I liked being surrounded by people who were like-minded and interested in the same thing: making the communities we live in healthier. They were motivating and inspiring, and it was especially useful to see people that even looked like me in senior public health roles in the UK. It is possible!
Some talks really stuck with me, like conversations about communication. We often think of ourselves as medics as good communicators, but this talk pointed out that we aren’t with the public. Not as good as influencers online who grab more attention and shape people’s opinions, arguably more so than politicians and doctors and other professionals. Communication skills with the public vs the individual is a different approach. Framing the issue in a different light was something I hadn’t really considered. We tend to stick to facts and figures, but emotion, stories and memorability is what sticks with people.
The importance of system level change to create the right conditions in which we can be healthy makes so much sense. I would love to be part of this solution one day. Another point highlighted was trying to get our health points across to politicians in a way that grabs their attention too, which likely needs a different approach to the public.
I always used to think I hated politics. I disliked the way in which politics was done rather than politics itself. The excessive wording, the beating around the bush, the delays, the lack of transparency, the seeming lack of trust, the bureaucracy, the impersonal nature of some politicians, the lack of relatability sometimes, the waffle and false promises. I was told that as a doctor, if we want to influence policy to help health, it is difficult to avoid politics completely. Admitting I don’t know much about it is not a weakness. You can never be an expert in anything. I hate the word expert anyway because I feel like you can never know everything, so you’re always a student. What’s the threshold?
Someone else brought up the point of the vocal minority vs the silent majority. The silent majority we tend to think of as reasonable people, as people who are not making a fuss, who just get on with their own lives without trying to impose their views on others. You don’t really want to be the person who is imposing views on anyone. I guess as doctors, you gotta try and present the unbiased facts and call out the issue itself rather than blame any single person or company.