Worldwide Universities Network - Communicating Good Health and Wellbeing: Promotion, Advocacy, Resilience

In implementing The United Nations’ sustainable development goal “Good Health and Wellbeing”, it is important for health promotion, service provision, and advocacy to address how changing communication methods (digital networks) and new social attitudes (i.e., populism) have produced an anti-expert, antimedical and anti-vaccination discourse that is gaining popularity and has substantial negative health impacts on individuals and communities.
At the same time, there is growing scholarly criticism that narrow health solutions, including some pharmaceutical solutions, discourage patients and the general population from embracing an educated, embodied, whole-of life-course approach and socially-grounded understanding of health/wellbeing. Across these two poles, health communication and advocacy face ongoing difficulties in communicating well to groups affected by migration, ageing and socio-economic and welfare vulnerabilities.
This symposium brings together researchers in population health, medical humanities, health sociology, health communication and cultural studies with medical and health practitioners, as well as health policy and advocacy experts to discuss key issues around good health and wellbeing communication in an era in which anti-expert discourses as well as narrow transactional approaches to self-care are clouding important health and mental health communication.
The symposium aims to (a) share current research and best practice knowledge, (b) develop new understandings through dialogue that aid the development of solutions and advocacy approaches, and (c) build new alliances to aid intervention, practice and policy advice in the health and mental health communication sector.

Supported by the WUN, this event is held in conjunction with the WUN Conference and AGM, Perth, Western Australia, 20-25 May. https://wun.ac.uk/article/wun-conference-and-agm-2018.

Further information and queries, please email co-convenor Associate Professor Rob Cover (UWA) rob.cover@uwa.edu.au
or
ComHealth2018@gmail.com

Click here for the event flyer and abstract submission information.