Blog posts

Children’s mental health must be prioritised at the first Children’s Dialogue at the UN Climate Negotiations

This blog post is written by Dr Alessandro Massazza, United for Global Mental Health, and Dr Omnia El Omrani, Climate Cares Centre, Imperial College London.

No country is sufficiently protecting children and young people’s health, their environment and their futures. Young people under 24 make up 41% of all people alive today. Among them, 89% live in low- and middle-income countries that are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. According to Save the Children, a child born in 2020 will be exposed to seven times the number of heatwaves as their grandparents, even if the emission reduction targets set by the 2015 Paris Agreement are met.

Student Wellbeing in IGHI Postgraduate Education and Mental Health Awareness Week:

The Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) is proud to support the Mental Health Foundation this Mental Health Awareness Week – 13 to 19 May. Student Mental Health and Wellbeing (MH&W) has always been an area of focus of the Institute of Global Health Innovation’s Education department. Across its postgraduate courses, the majority of which are delivered online, the IGHI aims to train and develop future leaders in the healthcare sector. We currently host over 400 students studying on a range of post-graduate programmes within the Institute.

In early 2023, a team of Teaching Fellows within IGHI formed a working group to review and identify areas of development within our approach to supporting student mental health and wellbeing.

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.

Celebrating women at IGHI for International Women’s Day

We’re featuring some of the amazing women at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, to celebrate their achievements during Women at Imperial Week 2024.

Meet some of our women at IGHI

From our teaching team…

Christa Hansen, Teaching Fellow, DHL Programmes, IGHI

I work as a Teaching Fellow on the Digital Health Leadership programmes, and across IGHI more broadly. I completed my PhD in Health Economics here at the Business School. Since graduating I have enjoyed coming over to the ‘health’ side, supporting GMPH and BSc students at the School of Public Health, and now NHS clinicians on the DHL programme.

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.