Marc Davies
Public Health Wales
“One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems. The approach mobilizes multiple sectors, disciplines and communities at varying levels of society to work together to foster well-being and tackle threats to health and ecosystems.” (WHO)
There is an opportunity for One Health approaches to promote interdisciplinary teaching and professional development on system-wide issues that cross the human-animal-environmental interface, integrating multiple disciplines across the system and bringing together partners to work on issues that intersect these domains.
The Project:
To develop, deliver and evaluate a One Health education package aimed at introducing and embedding One Health concepts to undergraduate medical, veterinary and environmental health students.
Project Outcomes:
- Presented a One Health Webinar to a multidisciplinary audience hosted by Public Health Network Cymru
- Delivered a One Health workshop at the Green Health Wales conference
- Presented on One Health at a Swansea University Medical School Faculty Development Session
- Delivered a One Health workshop to an audience brough together by the Bevan Commission and Learned Society of Wales
- Funding has been secured for a One Health practitioner in Hywel Dda UHB, the first in Wales.
Project Impact:
Feedback from the Public Health Network Cymru webinar.
Key Conclusions:
Connections
One Health highlights the importance of the connecting and coming together of multiple disciplines to share different challenges and perspectives. There was some discussion around the benefits of a co-ordinating function that promotes this collaboration and where the testing of these challenges and perspectives against One Health principles could be promoted.
Complexity
One Health as an approach can help us to work with the uncertainty and complexity of issues that intersect the human-animal-environmental interface, incorporating data, knowledge and skills from a range of disciplines and lenses. There was some discussion on how this complexity and uncertainty could be then applied within networks and statutory bodies in Wales, e.g., Public Service Boards under the Well-being of Future Generations Act.
Competencies
A One Health education package could be used to help test our challenges and experiences from our own disciplines against One Health principles. This could help us to address gaps in our knowledge and skills (e.g., zoonotic diseases and its relation to human health) as well as identifying opportunities to strengthen existing areas of work and promote cohesion in our approaches (e.g., using One Health as part of interprofessional education).
