Have a cold? Go to bed.

As with policing, welfare between 1970 and 2000 was restructured in a manner that redefined the relationship between the public and the state. No more were we the passive welfare recipients of old; the nineties were an age of individual responsibility.

Emphasis now rested with the prevention rather than cure of disease, ameliorating harmful health practices before problems has a chance to appear. It was acknowledged during this period that much of the National Health Service’s budget was being taken up treating an ever expanding number of chronic degenerative and malignant diseases. Unlike in earlier decades, marked by acute infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, modern Western diets had begot a new class of ailment.

Following the publication of a Department of Health White Paper in 1991 entitled The Health of the Nation, approaches toward patient health took a more proactive stance. The Paper helped bring to prominence the issues surrounding chronic diseases like coronary heart disease and stroke: namely smoking, poor diet and nutrition. Recognition was given to the positive contribution that could be obtained through a range of social and environmental factors, and not just medical interventions.

Key to this new public health movement was the view of ‘community empowerment’. Here, the responsibility for ensuring one’s own good health lay with the practices of the individual.

‘Much ill health in Britain today arises from over-indulgence and unwise behaviour. The individual can do much to help himself, his family and the community by accepting more direct personal responsibility for his own health and well-being.’

This was a quote from the 1977 report Prevention and Health and neatly sums up the opinion of the period amongst many health professionals. In order to reduce the ignorance surrounding health, diet and lifestyles, the Health Education Council set about beginning the Look After Yourself campaign, employing promotional posters and the news media to push forward the agenda of a new public health programme.

Though some commentators disagree in arguing that such campaigns serve only to victimise and marginalise the public from the government, I think Look After Yourself acted to positively encourage good lifestyles amongst the British public.

Of course there were also political and financial motivations. Hitting full swing during the Conservative administrations of the 1990s, these new health initiatives reflected the party’s penchant for individualism and its drive to cut state expenditure and the interventions of government within the private lives of the public. However, it is interesting to note that this agenda also echoed a Beveridgean standpoint: that promoting public health could ultimately save resources on heath care.

Repeating nicely the campaigns of this period, the NHS is again putting across important messages by way of media advertising. After seeing one such advert in a Sunday newspaper I could not help but reminisce on these earlier campaigns.

This time attention is being drawn to the number of people who visit hospitals and practices unnecessarily; wasting the time of health professionals, increasing waiting times and expending resources that could be better directed elsewhere.

The full-page advert reads:

‘Unfortunately, no amount of antibiotics will get rid of your cold […] The best way to treat them is plenty of fluids and rest’.

I have nothing but support for such a constructive and well designed campaign. I just hope people take notice of it.

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