. They got the chance to learn more about the opportunities at IGHI, hear some of our staff members’ career journeys, as well as interact with some of the fantastic workstreams we work on to improve people’s health.

Ukraine: Better care for children with complex long-term health needs

Our third blog post for the two-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine addresses the importance of prioritising better care for children with complex long-term health needs.

This is part of a series of blog posts sharing insights from our Ukraine Health Summit, hosted in partnership with the British Red Cross to further efforts in supporting the delivery and restoration of health services in Ukraine. This piece is written by Alexandra Shaw, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, with colleagues.

In Ukraine, many children continue to be cared for in institutions. Estimates vary widely and suggest that between 90,000-200,000 children reside in these institutions, and approximately 20,000-50,000 of them have disabilities.

Health in Ukraine: Prioritise health care reform across the Ukraine health system for recovery and stable peace

Two years on from the invasion of Ukraine, we share a series of blog posts highlighting insights from our Ukraine Health Summit last year, hosted in partnership with the British Red Cross to reflect on and support the delivery and restoration of health services in Ukraine.

The second blog post focuses on the prioritisation of health care reform across the Ukraine health system for recovery and stable peace, and is written by Niki O’Brien, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, with colleagues.

The war in Ukraine has caused substantial disruption to a health system that was already having to manage complex transitions.

Mental health services must be a priority in post-conflict Ukraine

Two years on from the invasion of Ukraine, we publish a series of blog posts sharing insights from our Ukraine Health Summit, hosted in partnership with the British Red Cross to further efforts in supporting the delivery and restoration of health services in Ukraine.

The first post addresses the importance of mental health services in post-conflict Ukraine, and is written by Melanie Leis, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, with colleagues.

On April 25th 2023, Imperial College London hosted the first Ukraine Health Summit. This event presented an opportunity to discuss how Ukraine’s health system must be re-built to ensure it addresses the needs of its population in a post-conflict setting.

COP28: Centring Mental Health in the Health Response to Climate Change

Join us on this journey as we recap the highlights of COP28 in the UAE. The Climate Cares Centre team shed light on the profound interconnections between mental health and climate change, and the critical window for shifting from a vicious to a virtuous cycle, enabling people and the planet to thrive. 

The 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) was a turning point for the centring of human health in climate negotiations. Political leaders began to acknowledge climate change as a health emergency, including at COP’s first ‘Health Day’, where more than 140 countries made a historic commitment to the UAE Declaration on Climate and Health, and one billion USD in finance commitments were pledged for climate and health.

Climate Change and Mental Health: Insights from Connecting Climate Minds’ First Regional Dialogues 

As climate change continues to reshape our world, it’s not just landscapes that are transforming; the mental health of communities worldwide is also on the line. Over the past month, Connecting Climate Minds has been uniting global experts, researchers, and stakeholders in the diverse fields relevant to climate change and/or mental health from across the world. These discussions transcend borders, bringing together experts from seven regions of the world: Latin America and the Caribbean; Sub-Saharan Africa; Northern Africa and Western Asia; Central and South-Eastern Asia; Eastern and South-Eastern Asia; Oceania; and Europe and North America. The current field of mental health and climate change are disconnected and siloed, which reflects an urgent need to align research and action at the intersection of these two fields.

Using pulse oximetry to monitor COVID-19 patients at home

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was riddled with clinical uncertainty. Technologies which could be used to monitor patients at home such as pulse oximeters were widely adopted by patients. But how safe is it to use a pulse oximeter at home when you have COVID-19? In this blog, we share IGHI’s experiences of being part of the COVID-19 Oximetry at Home Programme. This blog was written by Meesha Patel (Communications and Events Officer, IGHI) and Dr Ahmed Alboksmaty (former Research Associate, IGHI).

‘We were born global’ – IGHI’s latest Health Innovation Prize winners share their journey to success

During our final year at Imperial College London, the three of us – Akhilesh, Jeannine and Hansa – came together with the vision to reduce healthcare inequity. Akhilesh was born and raised in London and is of Sri Lankan heritage. Hansa was born in India where she remained well into her teenage years and then immigrated to the UK with her family to finish high school, and has been in the UK for nearly a decade. Jeannine was born and brought up in Pakistan, where she is currently based, and spent four years at Imperial in the UK. So we have always known we wanted to break startup norms by starting off a business in a low-income country and then expanding that to the UK.