Laura Charlesworth, therapeutic radiography senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, has been appointed as an AHP Public Health Clinical Advisor for Public Health England (PHE).
In her new role, Laura will be responsible for promoting the contribution of the AHPs in public health, by leading and supporting specific initiatives and deputising for the lead AHP.
“I have very much enjoyed the previous public health and prevention work that I have been involved with and this role allows me to do more of what I love,” said Laura.
She will collaborate with AHP professional bodies, PHE colleagues and external partners to deliver specific pieces of work as part of the AHP public health programme, as well as working with the lead AHP to support the dissemination and implementation of the AHP public health strategy.
“I believe that AHPs can have a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of our population and our workforce and so I hope we can keep making progress to support AHPs to do so,” said Laura, “and I am looking forward to working closely with the lead AHP to support initiatives to continue to drive and promote the role of AHPs in public health.”
“I hope the role will allow me to learn from and support the dissemination of good practice that AHPs are modelling. I have recently been appointed as a technical advisor for the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for public health nursing and midwifery, with a view that the collaborating centre will be expanding its remit to include AHPs, and I think that these roles will complement each other perfectly,” Laura added.
Laura will:
- Undertake a mapping exercise to determine the drivers for successful implementation of prevention at a clinical service level and in academic institutions.
- Develop a UK wide implementation plan for the AHP public health strategy and support professional bodies to develop implementation plans.
- Develop a communications plan to raise awareness of the AHP public health hub and prepare public health materials.
- Support the transition of the advanced clinical practice (public health) scoping work to phase 2 in collaboration with Health Education England and the AHP lead.
- Oversee the AHP public health case study collation process.
- Develop measures of success for the AHP public health strategy in England
- Deputise for the lead AHP where applicable.
As well as her work at Sheffield Hallam, Laura has also been involved in several public health and prevention projects, including two quality improvement collaboratives, the UK AHP Public Health Strategic Framework, scoping an ACP route in public health, and she is a co-founder of @ahps4ph.
She is also a PhD student, researching the experience and needs of individuals experiencing severe mental illness and cancer.